Car wash at Church of the Holy Spirit

Was cycling down Bode Rd when I saw this Church and liked the edifice.

When I entered the church premises I met the caretaker of the church and he said that there was no service on that day (being a Thursday) and he directed me to the small chapel, a quaint little place.

Later I clicked a few pics around the place, especially this sparrow who was busy collecting material for her nest (Thursday or any other day is the same for her)

On and off I kept visiting the church on my morning cycling rounds. Liked the display of the pictures which were clicked 50 years ago when the Church was established.

Yesterday when I visited the Church, I found that the youth of the Church were conducting a car wash drive at the parking lot.

They were doing it to raise funds for their summer activities. What a novel idea. It will keep the youth occupied and at the same time learn a few tricks of the trade from the seniors (not to mention the involvement of team work)

Found that it was well organised with four stations, the cleandown and wetting, the soaping and scrubbing, the wash down and finally the drying.

The mandatory group picture of the team.

I made a short video of the car wash with all that I captured. Later I attended the 10 am Mass. Short and sweet with a meaningful sermon. I was particularly impressed by the Choir. I must admit that most of the members were senior citizens and they did a swell job (which means a lot of practice has gone in there)

Managed to capture the concluding hymn and made a small video of it. Heard that a Family Fest is being held in the church premises from June 22nd to June 26th. Considering the enthusiasm of the Parishioners, I am sure it is going to be a grand success.

fifteen kms cycling

 Very soon the mechanised vehicles in Pune will be replaced by cycles. Wishful thinking? Well, there are all indications that this may happen soon.

Did a 15 kms ride this morning and it was very refreshing to see the young and the not so young pedaling away. Some were doing a mix of walking and cycling 

Reminds me of something the Dutch Cycling Embassy had put out on their Tweet, "My hope for 2021 is that we can move beyond the shiny and new, and focus on real world solutions that are proven to work. Don't build Hyper loops and Tesla tunnels in cities where it remains unsafe for a child to cross the road or a parent to ride a bike"

When you are at a slow speed you can take in some of the landmarks of Pune, like the Shinde Chhatri at Wanawadi 

Or the Ohel David Synagogue (Lal Deval) near Camp

Talking of Camp (Main Street) it is a different sight, with all the shops closed in the morning. 

The St Patrick's church looks grand against the morning sky.

One has to be a little alert in the morning as there is no saying who will cross your path (and they have the right of the way) 

It is good to see some youngsters practicing football 

Passed the race course and saw the usual sight over there, horses getting their early morning practice ride 

It seems time stands still in some areas of Pune like this picket fence and the grand old tree. My guess is, this tree must be more than two centuries old. 

Made a 3 minute video on my 15 kms ride. Like I said in the beginning, lets give back Pune its old title of "City of cycles"

My cycle is back home, rearing to go for another spin tomorrow morning. 

 

The Pulpit

It is said that you can make three wishes when you visit a new church.

Last week we had been to the Cathedral at New Delhi (Gol Dak Khana) on Easter day. 

Was impressed by the way it is maintained with no major changes from the time it was built. Even the distance between the pews was something to be appreciated as it gave enough leg space as well as space for kneeling. 

The Sacred Heart Cathedral was the second Catholic Church built in Delhi by the O.F.M. Cap priests.

Out of the eight architects invited to submit their plans, the one by Mr Henry Med was finally selected. 

The benches too were designed by Mr Med and was made by a Chinese Catholic at a cost of Rs 75/- each.

There are many stories about how the church came up, including the donations from Japan and China.

One day an unknown young man came to meet Fr Luke. He left after leaving a short message: “withdraw your money from the bank for it is going to crash” Fr Luke did not question the veracity of the message, and withdrew his building fund from the Alliance Bank. The day after the Church building fund was withdrawn, the bank indeed crashed.

The mural of the last supper is also unique. It is one of those rare ones in which Judas is not shown. The Capuchin Friars working at that time in Agra Archdiocese were used as models for the Apostles and Jesus. The names of the Apostles whom these Fathers represent are painted below the mural.  For example Fr Basil, portraying Jesus was an Irish. 

The choir loft used to house a massive pipe organ which was functional till the early seventies 

For such a big and renowned church I found that the sound system was not up to the mark and there was some sort of an echo or reverberation. Later while reading the history of the church I found the reason for the echo.  The dome was so designed that it used to enhance the voice of the celebrant or preacher . The architecture of the thirties had no way of foreseeing the acoustic needs of the electronic era. During the seventies the church consulted many companies including Philips to make the sound system effective. It looks like the mystery of feedback of the sound system could not be fully resolved.

I got to photograph the place at night. The sunflowers are sort of confused (don’t know which side to face) 

I am always fascinated by the pulpit of the churches I visit (if there is one that still stands) The pulpit is not in use now anywhere in the world for almost half a century.

The woodwork of the pulpit in this Cathedral is simple but elegant. 

Compare this with the one I clicked at Brussels (Belgium) What intricate work. 

And the one at Notre Dame Paris

Here is the simplest one I found at a Cathedral near Normandy (France) The idea was that the priest should have an elevated place for his sermon. 

And here is the one depicted by our own cartoonist Mario Miranda with a humorous twist to it.  

Big bigger biggest

Had  been  to  this  church  recently   and  I  was  just  stumped   by  the  lavishness  with  which  it  was  built. 

I am talking about the St George church at Edappally Kerala.  

Later on,  I  was  told  that  the  total  cost  for  building  the  church  was  somewhere  between  35  crores  and  50  crores (Rupees)  

I was just wondering about the source of the money. Obviously it has not come from thin air. Are the parishioners so rich?  Then I started hearing stories. 

An auto rickshaw driver of this parish wanted a date to be fixed for his first born child to be baptized. The vicar refused to baptize the child unless he cleared his dues of Rs 35000/- for the rebuilding of the church. The helpless man mortgaged his auto rickshaw,  paid Rs 30000/- to the church and got his child baptized.   

Also heard that the "fees" for getting married in this church is Rs one lakh.

There may be many parishioners who may be finding it difficult to make both ends meet, but are coerced to contribute for this “big church”  (there are two other churches already standing in the same compound) 

the original church dated AD 593

So it’s a case of big, bigger, biggest.

The Malayalam daily Mangalam says it has a height of 146 feet covering an area of 85114 square feet and adds “instead of making it a place of peaceful worship, they made it an eye-popping posh architectural extravaganza” 

While  I  sat  in  the  church  I  was  reminded  of  the  black  and  white  drawing in  the  Old  Testament  (it was our text book for the catechism class in school)

I was hoping that Jesus would appear once more and do something similar  to  chase away all the people responsible for this blunder.

The things people do in the name of religion.