An Indian Journey through Lent, Day 31
From Scandal Point to House Service
Yesterday (the day evidently exhausted me so much that I fell asleep without writing my blog) I was invited to a meeting at the salaciously named “Scandal Point”. Not surprisingly, as it turned out, I took a while to work out that Scandal Point is situated where The Ridge and The Mall (road) converge. There is definitely no point at Scandal point, but it is associated with a scandalous story.
The story goes that in 1892 Bhupinder Singh, the then Maharaja (ruler) of Patiala, eloped with the daughter of the British Viceroy from the junction of The Mall and The Ridge, making that the point at which the scandal initiated. This led to the Maharaja being banned by the British authorities from entering Shimla. He countered the move by building himself a new summer capital - the now famous hill resort of Chail, 45 km from Shimla.
Now Bhupinder Singh was apparently a womaniser (as were many of India’s rulers), but Chandigarh based author Manju Jaidka argues that it was unlikely that he was the culprit, since he was only one year old at the time! She argues that instead it was Bhupinder’s father Rajindra Singh who did the deed. Evidently, even in restrained Victorian times the English found it difficult to prevent cross-cultural liaisons with Indians!
Anyway, my purpose at Scandal Point was much more prosaic (though to be frank, at Scandal Point, as everywhere else in India, many pretty young women are to be found!). I met Rev Mushtaq Malk and his wife and son, and together we climbed down the precipitous mountainside to a taxi stand, where we took a ride to a private house, the venue for a prayer service and a 61st birthday party. We sang Christian hymns (I played guitar while Mushtaq played drums and his son Arvind played harmonium), prayed and Mushtaq preached. It was like many a house service in which I’ve participated in Australia and Sweden over the past 25+ years.
Only afterwards did Mushtaq and his wife Neera tell me that over half the people present were Hindus! Hmmm…that made me particularly glad that in a conversation with the house owner, whose birthday was being celebrated, about the suitability of geothermal energy for this region of India, I did NOT try to argue that temples that have been erected wherever thermal springs are found be replaced by geothermal power units! That would be a distinctly western approach.
And I’m so glad for the various forms of cross-cultural liaisons that go on in this most complex of lands.
From Scandal Point to House Service
Yesterday (the day evidently exhausted me so much that I fell asleep without writing my blog) I was invited to a meeting at the salaciously named “Scandal Point”. Not surprisingly, as it turned out, I took a while to work out that Scandal Point is situated where The Ridge and The Mall (road) converge. There is definitely no point at Scandal point, but it is associated with a scandalous story.
The story goes that in 1892 Bhupinder Singh, the then Maharaja (ruler) of Patiala, eloped with the daughter of the British Viceroy from the junction of The Mall and The Ridge, making that the point at which the scandal initiated. This led to the Maharaja being banned by the British authorities from entering Shimla. He countered the move by building himself a new summer capital - the now famous hill resort of Chail, 45 km from Shimla.
Now Bhupinder Singh was apparently a womaniser (as were many of India’s rulers), but Chandigarh based author Manju Jaidka argues that it was unlikely that he was the culprit, since he was only one year old at the time! She argues that instead it was Bhupinder’s father Rajindra Singh who did the deed. Evidently, even in restrained Victorian times the English found it difficult to prevent cross-cultural liaisons with Indians!
Anyway, my purpose at Scandal Point was much more prosaic (though to be frank, at Scandal Point, as everywhere else in India, many pretty young women are to be found!). I met Rev Mushtaq Malk and his wife and son, and together we climbed down the precipitous mountainside to a taxi stand, where we took a ride to a private house, the venue for a prayer service and a 61st birthday party. We sang Christian hymns (I played guitar while Mushtaq played drums and his son Arvind played harmonium), prayed and Mushtaq preached. It was like many a house service in which I’ve participated in Australia and Sweden over the past 25+ years.
Only afterwards did Mushtaq and his wife Neera tell me that over half the people present were Hindus! Hmmm…that made me particularly glad that in a conversation with the house owner, whose birthday was being celebrated, about the suitability of geothermal energy for this region of India, I did NOT try to argue that temples that have been erected wherever thermal springs are found be replaced by geothermal power units! That would be a distinctly western approach.
And I’m so glad for the various forms of cross-cultural liaisons that go on in this most complex of lands.
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