India lives in several centuries at the same time. Every night outside my house I pass a road gang of emaciated laborers digging a trench to lay fiber optic cables to speed up digital revolution. They work by the light of a few candles.

Truly, there's no alternative to stupidity. Cretinism is the mother of fascism. I have no defence against it, really....

I don't want to be a victim. I don't want to disappear into the darkness.

An old-growth forest, a mountain range or a river valley is more important and certainly more loveable than any country will ever be.

When I'm outside the cities I do feel optimistic. There is such grandeur in India and so much beauty.

So here we have it. The equivocating distinction between civilisation and savagery, between the "massacre of innocent people" or, if you like, "a clash of civilisations" and "collateral damage". The sophistry and fastidious algebra of infinite justice.

Some things come with their own punishments. Like bedrooms with built-in cupboards. They would all learn more about punishments soon. That they came in different sizes. That some were so big they were like cupboards with built-in bedrooms. You could spend your whole life in them, wandering through dark shelving.