A man for all seasons
M.S. NAGARAJAN
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: Narayana Kurup; Vanity Publishing, Pulleppady, Ernakulam, Cochin-682018.
Rs. 500.
Endowed with a lively sensibility and possessing a sound and enviable knowledge of human nature, Justice K. Narayana Kurup is verily a man speaking to men. At a time when specialisation has come to mean knowing more and more about less and less, here is an activist judge with a passion for true justice who delivered sensational judgements, a talented specialist with legal acumen in jurisprudence who knows almost everything worth knowing. Whether it is Advaita Vedanta, Sury
a worship, medicine, engineering, child’s rights, films, alcoholism, diabetes, heart care, dentistry, Alzheimer’s disease, cosmetic surgery, bad breath, physical well-being, global warming, old age and retirement, music, social evils such as corruption, ethics and morals—you name it— Narayana Kurup is most at home.
Landmark verdict
What could be the reason for such a mastery over a wide range of subjects? The answer is plain and simple. Reading; perhaps the greatest gift of the gods to mankind! He has been an avid reader all his life; everything under the sun interests him. He acknowledges in his preface that his serious reading of medical literature over a long period of time gave him the courage of conviction in arriving at the landmark verdict of the High Court of Kerala banning smoking in public, hailed as the supreme contribution of the Indian judiciary to protect the right of the human being to general health.
Thus Kurup: “The theme of the verdict I was called upon to compose for the Divisional Bench of the High Court of Kerala dealt with the deleterious effects of passive smoking. After a thorough study of the research findings of the impact of passive smoke on the health of its victims conducted in various parts of the world, we came to the conclusion that public smoking of tobacco in any form is illegal, unconstitutional and infringes Art. 21 (which guarantees right to life) of the Constitution of India and ordered prosecution of all persons found smoking in public places, treating the same as satisfying the definition of ‘public nuisance’ as defined under ‘Section 268 Indian Penal Code (IPC)’ in the manner indicated in the judgement.”
Speeches
Ladies and Gentlemen is a collection of 67 speeches, short and long, that he delivered on different occasions during the years 1992-2008. The lectures are studded with apt examples drawn from history, political events, scriptures, manners and morals. Talking of the freedom of the press, he draws analogies from Winston Churchill’s refusal to gag and silence the press during the Second World War and its upholding of the highest moral standards by its refusal to publish the photographs of the polio-ridden President Roosevelt. In his speech calling upon the youth to perform their duty with commitment, Kurup quotes Emerson’s words, “Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” On the controversial “Nuclear imbroglio” that raised a lot of dust, he is all in favour of the Indo-U.S. Treaty that would help in our country’s growth and progress in the long run. The nationalist in him wants our children “to be groomed in an atmosphere in tune with our national ethos and culture.” His knowledge of the Western classics—especially his references to and quotes from Shakespeare, Coleridge, Milton and the like—adds a special flavour to his learned speeches. On old age and a life of happy retirement, he adds with his customary glee “To be seventy years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be forty years old.” Almost all his talks are characterised by an outpouring of public interest and concern. And these have quite a good sprinkling of epigrams such as these: “True engineering is social engineering which aims at providing better quality of life to the people at an affordable cost.”
These public lectures are marked by a racy, elegant, witty, felicitous prose style, clothed in choice diction. The aphorism “Style is the man” sits well on him. There is no gainsaying that these lectures, noted for their cognitive wisdom and aesthetic dignity, will be of continued interest to the common reader. Oh for a judiciary with men of the calibre of Justice Narayana Kurup!
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