16 NEWS
NOV 15 - NOV 28 2017
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Today monuments, tomorrow books Having to defend the Taj Mahal is a matter of great shame. It rose above the religious or even the symbol of great love and entered the realm of magni�icent architecture joining that exclusive club: the pyramids of Egypt, the Coliseum in Rome, the hanging gardens of Babylon… writes Azeez Ravuther
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f you go by current Indian political standards the USA will have to send back the Statue of Liberty to the French because it was a gift and it is not American culture, is it? By that very token the 3020 cherry trees that the Japanese sent to Washington DC in 1912 as a gesture of friendship and now form the botanical icon for the capital should be taken back …after all the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour. The Brits should give to the Yanks the statue of George Washington at Trafalgar and the Russians should give back the Sword of Stalingrad to commemorate the battle of the same name. The Americans should return to China the two Pandas and their progeny that Nixon was gifted and the desk in Donald Trump’s oval office, sent by Queen Victoria after it was salvaged from the HMS Resolute should be carted back and the President left literally standing. Why should any nation be reminded of conquests and colonialism and dynasties and empire, what fun there is in the denial of history? Now that we are going for the Taj Mahal and after 70 years getting beyond the point of utter stupidity we should truly go all the way. Let’s have a clean-up day and destroy every British edifice from VT station (Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus) in Mumbai to the Victoria Memorial in Kolkata to the Gateway of India (built to welcome George V) and India Gate (War memorial to 82,000 sepoys who were killed in WWI fighting for the English so they could extend their
command over India). So much to do, all those beautiful churches like St James and St Pauls and St Thomas because they are not Indian culture. There goes Lutyens, in a trembling little heap of dust, Arnab Goswami’s wet dream. Ironical that this is where the politicians reside in homes built for the British. Twenty minutes drive away is the Qutb Minar, down it comes. We should also completely eradicate Goa, Daman, Diu and Pondicherry because they have Portuguese and French there and that is not our culture either. And since our first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru certified our freedom from the ramparts of the Red Fort this being the citadel for the Mughal Empire we have to see our independence as a false start like that famous Usain Bolt race at the 2011 Wolrd Championships at Daegu and we must call the British back to take us over and start the ‘Quit India’ movement all over again. What a hassle and that’s also par for the course for Prime Minister Narendra Modi whose supporters want the Taj to go but are okay with poncing about the Red Fort for every major event. Son et lumiere switch off, will you. Okay, enough with the sarcasm, you get the drift. To a more serious aspect. We will always have takers for religious fervour and that is the last refuge for those people who have nothing else to offer and their promises have broken into shards of glass. It is the great deflector and it works. For a while.
That the Taj needs to be defended after being India’s global icon is obscene in itself. It is a man made marvel and testament in its time to human ingenuity. India has fought to ensure its entry into the wonders of the world. It rose above the religious or even the symbol of great love and entered the realm of magnificent architecture joining that exclusive club: the pyramids of Egypt, the Coliseum in Rome, the hanging gardens of Babylon.
Me, I cannot understand this preoccupation with nothingness. The Taj is ours. Excluding it from a book on UP tourism can be a foolish oversight. But if the banner is picked up and turned into a clarion call and its dismissal seen as a test of nationalism and patriotic loyalty then you and I are no better than those Taliban destroying the Bamiyans in Afghanistan. Today monuments, tomorrow books.
GOLDEN YEARS OF ST MARY’S CHURCH DUBAI BY ASIAN LITE NEWS
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hurch was built on land donated by late Ruler Sheikh Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum Dubai’s St Mary’s Catholic Church, dedicated to our Lady of Assumption, marked its golden jubilee with a range of celebrations. The first church was built on land donated by Sheikh Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, then Ruler of Dubai, and blessed by the Ruler of Dubai on April 7, 1967. However, with the number of parishioners gradually increasing the old
church had to be demolished, re-built and the current structure was inaugurated in November 1989. In keeping with the plan for the golden jubilee celebrations, the range of activities got under way on November 18, 2016 after the closing of the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy. With the golden jubilee theme of “50 Years of Grace-filled Providence”, the celebrations continued till the end
of April 2017 culminating with the grand finale with the Golden Jubilee Thanksgiving Concelebrated Pontifical High Mass at 6:15 pm on April 28. In his Homily, Bishop Paul Hinder, Abu Dhabi-based Vicar Apostolic of Southern Arabia exhorted the parishioners to remain true to who they are, to stay faithful to the path set out for them by the church fathers and continue what they started 50 years ago “in the name of unity, peace, justice, mutual understanding, and tolerance.” Accompanied at the Altar by His Grace Archbishop Francisco Montecillo Padilla, Apostolic Nuncio, the Swiss-born Bishop Hinder further
urged the parishioners to reach out to the less fortunate in their needs. Ahmad Al Julfar, Director-General of Community Development Authority, was also among those present at the auspicious final day of celebrations. Fr. Lennie J.A. Connully, the Capuchin Parish Priest of St. Mary’s
Church’s, in his speech thanked God for using various people as channels of blessing to the church, among who are the leaders of the UAE. Fr. Lennie reminded the faithful of their role and duty of being “peace-bearers in a world that has been afflicted with acts of intolerance in recent past”.