My Weekend Trip to a few Centuries ago..

Based on whether you love Bombay or not, the words you’d chose to describe the city would be - crowded, filthy, noisy, spirited, alive, fun!

Whether positive or negative though, you’d probably never describe Bombay with these words - Vast, Green, Old World Charm!

And yet, that’s exactly what St. Pius X College (commonly referred to as the ‘Goregaon Seminary‘) is like (see an aerial view here).

It’s a fact not commonly known, that I was conceived in Goregaon Seminary. My parents were doing a ‘Marriage Encounter‘ there, about 4 yrs after their wedding. And lo & behold, I was formed! Not an immaculate conception (!) but a blessed conception for sure! I know lots of other facts about my pre-born state that I’m sure you all are dying to know but this post is about the seminary.

I went to the Goregaon Seminary for the first time in my (post-born, lol) life two Saturdays ago. It was like taking a trip outside Bombay, or perhaps to Bombay, but in a century long ago - All the the greenery, the sheer vast openness of it all.

And the building itself was so beautiful! Old World Charm all carefully preserved in an air of quiet and sanctity. I spent the weekend at the Seminary as I was attending a Bible Seminar (nope, I’m not becoming a priest!).

I enjoyed exploring the humongous building and it’s wings in the later part of the evening after our Seminar was over and after more than 90% of the others doing the seminar with me had gone home. There was the library, which I was told houses 35,000/- books, all done in wood from top to bottom and gives one the feeling of being in a black & white movie. There were huge sweeping staircases, high ceilings, rooms after rooms. The most beautiful was the Chapel - the size of a Church really - which I didn’t take pictures because it was already too dark and I felt too wrapped in heavenly arms to think of it then. And did I mention everything, everywhere, was pristinely clean.

(This was outside the seminarian’s common dining room, where they had their names on the paper near this numbered pigeon hole unit, with their napkins! So Victorian!)

The room which I was allocated - in a wing far away from the seminarians living there (to perhaps not be a temptation?) was sparsely furnished with bare minimums, but was again, impeccably clean.

Being me, I was especially thrilled to see my bed had a mosquito net (now I really felt like I was in that B&W movie!) and you can be sure as my name is Melody, that I neatly tucked the net into place before I slept that night!

But sleep was loong after I ventured into the huge grounds, with neatly manicured grass and spent 3 hours lying flat on my back looking at the stars!. No one was around & I could hear crickets, see tons of stars all sprinkled across the night sky generously, like diamonds in a heavenly showroom.

When I left the Seminary on Sunday evening, I was abounding with thanks for the amazing experience I had. I never dreamed that I would have it yet again - forget about the fact that it’d happen just 3 days later - on Wednesday night, when my music ministry was called to lead Praise & Worship for the Seminary prayer group. This time, shortly before we left for home, I went back out into the field, with my friend Joy & the two of us lay on our backs again, looking at the stars (before getting frantic calls inquiring where we had disappeared to, lol).

I visited the Goregaon Seminary yet again (yes after 30 years of not going, I was there 4 days in a week!) yesterday for a half day meeting. This time we left long before the sun set.

But that hasn’t stopped me from singing ‘How Great is our God’ in my head, on almost-obsessive repeat, the last few days.

Tags: Bombay, Goregaon Seminary, How Great is our God, Mumbai, St. Pius X College