A lot of people asked me why Chennai? It was because I had contacts there, but as I did my research, I found a lot of well known people either were from Chennai or passed through. Indra Nooyi, female CEO of Pepsi, Vijat Armitraj who just got inducted into the tennis hall of fame, Padma Lakshmi of Top Chef, Pete Best the first drummer for the Beatles and singer Englebert Humperdinck. But the biggest surprise was the apostle Thomas
He traveled to the south western coast if India, but traveled to the east coast when he was threatened with attack. He landed at the Malabar coast which was near the former french colony where i stayed and then moved up the Chennai. He was killed with a spear in 72 Ad and buried on the site of his death in the old section of the city Mylapore. On 1523 the Portuguese built a church here which was by different accounts either rebuilt or refurbished by the British in 1896.
No matter what the actual story is, I would put this church on my top ten list of favorite churches and I visit a lot of churches when I travel. It's ornate, yet simple. It has a beautiful statue of Mary to whom
Many come to pray. There is also a statue of Thomas with Jesus, and it is one of the most compassionate looking Jesus statues ever.
There are various wood carvings depicting the seven stations of the cross and the resurrection. A spiral stair case takes you to a balcony with the pipe organ. And a cut out on the floor shows the priest saying mass below near St Thomas' tomb.
Visitors can join the mass by entering an annex building and going to basement. From the schedule, it appears mass goes on most of the day in several different languages. Also housed in the annex is a museum. Sadly most of the artifacts are not labeled or only contain simple labels like, bones found on site. So are they fragments of St Thomas? Are they even human bones?
The reliquary that was supposedly used to kill St Thomas is here and labeled with the claim that some of his bone is embedded. That I was not able to find.
The site is about two blocks from the beach and not far from the lighthouse I toured last week. Knowing I am coming home to winter, I couldn't resist one more walk down to the beach and one last wade in the Bay of Bengal.
I was starting to get a bit peckish and wishing there were some food sellers nearby. The SanThome cafe associated with the church was open and I got a filter coffee (of course!) and a prepackaged banana cake that wasn't half bad.
The next stop was the long awaited visit to a fabric store. I'd heard so much about the fabrics here and seen so many beautiful ones. Initially, I had planned on buying a stew, but my Indian friends talked me out of that m, which is why I bought Kurtis -- the long tunics and loose pants. Still, I had to admire the whole first floor of this shop which was only different street fabrics. They are very specific in design. But I could not show too much interest or I would have three sales people bearing down on me.
So, I made my way to the second floor to regular fabrics and it was still information overload. Silks, cottons, blends. I need up with four choices with plans for each fabric. The cost was about $120 US dollars. At home I could maybe get half of what I purchased for that amount. The sales people were patient with me but did try to push some items I wasn't interested in.
By now I am really hungry and my driver suggests lunch. Yes, I am in. He stopped at a place and I was ushered to a table for four where a woman was already sitting. That's how they do here. No space bubbles.
What I wanted was not available for lunch for Inorderes the Tamil Nadu lunch. Oh dear. This came with a broth soup starter and than a whole array of food. By now the woman had left and a mother daughter pair had replaced her. They showed me how to eat the foot and add the ghee to the rice. They also stopped me from taking a whole red pepper head on.
The mom didn't speak a lot of English but I did also find out she has a daughter who has been in Arizona for four years. They asked me about my work. I also asked them how they had fared during the cyclone. I couldn't finish all the food. I felt badly about that. It I was stuffed.
From there it was back to my hotel to clean up and head into the office later to visit and work on blogs. Ive been on vacation since Friday. I dressed in one of my newly acquired outfits and I went through my most recent most of questions with my friends. Interestingly they did not know what Ponlait milk was which was something I saw advertised a lot on the way to Pondicherry
They asked me questions too and wanted to know why abortion wasn't legal in the US. If killing was the reason then why were guns so easy to get? and why is Trump so popular?
We busted some sterotypes, too. Not all Indians are good at math. (Case and point my guide Nirmal at Auroville who quite geography studies because it was too much math). Health info is just starting to reach here. Not everyone does yoga or is a vegetarian. I was surprised how many restaurants advertised veg and non veg. indians are taking a lot of medications just like Americans even though they have the amazing Aryurvedic knowledge of healing.
I had my last Swiggy order delivered of mint lime juice and the ice cream date shake that I came to like so much. I am getting sad to leave.
From here, I was off to Mezze near my hotel for a Mediterranean meal and then back to my hotel for the night.
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