Every night you pray for their protection. You pray for their protection from you.

Later he would remember this as his Year of Watching Tennis. He didn’t particularly like or understand tennis. He found it boring. But little by little, hearing the ball bounce back and forth, he felt his mind putting itself back together.

Why bother? Self defense is by its very nature unconvincing.

It took him a while to realize that what he thought of as ‘acting like a jerk’ was what other people called ‘being a jerk.’

When you have gone through all the layers of the self, its inmost nature, its essence, is nothing. You are nothing.
K., Public Talk 5, Madras (Chennai), 7 January 1978
He stood at the back window he had photographed a thousand times, without having really been there at all. Somehow, his fear had evaporated, and despite the knowledge that it might return at any time, he was grateful.

Popular culture has been slowly preparing us for an unbearable future.

Public servants selflessly dedicated to destroying as many lives as possible.

20 years on, he didn’t know whether he should break down sobbing or smother her with a pillow. Probably both. He felt that way about most of his patients and it had worn him down. He was drinking too much, losing sleep and had developed a pronounced limp. Physician, destroy thyself.