Sunday, January 9, 2011

Dakshinachitra

I finally succeeding in dragging Vish to Dakshinachitra – quite literally translated as the “picture or vision of the South (India)”, and much against the locals’ quips that the place is not worth the hype – I enjoyed my trip.
Dakshinachitra, DC for short, is promoted as a heritage village site with the objective of recreating the rural life of the four states of Southern India – Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
For Bollywood fans out there, this is the place where Shilpa Shetty and Salman Khan spent “the two days” in the movie Phir Milenge :).

Situated on the east coast road (ECR), DC is a perfect family getaway on a weekend/holiday morning with not only sight seeing to do, but fun activities such as basket weaving, pottery, puppet making etc., and ofcourse shopping that add to the tourist value of the place.
The best part is that it does not get too crowded; though being in the open, a hot summer day may not be the ideal time for a visit.

DC endeavors to preserve the traditional art, craft and architecture forms by providing a platform to the artisans to showcase their talent in the form of demo booths (sari weaving, glass blowing among others) and exhibitions.
Pitched as a cultural odyssey of the South, DC does try to live up to the buzz around it – The Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh sections are still under construction whereas the Tamil Nadu and Kerala sections are complete and offer a fairly detailed insight into the various aspects of the village life.

So, I would recommend that if you are in Chennai or visiting Chennai, take a half day out for a trip to Dakshinachita and you won’t regret it.

Here are a few pictures from our trip.

A view of the craft bazaar that greets you right at the entrance…


The structures of village houses…






A peak inside the houses…






Now for some demo and fun stuff…
Silk sari weaving…

Pottery (A statutory warning: The potter thatha is one impatient guy – he was screaming at me in tamil that I was not doing it properly without even teaching me how to mould the clay first :(.


You can also take a shot at grinding rice :D...


Kili jyoshiyam or the parrot fortune teller is another interesting stop over. Following instructions, the parrot comes out of its cage, randomly selects one card from the pile of cards, takes it to the god’s picture and the gives it to the guy sitting there – who then reads out your fortune.


And finally, some shots, which I think were in Phir Milenge


If you have seen the movie, you couldn’t have missed the amphitheater…

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Added:
Here's the song from Phir Milenge, shot at Dakshinchitra (Thanks a ton Aastha!!!)


10 comments:

  1. How interesting! I never heard about this ever before. Nice snaps. One of the images of a house reminded me of my paternal granpa's house- too many window doors.

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  2. Yuvika:

    This is a long pending trip I have to make. I have thought so many times but postponed my trip. I should go sometime.

    BTW, what did the kili predict for you (winks).

    Joy always,
    Susan

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  3. DakshinChitra... Have heard so much about it... but never been there. Looks like you had fun time there..Thanks for sharing the pics Yuvika :)

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  4. @Susan: I am really scared about what the future hold so I rarely go in for these fortune telling sessions- however, my MIL did and she thoroughly enjoyed - all good things were spoken :)

    @Sukanya: Thank you for stopping by! You must make the trip sometime!

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  5. Nice one Yuvika. Even I am planning to go on one of the weekends..
    Nice photos..

    Ram

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  6. The song "Jeene ke Ishaare mil gaye" was done here. I simply love the song.

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  7. Thanks a lot Aastha for reminding me of the song - yeah i love it too...thinking of editing this post to add the youtube link to the song :)

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  8. Thanks Yuvika for tagging me in the post.

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I appreciate you taking out the time to share your valuable opinions! They mean a lot!

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