Sight to Behold

HAVING associated mostly with morning newspapers all through my career, I have missed out on evening life. There is no life for a journalist, working for a morning daily, outside of his office after dusk. Reporters get busy filing their stories gathered through the day while the editorial staff go about with the production part of the job. Habits die hard and I continue to remain ignorant about most routine things that go on in our own city during the evening hours. Any departure from these habits can be rewarding as I were to learn on a recent evening. I happened to be standing in front of the illuminated Mysore Palace with a friend last week. I was pleasantly surprised by this friend's revelation that Muslims visit the Anjaneya temple situated just outside the palace. In a while, came a woman, black-veiled, with a baby in her arms, stood in the queue, entered the temple, and came out in a while when I decided to meet her. What was an even more pleasant revelation was that she is a resident of Kyathamaranahalli, described variously as "trouble-torn, communally sensitive, and what have you?" The lady, too shy to be talking to a man, said that she had brought her child to get her a talisman from the temple. She wouldn't stand there for long - it was already close to 8 and she had no male escort. Understanding her urgency, I asked her for her telephone number. I should have guessed that she was too poor to afford one.

My friend later said that it was quite a regular site to find Muslims visiting this particular temple. Like their Hindu counterparts, they stand in the long queue to get the darshan of God Hanuman. It brought to my mind the description by Jnanpith winner, Masti Venkatesha Iyengar, of the way in which Hindus and Muslims lived so harmoniously, the latter enthusiastically taking part in the former's temple fairs in his home town. Did any of you get to read/watch/hear any such report during the recent troubles in our city? Whoever talks about media troubles cannot be wrong after all! Deep-seated cynicism is but one professional hazard of a journalist.