Nearly four years back, while we were visiting Cambodia, largely to soak in the grandeur and scale of the UNESCO World Heritage Site at Angkor Wat — a pit stop in the historic capital city of Phnom Penh — an nth hour addition to our itinerary — turned out to be quite a mind-altering experience, as far as preservation and national pride goes.

This tiny country, one of Asia's least developed, and still recovering from the scars of Pol Pot's tyrannical regime, seemed extremely focused that coming generations as well as visitors experienced their past. More importantly, they had set in order timely reminders so they learnt from it to avoid a repeat, at any cost. We had signed up for a tour of the infamous Killing Fields, a little outside off Phnom Penh. Prior to the trail, the tour involved a visit to a school, now renamed as the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, within the limits of the city that imprisoned 'anti-nationals' (read: liberal minds, educationists, artists and basically any individual or group that didn't toe the Khmer Rouge's official line).