Batting on Princess Diana’s behalf, as she puts it, Miss Rosa Monckton just had to make a call to the Duchess of Cornwall to keep her away from attending the memorial service planned to commemorate Princess Diana’s life. Camilla had been facing the wrong music with knitted brows for preferring to attend the service for quiet some time now.

And this for sure shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody. There is a huge crowd which loves to hate Camilla.

But then isn’t everybody still clinging to the past and not letting it wane. Like any other couple, even this couple ( Charles and Diana ) had differences, probably they tried but couldn’t reconcile. Charles got another lady love away from his existing relation and even Diana moved on with men, with Dodi Fayed serving as the last man she dated and even contemplated marriage. It doesn’t take a lot of brain to understand that Charles and Camilla love each other and are just like any other couple which for sure hates to be hated for being in love.

One wonders whether Diana would have been rebuked in the same manner as were Charles and Camilla, had she been the first one to walk out of the marriage. But then this was not to be. The relation of Charles saw the daylight first and this was the only mistake which cost him his popularity (which wasn’t huge anyway) and made him prey to all the ill-wills of the populace.

Undoubtedly, Diana with her just-picture-perfect young face found way to people’s heart very easily. She tried to rescue herself from the woes of a disastrous marriage and looked for solace in charitable causes, from landmines and leprosy to sick children and HIV/AIDS, et al, which also served a further purpose. This is what made her people’s princess and hence made her qualified for people’s sympathy and love.All said and done, life was still not rosy at the home front and her winning hearts elsewhere just seems like a pyrrhic victory.

Times have changed. Camilla has been accepted by the people who matter the most, William and Harry (or at least one would like to think in this fashion because of the invitation extended by Harry).

All rationale say that Camilla would have been hated any way: attending the service or not attending the service.

Quite interestingly, a lot of thought has gone into deciding the list of attendees to the service. People’s past behavior since Diana’s death has been taken into account before extending an invitation.

Camilla said something about diverting the attention from Diana’s service by her presence there. One can only be quick to think that that will be a feat in itself coz Diana in life and in death still continues to monopolize all the attention.