I didn’t think about death much while growing up in Bombay. I suppose that’s true of people everywhere, of course, because one of the conditions of being young is that the concept of mortality doesn’t really intrude upon one’s consciousness for at least a couple of decades. What I mean, however, is that I didn’t feel as if I was taking my life in my hands whenever I stepped out of my home and onto the street. This was a quieter part of the city at the time, long before the economy opened up and multinational companies rushed in. This was also a time before ostentatious malls, overpriced apartments, and the presence of people with too much money and not enough common sense.