Having been to convent schools for many many years, kneeling in a chapel or a church is almost second nature. I therefore stepped into Christ Church in Shimla on the pretext of sheltering from the wind and rain, but actually to relive the experience of being in a place of Christian worship.

This is the second oldest church in North India after St. John’s in Meerut. The brass plates screwed onto the wall tell the story of the times this structure has lived through. Infants who died of malaria, old British couples who died in Shimla having lived their entire life there, Indian Christians who lived their family life with the Church as their anchor and so on.

Kneeling there with Aadyaa and staring at the familiar altar and the impressive organ, I tried to explain to her the bare essentials of Jesus Christ’s story. I need to tell her more, and add to her collection of religious and mythological heroes among whom Krishna and Balram, Ram and Lakshman, Hanuman and Arjun and of course her namesake Durga are all time favorites!