IN STEREO

In the Nativity itself, it’s mostly always busy, right? People are always in long lines to get inside. But I go from the other way, which is for the locals. We ‘squirrel’ in there, and nobody can see me, and I get inside. And I like it, I love it. Just sitting there beside where Jesus was born, making my prayers or whatever. It’s the nicest feeling. Whenever I have the opportunity to go there, that is very nice. But it’s also nice to think about people who are coming from long distances to be there. Like, OK, I’m here – I can go whenever I like. But these people, you know, they have come so many thousands of miles to get there, just to be there for one moment. So we keep it for them.

Especially on Christmas Eve, lots of people come from all over the world to be here. It is nice to be in the mass, once or twice in your life. But then it will be like, we can have it the next morning or something like that. So we keep it for tourists, mostly. I want to tell you something: I’ve been to different places; I’ve been to different kinds of churches. I’ve been to Rome, and I went to the Vatican. It felt more like a museum. There’s lots of beautiful things – but I didn’t feel the spirit of Christianity. Here, in the Nativity, it’s very simple. It’s very humble. But here, you can feel the spirit of Christianity. Really, I don’t feel this anywhere but here. – Reema