The Telegraph reported two days ago an absolutely absurd story about the movie actress Julia Roberts and the shooting of the new film, “Eat, Pray, Love.” Apparently, Roberts managed to prevent villagers from celebrating the religious rites of Navratri by closing a local temple to the public and placing 350 guards in front and inside. The temple, Ashram Hari Mandir, is close to Delhi.
Other than a reference to a senior police officer, demanding that orders be followed, and that “no outsider is allowed to enter the ashram,” it is not clear how such an oversight could have happened. There is no apparent political permission for such a violation of the rights of local people, while there is also no mention in the article that the local government had tried to prevent such a violation.