Mutiny!

Z decided to change things up a bit today, our routine has been the same day in - day out...It was time for an adventure. After Language class Z spontaneously decided that we needed to visit 'Mutiny Church'. Interesting name huh? Actually its name is St. Johns Church...there doesn't that sound more churchy. The history of this church is very interesting. It was built in 1819 by the British whose military occupied hundreds of acres north of the city. There was a revolt in 1857 when the British officers ordered that all the bullets be coated with pig fat...the Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims who fought under these officers were outraged!

The bullet wrappers had to be opened by biting it off and the pig is considered an unclean animal to all the afore mentioned religions. So there was a mutiny and the first shots fired were at St. Johns Church.

We hopped on the motorcycle and headed off, except we really did not know where we were going...so of course we got a little lost. The Indian military now occupies the area that the British once occupied so we had to stop at different check points. At each check point...and sometimes the same check point the second time around...we had to make a lot of U turns, we would ask 'where is Mutiny church?' The soldiers had no clue what we were talking about...we tried every descriptor possible for this church...'St Johns Church', 'Very historic Church', Angrezi (British) Church', 'Famous Church'...One time I think we even asked 'Do you know of any Church around here?' Apparently no one in uniform knew their history. Eventually we found the Church, it was huge! How did people not know about this massive structure? We walked up to the gate...(insert climatic building music)...and it was locked - man what a bummer! We circled the fence and tapped on a second gate a Gardner eventually let us in after he gave us a lecture that we had to call and get permission to see the church. We were shown the inside of the church, there was a very impressive pipe organ and a balcony. Marble and brass plaques were laid in the concrete walls, white pillars stood down the aisle holding up what they could. Birds were flying above the balcony, dust and cobwebs covered most of the candle holders and light fixtures. So much history and yet the building was in a sad disarray.

The church can seat 3,000, nowadays only 60 people meet there every Sunday.