Theme: Exploring Indian Religious Architecture (Unity in Diversity)
States and Union territories covered: 14
From our childhood, we have been taught that India is a secular country having a concept of Unity in Diversity. The motto “Vasudhaev Kutumbkam” is practiced in our very own Country from times immemorial. We have people of almost all the religions and our culture is open to all types of people, so in order to witness all these, we travelled to various corners of India. We started our journey from Mumbai, the city of dreams, where we visited the famous “Siddhivinayak Mandir” followed by the Haji Ali Dargah. In Goa, we visited Church Of Our Lady of the Rosary, St. Alex Church and Immaculate Conception Church, Portuguese built Baroque-style Church. We then went to Golden Gokarnatheshwara Temple in Mangalore followed by St. Philomena Cathedral in Mysore. In Alleppey, we payed our visit to Kidangamparambu temple and Sree Mahavishnu Temple, Mullackal. In Kanyakumari, we went to Arulmigu bhagavathy Amman temple dedicated to Goddess Parvati in her childhood form and in Rameshwaram, we visited the Panchmukhi Hanuman temple and then went to Arulmigu Ramanatha Swamy Temple which is amongst one of the 12 jyotirlingas. In Kolkata, we went to Kalighat Temple and St. Paul Cathedral followed by ISKCON temple and Salugara Monastery in Siliguri. In Varanasi, we went to Sankat Mochan Hanuman Mandir and Kashi Vishwanath Temple present in the BHU campus. In Rishikesh, we visited Trayambakeshwar temple and Shatrughan Mandir and ended our trip at Golden Temple in Amritsar. In the end, we as the pillars of the nation, need to know our countrymen and their faiths, which can only be achieved when we interact with them and build a bond. Moreover, it created a liking for history for us.
