Friday 8 August 2014

Venkat Subbu Reddy


With Venkat Subbu Reddy, my hostelmate of Kambar Hostel in Annamalai University in 1967-68. He came to meet me in the High Court Guest House, at Greenways Road where I am staying. He travelled all the way from Pondicherry to meet me. We had met for a short while when I was Chief Justice of Madras High Court in 2005. Now we are meeting again.He retired as a College teacher in Pondicherry 4 years ago, and now does farming on his farm which is 18 km from Pondicherry city.

We exchanged old memories for almost an hour.He told me that I had come to his farm in 1967, but I have forgotten about my visit then. It was almost half a century ago.


Allahabad is the city in U.P. where I grew up, got educated, and became a lawyer and then High Court Judge.


Tamilnadu is the land where I came first in 1967 to learn the language here, and then again in 2004 as the Chief Justice, and where I was simply overwhelmed by the love and affection which the people here gave me.

Whenever I am in Tamilnadu, I feel i am at home


13 comments:

  1. Sir,
    It would have been simpler to accept that your post advising South Indians to learn Hindi was perhaps ill-advised. All the subsequent posts trying to prove that you are not a Hindi fanatic would then become unnecessary. Nobody has accused you of the latter.

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  2. Sir what type of Law system is there in India or world

    Where there is punishment for rape but no punishment for brothale???

    What is your opinion on the above are brothale allowed for mens satisfaction at the cost of women??

    Don't brothale increase girls buying/selling and kidnapping for using in brothale???

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  3. Sir do you agree the reason given by Sachin Tendulkar for being absent in Rajya Sabha?

    Brother bypass surgery ??? Do bypass surgery take so much time that in last 2 years he attended only 3 times?

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  4. You are the Hiranyakashipu of Kalyug who used to question God and think he is most powerful and most intelligent.

    You question the existance of Lord Ram and Krishna as God? I would like to ask you whether you agreed that you are son of your parents or asked them to show you DNA reports?

    There are rumor's that you are paid by Internation Christianity organisation to speak bad about Hindu religion and its God and praise Muslim and its religion and God to create division amongs Hindu and Muslim like British created?

    You are a retired SC Judge but what an anti-national person?

    I just wan't to say that Hiranyakashipu like you have also came earlier but in did not break Hindu religion and neither create any long lasting division among Hindu and Muslim?

    Get well soon Hiranyakashipu of Kalyug

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    Replies
    1. Perhaps before trying to appoint yourself as a guardian of "Indian culture", you might have tried to learn a bit about it.

      Do you know who else denied the existence of the gods of the "Hindu" religion? A certain ascetic called Siddharth Gautam. Did his contemporaries call him the "Hiranyakashipu" of his age? Some of them probably did. Most of them, however, saw his arguments, saw that even if they might disagree with him, he was indeed a wise man. Today, we put the emblem of the religion this "Hiranyakashipu" founded on our national flag, and refer to him as the "greatest son of India".

      It is not people like Mr Katju, but people like you who are a threat to the ancient Indian culture, a culture which promoted argumentation and questioning in pursuit of the truth above everything else.

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    2. PS (fake a/c of Mr. Katju) Please let me know where Siddharth Gautama questioned Lord Ram or Lord Krishna?

      Also the Ashoka Chakra is not emblem because of Gautama Buddha but because of Ashoka since he was India's greatest emperor else It would have been known as Buddha Chakra. May be Ashoka was following Buddha religion but Ashoka chakra is due to Ashoka and not Gautama Buddha?

      For your Information Gautama Buddha is also avatar of Lord Krishna only? You need to know in details about Gautama Buddha before speaking about him.

      I would still call Mr. Katju as Hiranyakashipu of Kalyug since he is defaming Hindu religion for the benefits that he received from International Christianity organisation.

      Get well soon Hiranyakashipu and his followers

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    3. Firstly, I do not know Mr Katju personally, let alone being him. You claim to be a defendant of Indian culture, yet are so quick to cast aspersions without proof. Do you have no respect for satya and ahimsa?


      "Please let me know where Siddharth Gautama questioned Lord Ram or Lord Krishna?"

      Mahayana Buddhism, the original version founded by Buddha, is an agnostic religion, one which does not care about gods, and does not encourage their worship. This was one of the main tenets of Buddhism: that ritual sacrifice and worship is not needed for salvation. Please read any authoritative Buddhist texts to find out more about this. What is more, Jainism, founded by Vardhaman Mahavira around the same time, is---in its strictest interpretation-- not just agnostic but atheistic: Mahavira explicitly says that a creator god does not exist. So are various "astika" schools of what is now called "Hindu" philosophy. One of the most prominent examples is Samkhya, which explicitly denies the existence of a creator god (By the way, the term "Hindu" is much more recent, comparatively, and is not of Indian origin. None of the the writers of the Upanishads would have referred to themselves as "Hindus").

