Traditional Kashmiri hospitality was overpowering. Nonetheless I missed the erstwhile joyous atmosphere. Srinagar resembled a fortress because of tight security measures. Lawyers and judges have received death threats and have been attacked in some cases. The situation however is not so grim as in New York where judges are allowed to wear a pistol beneath their robes while on the bench. The New York Committee on Judicial Ethics ruled that it was ethically permissible to do so but gave a salutary warning that judges must ‘‘be patient, dignified and courteous’’. An admonition which all judges with pistols or otherwise must bear in mind.

Mind the Mike: If mikes are not switched off on the dais, embarrassing situations may ensue. Renowned constitutional lawyer late Homi Seervai was with me on the dais during a session on federalism which I was chairing. When the session was thrown open for floor discussion Justice M H Baig raised his hand. Seervai in his loud voice told me, ‘‘He is very confused and rambles. Don’t give him more than five minutes.’’ The audience had a good laugh. I realised that the mike was open and before Seervai could launch further I promptly switched it off. Since then I have learnt my lesson.

Thanks to an open mike the world heard President George Bush’s earthy remark that what is needed in the Middle East crisis is to ‘‘get Syria to get Hizbollah to stop doing this shit and it’s over’’. Several gaffes are attributed to the President. A recent one is that Bush and Blair both went to Camp David. Bush was asked by a journalist, ‘‘What do you guys have in common?’’ After a few moments he said: ‘‘Well, we both use Colgate.’’ Blair was visibly embarrassed. Prince Phillip is not far behind. One of his royal gaffes was on a visit to the Science Museum with the Queen to open a new wing. Shown some robots that kept bumping into each other, he asked a professor: ‘‘They’re not mating, are they?’’ At the North London Murugan Temple during the Queen’s Golden Jubilee celebrations, he asked a Sri Lankan priest: ‘‘Are you the Tamil Tigers?’’ The notorious one is when on his visit to Amritsar he was shown a plaque which mentioned that 2,000 Indians were martyred in the Independence struggle, Philip said: ‘‘That’s not right...the number is less.’’ It is a neck-and-neck race between the President and the Prince.