The exposure and encouragement she provided paved the way for my participation in sports, debates and drama – it also gave me the confidence to defy conventional wisdom and choose journalism as a career over medicine and engineering.

In 2001, in Washington DC, a cab driver from Pakistan related to me the amazing story of his friendship with a man from Chandigarh.

A childhood spent playing gulli danda with her brothers, wearing a burkha to school, sleepwalking at night, making her own ice cream, and snacking on dry fruits from Kabul…my mother’s memories of her childhood.

I haven’t encountered the word ‘discipline’ anywhere else in the world as much as I do in newspaper reports in India. The dictionary lists several meanings – most are variations of “to bring to a state of order and obedience by training and control.”

Walk along the lakeside and you’ll find them sitting, evenly spaced, on the lake ledge, the steps, and in the gazebos. Firmly turned backs signal displeasure at intrusion, those holding hands withdraw them gently as a walker passes, and heads lower to muffle conversations from being overheard.

Come 7 p.m. and city gardens teem with walkers, talkers, joggers and strollers as everybody — but everybody — comes outdoors “to eat fresh air.” And evening brings with it an energy that desires company and conversation.

Most of us have learnt to shirk taking charge in a situation that we feel is “not my responsibility,” afraid that “if something happens,” it will “all fall on my head.”

My nine-year-old’s view of the war against Afghanistan is simple yet sharp: “Why do they have to kill so many people to look for one bad man?” I can hear the same question being echoed by his contemporaries in America’s classrooms.

I was asked, “Which men and women do you admire most in the world?” I have met many ‘achievers’ and found their meteoric rise to fame interesting – but not worth emulating. So I decided to delve into my immediate environment to create a list.