Biology designed the dance. Terror timed it. Dictated the rhythm with which their bodies answered each other. As though they already knew that for each tremor of pleasure they would pay with an equal measure of pain. As though they knew that how far they went would be measured against how far they would be taken.

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

This was the trouble with families. Like invidious doctors, they knew just where it hurt.

The writer is the midwife of understanding.

There are things that you can't do - like writing letters to a part of yourself. To your feet or hair. Or heart.

When people stop some film from being shot or burn a book, it's not just that they are saying, this is against Indian culture. They are also saying, you Westernized, elite, English-speaking people are having too much of a good time. It's a very interesting phenomenon.

The crisis of modern democracy is a profound one. Free elections, a free press and an independent judiciary mean little when the free market has reduced them to commodities available on sale to the highest bidder.