The sunken garden !

 

Between the atrium in the college building and the chapel at the Christian Medical College campus at Bagayam, is located the historic Sunken garden. The chapel remained as the meeting place for the community for its Sunday chapel service and Friday fellowship during the time of Dr Ida Scudder. The Sunken garden was the open air space where the important functions such as graduation ceremony, was held.   

It was after five years I had an opportunity to visit this historic place last week. 

The recently installed plaques in the atrium caught my attention. They point to some historic events from 1932. 

Although chapel is not regularly used now, as the chapel service is held  in the Scudder auditorium, to accommodate a larger number than what the the chapel can host, the chapel remains as a sacred, and serene place and as the spiritual symbol of the college. 

In the quietness of the chapel, I went back the memory lane to 1980, when I first attended a chapel service there. Since then, being at the chapel during the time Anna and I lived in the college campus, offered us a sense of belonging to the history, heritage and ethos of the college. Anna as an alumnus of the college has close association even now with batches of students who were her contemporaries. As we now join the on-line for the Sunday evening chapel services, we feel connected with the vocation of the Christian Medical College. 

For Anna and myself, the Christian Medical College is a historic place in our lives, because it was where our daughter, Anita was born and moved on from our midst, leaving us perplexed and yet leaving a message about our professional vocation, which led us to spend our forty years since then, in being involved with children, who have had neuro-developmental challenges. When we closed our years of regular professional service in June 2023, we felt moved by the experience of having been shown a professional path, while Anna and I were at CMC Vellore between 1980 and1982. 

Every visit to the CMC Vellore, is an occasion for us to recall memories and experiences of forty years of my professional journey !

The Sunken Garden with its pond located in the centre, with the chapel on one side, women's hostel on the other side and the college building beside it, is a historic place that connects generations of students, alumni and faculty to the heritage and ethos of the healing vocation of the Christian Medical College, Vellore. 

I felt grateful to the team working in the archives of the institution, to have placed the above plaques, in the atrium to make the chapel historically linked to  the story of the earlier years from 1932. The chapel, which is a hallowed sanctuary to many, is an inspirational place, because one returns feeling visited and uplifted from the quiet time spent in silence! 

It is a place, which has left lasting memories in the lives of the students, faculty, visitors and alumni!

It is a place we return to, to receive motivation to continue living the motto of the institution, borrowed from the stated vocation of Jesus of Nazareth, 'not to be served unto, but to serve'!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)