At the end of a long exchange where they debated the origins of the senses, philosopher Yajnavalakya asked King Janak, “If a person such as yourself, equipped with wealth and knowledge wishes to make a long journey, furnished with a chariot or a boat, where would you go, from here? What latter region would you go to, being released from the former region?” Ignorantly, the king answered, “I do not know.” My mother and her family crossed from Lahore to Delhi in 1947. A military convoy brought them to safety, my grandmother bringing with her a box of valuables and her four children. The carved wooden box from Kashmir, perhaps bought on a holiday, was pasted with paper that had faded and coloured with age.

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