      It is clear that you have a very blinkered view of "Hinduism". Much of ancient "Hindu" philosophy is not about worshiping gods, but about questioning and understanding the nature of existence. Even the more theistic versions of Hinduism were tolerant of opposite views, and prepared to admit that they could be wrong: these were the people who were tolerant enough to declare Buddha--an agnostic who disagreed with them on most counts-- as an avatar of Vishnu. When Madhava Acharya, a devout Vaishnav, wrote his Sarva darshana samgraha, he started his book with a chapter on arguments in favor of atheism, because not acknowledging the arguments of his philosophical opponents would have been dishonest and intolerant. You should perhaps ask yourself if you have really imbibed the true ideals of the religion you are claiming to defend.


      As for your question about Ashoka chakra, it is merely one of the many versions of the central Buddhist religious symbol of Dhammachakra (Dharma chakra in Sanskrit), which is not surprising given that Ashoka was a Buddhist. The reason the chakra is on the flag is not because it was the emblem of "India's greatest emperor", but because of what the chakra represents.

      Also, you should perhaps ask yourself what made Ashoka the "greatest Indian emperor"? Was it constructing the maximum number of temples? No. Was it declaring that everybody who dared disagree with him on which gods to worship was a "Hiranyakashipu"? No. It was a moment of admitting that intolerance was wrong, and violence was painful. That one moment of admission, followed by a lifelong rule of law, charity and tolerance is what made Ashoka the "greatest Indian emperor", something that a fanatic devotion towards his religion could never have achieved.

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    4. "Mahayana" at the start of the second paragraph should be "Hinayana". Sorry for the typo.

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    5. Lord Krishna's avatar as Buddha was to stop sacrifice and promote non-violance since at that time there was no proper yogi to do sacrifice properly and it became blind belief? And question to God was to search him but people like you think what ever he said has to be accepted as correct. It was a negative way of asking people to find God existance.

      I feel people like you and Mr. Katju are in the mode of Ignorance as per Bhagavad Gita who question God to prove they are knowledgable and do all thing that are against the religious principle and talk big about their small achievements ?

      1 Katju - 125 crores Indians - 700 crores+ human population - soo many living being on earth - soo many planets like earth - soo many stars - soo many galaxy etc which never ends

      Where your Mr.Katju stand above that he is so arrogant and questions God?

      I still feel PS you are Mr.Katju replying as PS

      I said that Ashoka was Buddhist but in national flag Ashoka chakra is due to emperor ashoka and not Buddha. Also he became great because he was the greatest emperor India had in last some thousands years.

      Buddha religion that is spread by its followers (in wrong way) as No God existance in place of finding God (the Buddha told in negative way to his follower I don't know God you find him)

      Buddha religion became minority in India because Indians are faithful people and the followers of Buddha went on wrong track. Also Those who claim to follow Lord Buddha principle really run after Land and Kingdom (like Ashoka) and currently country with largest Buddhas population China that took tibate and running after other countries.

      Lord Buddha's principle were not properly learned by its followers hence it vanished from India but people like you and Mr. Katju speak about religion and debate on God without full knowledge?

      I will again call Mr. Katju (and his fake a/c PS) as Hiranyakashipu

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    6. Yet again, I see that you keep lying about my identity. Interesting that you have no respect for the most important tenets (satya and ahimsa) of the religion you claim to defend. Far from being a defendant of the religion, you are acting as one of its worst enemies.

      Buddha was not always considered an avatar of Krishna. Indeed, the first list of Dashavatars counting Buddha as an avatar are not found in either Ramayana or Mahabharata, but only appear much later.

      As I have demonstrated to you, various schools of Hinduism are themselves atheistic (Samkhya being the most prominent). You accuse me of ignorance, but fail to be familiar with some of the most important teachings of the religion you defend.

      " Also he became great because he was the greatest emperor India had in last some thousands years."

      What kind of logic is that? Ashoka was great because he was great? I'm sorry, but even five year olds do make such arguments.

      Ashoka became great because of his deeds which remain unprecedented in world history to this day: a conqueror who gave up war because he saw the futility and the pain of martial victory. Many others had similarly large kingdoms (some of the Mughals, some of the Guptas, and some of the Cholas), but the greatness of Ashoka comes not from his empire but his unparalleled emphasis on tolerance and non-violence, ideas which were also the hallmark of Buddhism.

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    7. Also, your claim about teachings of Buddha is not correct. Buddha said nothing about God, nothing positive and nothing positive. He was not concerned with whether or not god existed. None of the Four Noble Truths, or the Eigthfold way say anything about god. Buddha made his very clear that he was not going to comment about gods, his religion was about the suffering of humans, and how humans could alleviate their suffering. If you think otherwise, kindly cite your sources which support your statements.

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  5. rahul gandhi ki tulna sanjay gandhi say karna bahut galat baat hai jo aap nay ki hai, aap ko press council k president ki kursi jaati lag rahi hogi,ya governor ki kursi aap chahtay honge isi liye bhasha aap ki upa sarkaar jatay he change ho gai, kya bharosa kal agar nda ki sarkaar nahi rahe to aap modi jee ki bhi aisay he nindneeya tulna karnay lage, awasarwadi vyakti ka bharosa nahi hota,

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  6. सुंदर ! अदभुत !!

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