Status Updates From Fireflies in the Mist

"If you read the history of India in careful detail, from the time of the coming of the Muslims, a thousand years ago, you will not find a single Hindu-Muslim riot mentioned by any historian. There were battles between rulers—no riots till we come to the last century."

16 pages in and I've already got a diagram of relationships going

“Commercial pilots health and nerves are constantly checked a that they do not endanger the lives of their passengers. Political leaders states of mind and never are never examined.”

“How were they so passionately devoted to a person who had never claimed any divinity and who always insisted in all humility that he was merely a human being , a servant of God? Was it His followers’ inborn understanding of His work and message or was it mere blind faith?

“How did the most illiterate of the congregation also have this strong abiding faith in a purely abstract, metaphysical concept? Did that show their inner spiritual strength and the grasp of their minds? How did they concentrate without the use of simplest symbols? How did they so intensely love a prophet whose image they were strictly forbidden to make?

“It worries me. Girls shouldn’t become too clever, it complicates life for them. They become unhappy…Too much knowledge would unsettle her.”

“Because they like to eat well and live well and do not save much, hoping that God will take care of tomorrow. Most Hindus neither eat much nor live well and save furiously.”

“…percent of the population of India is poor and illiterate. The talk of culture and spirituality and philosophy is meaningless for a people who have to struggle desperately for their daily bread. Poverty also makes a nation characterless. We have become just that.”

“Economic conditions governed people’s behavior pattern….”

“There was something wrong somewhere in this entire setup; he didn’t quite fathom what it was but he found it strangely depressing. The sight of ex-royalty making merry and entertaining their conquerors seemed rather tragic.

“It’s all a matter of how much wrath and status and pedigree you have. Mind you, mere pedigree has no value. The other two things are essential.”