Mr.Dashrathi's comments were a delight to read; his views should gain a greater readership. I have long had a deep love-hate relationship with my homeland, though I have been "absent" a long time. We are a wonderfully tolerant and compassionate people, yet are too often brainlessly violent. Though it is true that such violence is the work of a minute fraction of our people, the problem is that it only takes one match to ignite a forest fire. We seem to wear our differences too close to our hearts;historically we have lived in greater peace than modern times have witnessed. That is a pity. I look for hopeful signs, and am only mildly optimistic. A terrible irony is that the homeland of Mahatma Gandhi, Gujerat, is also today the cess-pool of communal hatred. It is strange, as after all, the homeland of Jesus is the scene of some of the worst violence of our times. A.Buch
