I have, for as long as I can remember, been force-fed the ridiculous idea that India is a peace-loving nation. It goes against everything I see around me, and everything I hear about. If we stop to look at the amount of anger expended around us on a regular basis, it’s hard to figure out how or why we subscribe to that imaginary state of tranquillity.

There is nothing about our lives that induces calm. It’s why we take road rage for granted, as an inescapable part of our lives. We live in a city that refuses to let us experience silence and tell ourselves that Bombay never sleeps, as if that is a good thing. It is precisely because it never sleeps that we rarely do, and why millions of us live with our windows shut, our air-conditioners drowning the world outside as if that is a natural, normal way to survive.