Bizarre indeed

For sheer bizarreness, our country takes the cake. An instance is the controversy over the non-formation of the Shivlingam at the Amarnath shrine.

For sheer bizarreness, our country takes the cake. An instance is the controversy over the non-formation of the Shivlingam at the Amarnath shrine. This phenomenon could well be because of natural climatic causes. However, the Kashmir Peethum Shankaracharya views it as a conspiracy to sabotage the annual pilgrimage to the cave-shrine by vested interests, including Pakistan. A commission of inquiry has been constituted to probe into this incident. The Shankaracharya is still dissatisfied, because he thinks that Justice K K Gupta, a retired judge of the J&K High Court appointed for the probe, is physically unfit to do justice to his assignment because of his age of 80.

Another bizarre incident concerns the Christian actress Meera Jasmine, who offered prayers in a Kerala temple to Lord Rajarajeshwara in fulfillment of her vow. Prohibition of entry into temples, fire temples, mosques and other places of worship to entrants not belonging to the particular religious faith, though unfortunate, is understandable.

Slapping a fine of Rs 10,000 on Ms Jasmine for the cost of purification rites is grotesque.

Again there was a ruckus over Kannada actress Jayamala’s alleged entry into the sanctum sanctorum of the famous Sabarimala temple in Kerala. This temple is out of bounds for any woman even she is a Hindu unless she is before the stage of puberty or has crossed the age of menopause. Incredible that natural biological occurrences are still considered impure. Obviously the temple authorities are sublimely unaware that one of the fundamental duties of citizens laid down in the Constitution is to “renounce practices which are derogatory to the dignity of women.”

Jayamala’s claim that she was pushed into the sanctum by the milling crowd behind her is branded by some again as a “conspiracy” to denigrate the Hindu faith.

The Devaswom Board, which administers temples in Kerala, has launched an investigation and dispatched a senior police officer to question Jayamala in Bangalore and submit his report by July 7. The already overstretched police force could have been spared these needless burdens. When shall we break the fetters of superstition and eliminate irrational practices? Ah, that will be the day when the mind shall be free and without fear, and Gurudev’s aspiration will be partially fulfilled.

Summer vacation

Summer vacation was spent exclusively in Britain, mainly in London. The Hay-on-Wye Festival in Wales was a sheer delight. It had a variety of events, ranging from the Media String Quartet to Barrister Philippe Sands pungent talk on Bush, Blair and Rumsfield. The discussion by Helena Kennedy, the eminent criminal lawyer, with Reggie Nadelson about her latest crime mystery was animated.

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Vikram Seth, in his charming unassuming manner, discussed his latest book, Two Lives, and Salman Rushdie talked about his works.

Visits to bookshops and the National Portrait Gallery filled my time, apart from renewing old friendships in London and in Oxford. Visit to the New Forest was a refreshing break from city life. It was a unique experience celebrating Vikram Seth’s birthday quietly, with his parents and his sister in his grand home at Salisbury which formerly belonged to the poet George Herbert.

The climax was the Indo-British Legal Exchange which took place in Edinburgh. British judges and lawyers were breathless, eiher out of admiration or consternation, listening to the radical environmental jurisprudence of our Supreme Court.

Terrorism and counter-terrorism issues generated a lively and very useful interaction. There was traditional Scottish hospitality, with bagpipers providing the music. What warmed the hearts of our Scottish hosts was Chief Justice Sabharwal’s observation in his brief afterdinner speech adapting Loch Lomond: “You may take the high road or we may take the low road but the destination is the same: Justice and protection of human dignity.”

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I missed the performance of 80-year-old Oscar Peterson, the legendary jazz pianist, who has a semi-paralysed left side. He played for about two hours and ended with a blistering Sweet Georgia Brown. A real regret.