Asia | Pilgrims’ pleas

What a church in Mumbai reveals about Indians’ desires

As the country grows richer, its people dream bigger

MUMBAI, INDIA - SEPTEMBER 18, 2011: Devotees try to reach the cross outside Mount Mary Church on the last day of Bandra Fair on Sunday. (Photo by Sattish Bate/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)
|BANDRA

THE SUPPLICANT enters the Basilica of Our Lady of the Mount and walks to the sanctuary. On the floor, far below the feet of the golden-robed Madonna and the baby Jesus, he finds a row of blue plastic boxes. In one of them he carefully places a small piece of wax shaped to look like a pair of human lungs. Stepping back he bows his head, joins his hands and utters a silent prayer.

This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “What Indians pray for”

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