The Diary Game: 25-08-2024- A Trip to Sardhana Church

After a long time, it was a fine sunny Sunday, so I wanted to do something that I do every year if I am in India, since these days I am in India, I decided to go to Sardhana, the Church of the Basilica of Our Lady of Graces.

I had already checked the weather report last night, and it said the weather would be fine when I got up this morning, it was beautiful.

I got up a little early as I wanted to attend the 9.30 mass, and yes, I planned to go alone as my wife refused to travel with me on my bike because she was not yet over her fear of the accident we had in the first week of last month.

  
I finished my routine work of answering nature's call, did my light workout, and took a shower. I did not feel like eating anything, but my wife served me light snacks.

I was on my way to Sardhana Church.

  
Let me introduce the church of Sardhana before proceeding further. The church is open all seven days from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Prayers are held at 6 a.m. in summer and 7 a.m. in winter. On Sundays, holy prayer is at 7:30 am, 9:30 am, and 11:30 am.

  

I try to go there every year in November if I am in India so I will go again and contribute to the welfare of the community. The Sardhna Church attracts devotees from all over the world on the second Sunday of November.

They visit the 'Our Lady of Graces' shrine, also known as Sardhana Church, which is said to be the only basilica in this area.

The Sardhana Basilica was built in 1822 by Begum Samru, a dancer married to Nawab of Sardhna. She married European mercenary Walter Reinhardt Sombre, fought alongside him, and eventually came to rule the state of Sardhana.

When she took over as ruler of Sardhna and after converting to Christianity, she then built the church, which is dedicated to the Virgin Mary and her miraculous healings.

The Church of Sardhna was designed by an Italian architect in 1822. Pope John XXIII gave it the title of Minor Basilica in December 1961. It is dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

  
As you can see, this church complex is spread over a large area. There is a large area reserved for the mango orchards, and there is a girls' convent school, which was originally the palace of Begum Samru.

The church has a Catholic cemetery, surrounded by several Islamic-style monuments.

Inside the Basilica of Our Lady of Graces

The structure of this church is a mix of different styles. The portico is adorned with Doric columns. It has three domes that are replicas of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

  
The octagonal dome of this church floods the space inside with sunlight. The beauty of the vaulted ceiling and the main arches reflects their Roman and Oriental styles.

The altar is made of marble with floral patterns and is surrounded by colorful stones.

As you can see, there are statues of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection lined up right from the entrance to the main church building.

  
I have tried to capture some of them but could not cover them all as devotees were praying in front of them and taking photos of strangers is not my idea especially if I am using those photos for blogging purposes.

The historic Sardhna church, built by unmatched Kalakaron of architecture, is also a wonderful amalgamation of architecture and marble. Foreign tourists also come here to visit.

It is believed that when this church was built, a woman first came to pray to Mother Mary. During this time she prayed for the recovery of her son, who had been suffering from a serious illness for a long time. It is said that as soon as that woman prayed to Mother Mary, her son became healthy. From that day onwards, people started flocking to pray to Mother Mary.

  
Several thousand people were engaged in the construction of the church. Begum Samru entrusted the responsibility of building this church to Major Anthony Regillini. It is said that he had good knowledge of architecture.

The church is decorated grandly on the occasion of Christmas. The birthday of Jesus Christ is celebrated on the special occasion of Christmas. Foreign tourists also come here to visit.

The church premises have very beautiful marble statues, which can be seen from the main entrance to the inside of the church premises.

  
If we talk about the beauty of the church, the marble for the altar where prayers are held was brought from Jaipur. Along with this, Cornelian, Malachite, and Jasper stones are also used here, which make this church even more grand.

Photography is prohibited during prayer, but I reached inside a little before time and took photos. However, the photos are not clear because the professional photographers here object when they see photos being taken. But I took many photos with my Sony Cybershot, which fits comfortably in my hand.

  
The mass was over at 10.30 a.m., but I spent another one and a half hours in the church compound and took a few more photos of the church compound.

I started my journey back at about 12 as I reached the highway. My house is almost 48 km from the spot where I am standing right now, but I took a shortcut where there is no heavy vehicular traffic, even if the road is narrower, it is a joy to drive a two-wheeler.

  
At 12.30 I was feeling a little hungry, so I stopped at this spot and had a light snack with a cold drink called Charged. I tasted it for the first time and instantly disliked its taste. I was probably the heavy advertisement of this product by stars of various fields that influenced people to buy such products, which are not worth even one-tenth of their price.

  
I reached back home at about two and had my lunch, which was not much but ordinary food we eat every day, a curry with rice and tomato and onion salads.

Maybe I was feeling too tired after driving a two-wheeler or got up too early compared to other days this morning, I had a two-hour sleep after lunch and got up at around 4.30 p.m.

I opened my laptop at 4.45 pm for the first time in the day and then saw a message on my phone from my bank. That was a maturity notice for one of my fixed deposits. I immediately renewed the FD with an added amount. I am glad that the interest rates are much higher than what I was getting on my matured FD.

At about five I opened Steemit for the first time for the day but as expected there was nothing much but a few notifications that I responded duly.

Tonight I will finish my dinner early and go to bed because tomorrow I have to work on my two duties on Steemit.

7.55 p.m.
25/08/2024

ᵃˡˡ ⁱᵐᵃᵍᵉˢ ᵐʸ ᵖʰᵒⁿᵉ ᵒʳ ᶜᵃᵐᵉʳᵃ ᵗᵃᵏᵉⁿ ᵗᵒᵈᵃʸ

I hope you enjoyed this trip to Sardhana church with me