Panaji

Panaji was an inland jaunt again. It is located up an estuary that sailors of old used, as evidenced by the numerous churches and religious ruins in the area. It is actually a rather nice town as far as Indian towns go. The river front area makes for a nice walk and a walking tour through the town to see the old quarter, the churches, and the Hindu temples makes for a nice day.


The town had a modern multiplex, so I decided to see a movie. I chose a Hollywood movie since I really doubted I would enjoy an Indian movie without any English subtitles. I honestly don't remember the movie's name, so it couldn't have been that great, but it was a nice break from the 'ordinary.'


Going to a movie in India is a bit of a different experience than seeing a movie in the west. Some ads were showing on the screen as I sat down, but then not long after, the waving Indian flag appeared and everyone stood up as the national anthem was played. Not wanting to be the odd man out, I stood up too. As I did, I could not help but imagine how not well the idea of making everyone stand for the national anthem at the beginning of a movie would go over in America.


The anthem ended, everyone sat down and the movie started. A little over an hour into the film it was stopped and we were informed that it was intermission time. Again, that would probably not go over well in America. But in India, since most films are three hours or more, an intermission is almost a necessity. Consequently, they still have intermissions even though most western movies don't need them. A few minutes into the intermission, trailers for other movies started to play. While it is always nice to see trailers, the scenes of different movies kind of interrupts the flow of the movie you came to see.


After the trailers ended, the movie resumed and was interruption free until the end. In all, quite a unique experience. I hope you enjoy the few pictures of Panaji. More photos next time.