The pipe organ at St John’s church.
An Eventful X’mas eve
On the chilly night, churches were decked up with festive lights and almost 60 members turned up at the St. John’s Church for the Christmas night walk organised by Hyderabad Trails. With warm clothes and sneakers on, excited students, professionals and retired persons gathered at 10 pm on Christmas Eve to go Church hopping!
Throughout the walk, organiser Gopala Krishna shared interesting stories about the churches and told participants that this wasn’t a service walk as they wouldn’t experience the Midnight Mass at any church, but the festive atmosphere of Christmas and a little history.
Architects shared interesting facts about the difference between the architecture of Hyderabad and Secunderabad. Sneha, an architect based in Secunderabad, revealed, “One of the stories of how Marredpally got its name was that during colonial times, married officers stationed at the cantonment were housed here — thus the name ‘Married’pally.” Though it is a debunked theory, participants shared a good laugh over it.
The St John’s Church they visited was the first church built in Hyderabad, 200 years ago. The group then walked towards the Keys High School, India’s first girls’ only school, and witnessed the service at the St. Mary’s Church from outside. However, they were disappointed to see the St Mary’s Basilica and the Centenary Baptist Church closed. The group also saw the tomb stone of a horse that served in the cavalry.
The walk also became a big bonding opportunity for the members. The participants enjoyed the experience by cutting cake, stopping for tea and an singing Jingle Bells. Kerala-based Anjani Hemanthkumar, a student of Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad, observes, “I came here as I wanted to get away from the boring hostel and explore the city during Christmas Eve. When Santa doesn’t come to us, we go to Santa!”
Trail walkers at the Seventh Day Adventist church.
Best day of the season
Being Christmas and a Sunday, an early Christmas Morning Walk in the chilling winter along the heritage churches and cathedrals of Abids had very few attendees — just 12. Those who attended spent an engaging, educational and exciting time.
The walk began at 7.15 am at St George’s Church, Abids. The most disturbing sight was the almost demolished house of the Archbishop and the books strewn on the floor. Eaten by mites and covered in dust, the house had a room full of books, from Bibles and novels dating back to the 1900s to log books recording people who’ve been baptised at the church. Gopala Krishna shares, “The last time we were here, we had seen very old books which had records of the former British residents who were baptised here with dates of birth and death.”
The Seventh Day Adventist Church surprisingly has no air of a Christmas morning. “They have cleared the whole place. It will be demolished soon,” shared the security guard. The last stop at St Joseph’s Cathedral was where the first architecture college in the city was found in a worn out look.
City-based historian, Arvind Acharya, who now resides in New York, shared a few interesting stories like why Salar Jung III never got married, how the present building of State Bank of Hyderabad was built and why the churches are concentrated in areas like Secunderabad and Abids. People took home many stories they’d cherish for a long time.
