Mr. Ahmed

I am sorry I couldn’t get back to you guys before. But I was very much tied up with a family-related issue.

A number of questions have been raised about this article. I shall try to answer a couple of them:

Q. Was this a true story?

In essence, yes. The garnishings were made up.

Q. What did I mean by the sentence – “He has no idea what he’s dealing with”.

Precisely that. That if we, with our origins in the Indian subcontinent, could be fooled by Mr. Ahmed’s educated exterior, then the U.S. president might not have a complete understanding about the true nature of many of these people.

However, this was a human reaction on our part, no doubt coloured by similar experiences we had previously.

This does not imply that the efforts at spreading democracy will not succeed. What I tried to say is that it is an impediment the U.S. President might not be aware of.

We hope democracy spreads everywhere.

We hope this “us” and “them” attitude disappears with time.

Here’s hoping that mankind will succeed in realizing the words of the English poet John Donne:

“No man is an island, entire of itself
every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main
if a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were,
as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were
any man`s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind
and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls
it tolls for thee. ”


Thank you for reading my story and commenting on it.