Reflections

The recent canonization of Mother Teresa was a huge event in the Catholic world. It would be incorrect to single out only the Catholic world;many Indians of all religions felt honoured by association,  The political world in India also scrambled to get onto the gravy train. Two separate delegations visited the Holy City, not to impress the pope, but with an eagle’s eye on the minority vote. Why just the minorities, there are huge numbers of Indians who think of her with respect and recall her contributions to her adopted country gratefully. There has always been a debate about the Albanian born nun. She has been deified and vilified in equal measure and her detractors and admirers have always been legion. The recent excitement over the canonization made me wonder where I stand on this controversy. Do I think she was a saint, or at least a great woman? Or was she a bigoted missionary who looked after the poor in the hope of saving her soul and getting brownie points from the Alm

I recently read a marvelous little book. The book is a record of conversations between Edward Said, who needs no introduction and Daniel Barenboim. Barenboim is an Argentine born musician and conductor who has conducted many famous orchestras worldwide including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The La Scala in Milan and more importantly, the Berlin Philharmonic. Incidentally, he has also played in Calcutta.  As a Jew, he has come to terms with the massacre of the Jews by the Nazis and has tried to distinguish between the Nazis and the German population in general. The book has many interesting discussions about his bold decision to play Wagner in Tel Aviv which caused a big brouhaha. Wagner, if you remember as the German composer known to be anti-Semitic and was idolized by the Nazis. He has, in his conversations clearly distinguished the music from the political opinions of the famous composer. However, one part of the conversation between the two men related to what constitu