What’s your birth year?

I arrived in Kamalapur really early. The train to Hospet was on time, and by 8am I had registered at my hotel too early for an available room. So I walked into the Main Street and popped into a coin and bronze trinket shop. After a bit of browsing the owner, who had by then finished the daily blessing of the shop with incense asked me by birth year, then proceeded to search through a large pile of coins. My gift for the day from him was a 1970 coin, which was a really nice gesture.  Shame I didn’t want to buy anything in the shop! 

Citizenship

This is a contentious concept across the world over as nationalism rises. Here demonstrations are countrywide due to the Citizens Amendment Act in December disallowing Muslim citizenship in many cases. In Kochi I joined a rally of Muslim women in Vasco Da Gama Square, who were peacefully and passionately demonstrating about the loss of their citizenship rights.  One of the protests was eager to answer my questions and asked me to pray for them at this difficult time.