I have lived through two riots and both still give me nightmares: The bloodshed, the mayhem, the destruction, the exultation of the killer and the sheer despair of the victim. It is hard to reconcile your mind to ordinary, regular people turning into mass murderers. You do not want to do it but I at least could not help looking at people I met every day and wondering if they had just come back to the chores of daily life after gouging out a neighbour’s stomach or burning their shops or blowing up a gas cylinder in their home.

This picture from March 2002 shows mobs clashing during the communal riots in Ahmedabad. Pic/AFP