Sunday, 2 September 2007

Along with about 50,000 others, Jackie and I spent the day visiting Bhaktivedanta Manor where the Hare Krishna community were celebrating the Janmashtami festival. The weather was perfect for the event, and the combination of friendly atmosphere and unfamiliar images made it feel like we were attending the annual fete of the village next door.

According to our kind and attentive host Jasu Kalan, there were 1,500 volunteers at the Manor for the festival and altogether planning and delivering the event requires about 500,000 hours of volunteer time.

Latest reading

A fanatical fundamentalist sect trying to grasp political power and establish God's kingdom on earth, under laws derived directly from scripture? During my break I read Fifth Monarchy Men by BS Capp. The puritan Fifth Monarchists were Britain's most successful fundamentalist movement and made several attempts to grasp power during and immediately after the English Civil War. Although certainly more successful than the Ranters and Levellers, they were probably never that close to real power although for several years they did hold the ear of Oliver Cromwell. I also read The Three Evangelists by Fred Vargas (a very good murder mystery translated from the French) and The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder (who wrote Sophie's World) translated from the original Norwegian.