To watch parallel universes in (near)collision, go to Khan Market on a Saturday evening. Hang out at the CaféTurtle, put brown sugar in your coffee, admire the Rs 20,000 Buddhist thangkashung on the staircase. Then, at the back of the market, reach the end and take aleft turn, so that in about three minutes, walking from the aforementioned caféor anywhere else in Khan Market actually, you’re at the place where fromramshackle tables they’re selling the Virgin Mary with electric swirlingTechnicolor halos, outside the small red brick church with the many angledspire.
The Church of Our Lady of Vailankanni. Signs in English, Hindi and Tamil.Devotees in many more tongues and faiths—Mata Mariyam ke bhakt, as theHindi goes. The church is named for the Basilica of Our Lady of Health inVailankanni, Tamil Nadu, renowned for its miracles. Built here in 1959, it’sunlike any Catholic church I’ve ever seen. It’s the very opposite, ifthat’s possible, of something like the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Goa, where thegrandeur of the architecture itself hushes you into awe and silence as you walkin, despite all the cameras clicking and flashing. This is something else. Forone, it’s not the sort of place where you’re likely to see camera-wieldingJapanese. It’s sort of homey.
So there are children lining up in the small yard outside for a free langar.Inside the not very large church, things are even more informal and chilled out,without ceasing to be religious in the least. Out in the front, near the altar,a man in a plain blue shirt ties black thread to supplicants. A woman in a sarimoves around the altar railing, blessing those who kneel to pray with the crownof Our Lady. There are no vestments or white robes in sight. It all seems veryinformal, including the kids running around. Not all those who come are Tamil,or even Christians. In fact, both seem in a minority at this church, which bythe looks of it attracts a far more diverse, largely working class following.There’s a huge rath parked in one corner of the yard, and on the feastday in September, a procession—thousands strong—goes down all the way toDayal Singh College.
I don’t want this to sound like ‘Hindu Muslim Sikh Isai, Aapas Mein SabBhai Bhai’ secular spiel because it isn’t. It’s something elsealtogether, which I don’t have a finger on yet. But three Catholics, a Muslimand a very lapsed Hindu went to the Church of Our Lady of Vailankanni in Delhi.Some of us prayed, some hung out and made ethnographic observations, some of usdid both. We were all smiling as we left with our own different memories of theplace. Khalid bought orange bars for some of the children hanging aroundoutside.
"Next time you come," one shouted as we left, "buy us choco bars". Ofcourse there will be a next time. Who wouldn’t want to return?
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This article originally appeared in Delhi City Limits, April 15, 2006
