• You don’t think of what you missed out on.

I do, sometimes. You know I drifted into journalism.

• Is this nostalgia for your early years? Or is it distillation of your years in India?

It’s not really nostalgia but there is an element of nostalgia in it. As I say in the book, I have a deep love for the liturgy of the Anglican Church. Just as you might have a deep love for the worship in Golden Temple, which you attended when you were young. One reason I wrote this book is that when we were young we were taught that Christianity was the only way to God. But living in India has taught me that there are other ways to God as well. It has changed me radically.

• You know Mark, during our reporting years, you have seen these same gods turn against people of India, turn against some people of India, turn against the Government of India. You have seen a lot of problem in the name of religion.

Yes, I have.

• Now, we see the whole Bangalore business...

Yes, but you know whenever we saw the trouble, firstly there almost always was politics behind it. It was politicians who were stirring it up. We know the history behind the Bhindranwale movement and who actually stirred the whole thing up. Secondly, these things are never entirely religious. They get clothed in religious clothes but there is usually economics behind it, language behind it, quite often ethnicity behind it as well. Finally, Islam. I didn’t exactly mean Islam...but we do need to think what it is which persuades these people to do these dreadful things.

... contd.