Forty years ago, on a chilly winter morning, the Queen of Ballabhgarh Manisha asked, “Gopal! Please treat us to tea.” I had the unique honor of being at the Campus Law Centre (CLC) studying for law at the Delhi University. Our ambition was the same – to become good lawyers, weed out corruption, and make society a better place to live. After a brief sojourn, our lives went in different directions.
While I remained frozen in time as Just-ice, the Queen rose like a phoenix to become Justice Smt. Manisha Batra. While I was globe-trotting, Justice Manisha Batra was ensuring justice for each individual in the country. She was busy working to rid society of its haunting ills, while I watched the US dollar grow from Rs. 30/- to Rs. 90/.
Around the same time, destiny arranged my rendezvous with Mr. Surender Batra at the 4th Air Force Selection Board in Varanasi. We both aspired to become Pilot Officers in the Indian Air Force. After a grueling All-India written examination and a week-long physical, psychological, and behavioral assessment, we learned in the hardest way possible that in the battle between meticulous planning and destiny, the latter always wins. Mr. Surender Batra could not join the coveted Indian Air Force as a Pilot Officer due to non-selection in the final interview. I, however, did not join in spite of being selected, because my fiancée asked, “What will happen to me if your plane crashes?”
Justice Manisha Batra, a first-class law graduate, is a kind, talkative, and a warm person. I do not know how the word “heaven” is defined, but for Justice Batra heaven is a good cup of hot tea and friends. She used to spend four hours every day travelling between Ballabgarh and Delhi to attend just two hours of lectures. By God, I did not know that she would one day be appointed by the President of India as the Justice of the High Court of Punjab & Haryana. Otherwise, why would I have said, “I do not have money to treat you to tea?” It costed only 40 paise! Given an opportunity again, I shall certainly treat you for tea Manisha.
Justice Manisha Batra rose to her exalted position through the judicial ranks. She has thorough knowledge of the Indian Judicial system. I understood that people do not lose faith in our judicial system because of people like Justice Manisha Batra. Justice Manisha in her court appeared to me like Themis, the Greek goddess of justice, order, law, and custom. Like Themis, Manisha I felt represented divine righteousness which is depicted holding scales (to weigh guilt), serving as the incarnation of the goddess of Justice in the 21st century. While talking once she said, “Gopal! Justice must not only appear to have been served, but it must actually be served.”
Forty years have flown by! Mr. Surender Batra, Justice Manisha Batra, and I looked at each other fondly. Many things were left unsaid and yet so much to say! We remained essentially the same, and our enthusiasm remained as it was. The only difference is that we now have grey hair. Our love and respect towards each other remained just as it was forty years ago. Life is a ruthless bitch. How can it take away forty years so soon?
Ask me just once again, Manisha to treat you to a cup of tea. Surender Ji, I will skip the IAF interview this time. Dear God! If you are not dead and buried, why don’t You fulfill this only desire of mine?
About the Author
Dr. K. Raja Gopal Reddy is a seasoned internationally qualified Insurance professional. What you are reading here, may not answer all the questions we have, but has the absolute power of asking unsettling questions which increase the interest in the strange world, and show the contradictory wonders lying just below the surface of the commonest things of life. Look at this disturbing but beautiful thought of Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”. Dr. Reddy can be reached at: raja66gopal@gmail.com
