Re: [Goanet] St. Roque's Chapel in Bandora, Ponda

[Linken Fernandes]

Linken-bab, I don't think the chapel is maintained with care. I just
happened to catch it at a time and in conditions when it looked its best.

Also, why do you want Goa Tourism to get involved? Tourism will mean more
trash, more garbage, liquor bottles, and loss of peace. Can we at least
keep a few spots to ourselves, unmolested from tourism?

Regards,

r

--

Hello Rajan,

>From my brief experience as a tour guide in the 80s, may I assure you that
visitors to what are considered religious places are quite respectful and
comport themselves with a dignity that my irreverence used to find quite
amazing. I also think these places are robust enough to withstand the
hordes descending on them at regular intervals, as witness the
comparatively still healthy state of the churches in Old Goa and the
Mangueshi and Shantadurga temples. Fortunately, visual spectacles are not
subject to the tragedy of the commons and I'm sure people will delight in
the sensory experience (wow!) of seeing St. Roque's from the vantage point
of your camera and the ambient light and awe-some mood that it captured
that morning.

[Goanet] St. Roque's Chapel in Bandora, Ponda

[Linken Fernandes]

The view, from an airplane, of the "Hrafntinnusker mountain in the
highlands of Iceland" was engaging enough (Photo Blog by Rajan Parrikar -
Hrafntinnusker, below). But I was more entranced, and intrigued, by the
photos of St. Roque's Chapel in Bandora, Ponda, that an accompanying
weblink took me to. Three superb shots of the chapel in the early morning
light. But an ethereal Christian chapel smack in the centre of the
heartland of Hinduism in Goa?

I wonder if Goa Tourism's temple tour offers a glimpse of the chapel in a
brief respite from the overdose of Hindu temple architecture all around it.
While they are about it, a meandering drive all around Ponda would also be
worth it; I was in Bethora a couple of months ago and was entranced by the
view of hills and empty meadows here and there all along the drive past
Borim. This is a side of Goa we rarely see in our usual rambles along the
coastal belt.

Linken Fernandes