December 31, 2000 - Your guides to Madras and India. 
December 31, 2000 - Your guides to Madras and India. |
Vela always loves to pose for the camera. (April 2000) |
Miss Velankanni (Vela) Vela is about 13 years old. I met her three years ago when I first visited Madras, India. In exchange for food, she became my guide to Madras. (Click her to learn how I met her.) Here Vela and Prabhu are swimming at the children's pool at the Madras city film studio which is called the "MGR Film City". It is much more private than the local swimming pool. Going to a public swimming pool is a hassle for women. |
Is It A Boy Or A Girl? Three years ago, because of The Haircut, Vela easily passed as a boy and she loved to go swimming as a boy -- happy and care free. The only way anyone could tell that she is a girl is because she is so skinny -- weighing less than 50 lbs. But now that she is an adult (13 years old), Vela must wear a woman's "swimming costume" which is an awkward and uncomfortable dress. |
Vela - April 1998 |
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Beggar at Age 6 Vela has had a very rough life. She was taken out of school and put on the streets by her father at the age of 6 to beg for her family so she has less than one year of education. She was abandoned by her mother and raised by her Grandmother. Vela's mother and father are divorced and her father is a "drinking man". She has been beaten so badly (probably by her father), she is almost deaf in one ear. Vela is Catholic and occasionally visits the nearby San Thomas Church which was built where Doubting Thomas (Saint Thomas) preached during his last four years in India. Saint Thomas was killed in Madras. |
Let's Have Fun! Vela has a heart of gold... but she is no angel. She loves to play... and she loves money. Here you see Vela at an amusement park. Vela gets sick just riding a bus... but that does not stop her from riding on all the amusement rides. She has been trained for so many years to be a con artist, she cannot let go. She will always try for one more dollar, one more con. Somedays, her continual insistence on more money can drive me nuts. Yet, when she is thinking straight, Vela has the most common sense of any person I have met in India. She is a very special person. |
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Letters From Vela When I send Vela money each month, she writes me a letter.... actually an aerogramme. (And recently e-mail.) At first, I was very confused since Vela can neither read or write her native language... much less English. How can she write me a letter? I realized that since most people in India are illiterate, there are others who write letters for people either for a fee or as a friend. Vela has lots of friends so she has no problem sending me letters. Vela's cousin, Mumtaz, sent me letters which were always sweet and lovely. It turns out that the letters were written by a fat man of forty who is a drinking buddy of Mumtaz's father. Mumtaz knew nothing of these letters or their contents. So when Vela complains "Mari's mother has demanded a commission for distributing the money and is always bothering me." then I know that these are Vela's own words. |
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After Vela goes swimming in the ocean, she will ask you for a few rupee so she can buy "Q-Tips" for cleaning her ear. (Water gets inside her ear and causes her pain.) |
Still Very Weak For a six month period when all my letters (and money) to Vela were stolen by post office employees, her grandmother fed Vela only one meal every two days. She never recovered from this. She was always weak. Three years ago, she would run and play and when she would get tire, she would simply curl up into a ball and faint dead away. Now, about 1 1/2 hours after Vela eats a full meal, she goes completely stupid like a vegetable. Vela remains awake but her mind goes completely blank. (Someone recently suggested that Vela might be diabetic but I have no way of knowing until I return to India and have her tested.) |
Singing and Dancing One of the most entertaining aspects of Vela is she loves to sing and dance. When I arrive in India, she is very silent. But after feeding her for a few weeks, she begins to smile and be happy again. To show her happiness, she sings and dances. The last day before I leave, she will usually put on a show for me and the other kids. She has seen all the Tamil motion pictures at least twice so she knows most of the popular songs (which appear in the motion pictures). These are the songs she loves to sing and dance for you. Here is Vela being carried by the other kids while she is singing a song. (1998) |
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Please read the story of how I met Vela.
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