[Assam] An evening in Hyde Park

[Rajib Das]

In the middle of a tiring business trip around the
world I found myself in London - trying to be a
tourist on a very hot Sunday a couple of weeks back.
The very unimaginative stories around some really
great monuments added to the ennui.

I landed up around the Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park
and was planning to take the train from around there
to my hotel. Which is when I saw the crowds milling
around folks doing their speeches.

It was a most enthralling experience. I found myself
in the middle of a debate between a full bearded
mullah (perhaps of Arab descent) with a cockney accent
and a white punk with spiked hair about creationism
and evolution. Into that mix came a wide variety of
people across the length of 2 hours I was there. There
were many African Muslims and Pakistanis (perhaps a
few Bangladeshis too) looking on with admiration at
the mullah who was speaking perfect English and
holding his ground. There was a black Brit - perhaps
an African - that shouted profanities at the mullah.
There was this very quiet white liberal woman who was
politically very correct and tried reasoning with the
Mullah that perhaps evolution can be a part of God's
design. 

And while the mullah (as also the punk) quoted
philosophers and scientists about intricacies of the
debate, I figured the Mullah's logic was simple - that
before there was any living thing, there must have
been something that must independently and absolutely
exist. Ipso facto there has to be a God and but one
absolute God and therefore there has to be just one
word (or book) from 
this one God. Pretty simplistic argument. The guy was
aggressive, didn't listen to any other point of view
and used a condescending tone when replying to someone
else. My observation - no wonder the human bombers on
the West are coming from the West itself.

Taking courage from this Mullah, a Pakistani middle
aged man started talking about many Hindus having
converted to Islam till I reminded him how Spain
converted back from Islam to Christianity.

When I broke away from this group, I found quite a few
people accosting a Jewish American and telling him how
bad George Bush is and why he is an Israeli and not an
American. All along this somewhat crazy Indian (not me
:-)) was trying to tell him how he knew more about
America than the American - never mind the fact that
he had never lived in America for a long period. There
were other speeches about crazy topics and using
language that cannot be mentioned here.

As I wound my way back around 10 when the sun was
setting, I was exihilarated and energized by the
experience.

Is there any other physical place in the world that
this kind of thing happens?


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