Arundhati Roy on the Power of Empathy

So I arrived after three days and two nights on the train to Kottem, this small town railway station.

And she had sent a lady who worked for her called Amal to pick me up.

And Amal was like a Jehovah's Witness, you know.

She used to speak this biblical Malayalam and she'd keep hitting herself and talking about Jesus and all that.

And she had been sent to pick me up to tell me that your mother doesn't want to see you and you're going to live you're going to be exiled to the school sick room and food will be sent to you and you're not to appear before her.

And then, you know, Jesus and God and she loves you.

And it's only because she loves you.

And in my head, I was going like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Because I'd become like this big Beatles fan by then.

So for a long time, I was exiled.

And then Laurie Baker came for lunch and then I was summoned and told that Baker's coming and now you're studying architecture and you have to help lay the table and all that.

And just as soon as he left, it was just this... wild explosion, you know, calling me names and whatever.

So it was like everyone just froze and the fish in the tank froze and the teachers with the chalk in the hand froze and the students froze and everyone in the campus froze and the birds froze.

And this like yelling at me was happening.

And she went all the way down the steps yelling.

And I just sat there on the steps thinking, heck, you know, how can I carry on with this? And my brother came and sat next to me.

And my brother and I never used to speak to each other about her and what was going on.

In fact, we used to only call her she and her and later on the prime minister.

So my brother came and sat next to me and we never ever acknowledged to each other what was going on with us.

And he just sat there and said, Doesn't she sound like that woman from The Exorcist? And I looked at her and I saw him and I started laughing.

And I said, well, I don't know when I'll see you again, but I will never come back home.

And that whole summer holiday, I listened to She's Leaving Home and then I left and I never went back.