Present: tense

These people are idiots. Someone smears a little mud on the statue of a political leader's wife, and no workers can get downtown and I'm unable to have a rainy Sunday afternoon decaf at Cafe Barista or stop by the bookstore. How fair is that?

"Hindu extremism" might sound amusing back home ("what do they do, chant 'om' really loudly?"), but, as in other faiths, being a zealot means using religion as an excuse for thuggery that has far more to do with a volatile blend of economic and psychological factors than anything resembling spiritual commitment. Raise a Shiv Sena kid in similar circumstances in Manchester, and he'd be a skinhead who wanted to beat the crap out of all the "Pakis," y'know? Fundamentalism is not my thing, in any guise. I'd rather have a conversation with a reform-minded Muslim (and I disliked Islam long before it was fashionable) than an ultra-orthodox Jew.

Maharashtra, which Mumbai is in, and the neighboring Madhya Pradesh state are home to the "Hindu heartland" of India, which can bear a funhouse resemblance to the bible belt. In my role as occasional spokesperson (the only fun part of my job), I once had to write a reply to one of these RSS (Hindu) gangsters who was protesting an American artist -- he included her website -- who was "desecrating Hindu gods." His letter made mention of the Mohammed cartoon controversy, and hinted darkly at similar bloodshed.

I wrote my reply perhaps a little more unapologetically than my boss would have liked, outlining the First Amendment, the role of the artist as social critic, and helping him examine what would be considered reasonable avenues of redress in the American system. Because I would've written the same reply regardless of what the artist actually did, I didn't look at the site until after I'd sent my reply, and even then pretty much as an afterthought. I'm glad I didn't -- I think I'd have had difficulty writing any sort of a polite letter with a straight face. (And if you're stuck for a birthday present for me, save the link.)