Chennai-based Arun Miranda and his wife Francina trace their paternal roots to the coastal town of Manapad (made famous in recent times by Mani Ratnam’s Kadal ). “After we got married, back in 1995 we decided to visit Manapad,” Arun begins. He hadn’t visited his ancestral town until then. “I instantly fell in love with the place, and we have been visiting it regularly since,” he says.
“Manapad’s a beautiful place with an interesting history. Did you know that Francis Xavier lived here in a cave? Everyone only knows of his work in Goa, but he lived in a cave in Manapad too. There’s even a 400-year-old Portuguese church on the hill. A lot of homes here remind me of Chettinad. Though not as opulent, they have a distinctive character. I think it can be attributed to the fact that a lot of locals used to work in Sri Lanka, and when they returned they built large homes.”
Full report here Hindu
