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| Pic: Susan Elaine Penn-Berkeley in 2009 |
I don't know much about land measurement in sq. metres etc but I can say this church has a big compound and from the pic it seems that 25 years later its been lying idle! At a guess, the only reason that it has not been grabbed is that it is in the Cantonment area.
I went to Varanasi (Banaras) before India was flooded with motorbikes and cars so I took along my bicycle for free and easy movement. The protestant church at Sigra came as a surprise. Here also the church had a massive stretch of land a big parsonage that was shared by the pastor and a retired railwayman; something that I learned much later. There were several small old cottages occupied by Christians with most of the land lying vacant.
At the gate was a banner proclaiming that the person sitting on the dais was on a 'fast unto death'. The lady, a Mrs Chattri, had her husband among the handful of supporters. The protest was over a plot of land given, by a former pastor, on lease for a petrol service station that was already functioning. The protest was legitimate, I thought! I should add here that the 'fast till death' went on for months - nobody died! It was at a later date that Mr Chattri showed me the whole campus; the neat little cottages, lots of open space and then the real reason for the fast staged at the church gate. There were plots marked by stone and he pointed out his plot and that cleared the matter they were fighting for permission to build homes for themselves!!
When people protest against corruption you can bet the hidden reason, the real reason lies just below the surface - maybe self-aggrandizement!
The Chattri family is quite big and this family seemed to originate from Allahabad. I already knew of a branch of this family in Lucknow.
Today the principal of Christ Church College, Lucknow is a Mr Chattri. The CCC Principal owns a house in the Zahur Baksh Church compound, Lucknow. He has what is said to be ancestral property elsewhere in Lucknow. He also owns a house in Naini Tal. His career climbed - from a school master to a vice-principal in Jhansi and then several years ago was appointed Principal, CCC, Lucknow. The principal makes his own rules because he has the board members eating out of his hand. Free house, luxury cars, water, electricity and round-the-clock servants. But, in January he told a lady from Australia who sought information from him that there were a lot of crooks around!
Incidentally, Christ Church, Lucknow has also leased out a plot of land to a petrol service station. This was done more than 40 years ago but a few years back the lease, I heard, was increased to 999 years! How much was paid was kept a secret.
