At the height of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, V.S. Naipaul saw it as ‘a new, historical awakening’, of ‘Indians becoming alive to their history’ and… - V. S. Naipaul

It is like reading of a land periodically devastated by hordes of lemmings or locusts; it is like turning from the history of a coral reef, in which every act and every death is a foundation, to the depressing chronicle of a succession of castles built on the waste sand of the sea-shore. This is Woodruff on the difference between European history and Indian history. He has chosen his images well. But the sandcastle is not quite exact. The sandcastle is flattened by the tide and leaves not trace, and India is above all the land of ruins.

A celestial camera recorded my every movement, impartially, without judgement or pity. I was marked; I was of interest; I would survive.

It was in that garage that Alec worked, no longer wearing red bodices or peeing blue, but doing mysterious greasy things.