20 SOCIAL SCIENTIST details, craggy shapes all around, broken walls, decayed arches—all threatening immediate collapse. Like a child collecting shells on the sea beach, even braving waves, Shabana was running about—up and down—collecting history. I did nothing of the sort—just kept walking and looking around—enjoying the lovely scene. On our way back to the car walking through the ruins, Shabana asked me where did I disappear? Listening to the music of Nero's fiddle? "I heard the sound of helicopters", I said. "'One trailing behind the other", said Shabana, "swooping low over the ruins." I said, "It is a pity there was no hanging Christ for dumping at the Vatican." "And no Marcello, no paparazzo", Shabana added. We looked at each other and we were happy that with no effort we walked into the world of La Dolce Vita. "What a lovely contrast!", she said. Obviously, Shabana meant the present—the helicopters—against Rome's 2000-year-old past. "What a coincidence!", I quipped. "Coincidence, you say?" She asked. "Yes, it proves my point." "Proves what?" "Proves that the ruins and the helicopters are one and indivisible—a contemporary phenomenon." Whether Shabana agreed with me or not was not important here. The fact was that we loved the dialogue we improvised, paying tribute to Fellini and La Dolce Vita. Assuming that the dialogue we improvised did neither prove a point nor did it make any sense, here I recall another time, another incident, apparently of no consequence. Apparently of no consequence, but deep within me, it was something that caught me unawares and suddenly opened the door between the past and the present. It happened a long time ago. It was a simple incident, but not so simple to explain. (About simple facts of life Rabindranath Tagore once said in a couplet: Sahaj Katha Likhte Amai Kahaje/Sahaj Katha Lekha Jai Na Sahaje. Again, once, writing on the art of Nandalal Bose, Tagore said: It is not a matter to be argued, it is a matter of feeling which is why it is not that simple to write in a simple manner.) Even then let me try. It happened at Sarnath—that great Buddhist centre near Varanasi where the Buddha, having attained the Enlightenment, delivered his first sermon and turned the Wheel of Law. That was my first visit to