The Book of Life

pages of wisdom scolded Arora. Some bystanders intervened and sent both men back to their shops. But the anger remained. A week later, on 13 October 1992, Surinder Kumar argued again with Arora. Finally, he pulled out a revolver (32 bore Smith & Wesson) and fired six bullets at him. Arora was rushed to Lohia Hospital, where doctors declared him dead. Now the case is in court. Either the killer will be hanged like his victim, or he will spend huge sums of money to twist the case in his favour and get acquitted. In one case, it is physical death; in the other, financial ruin. If the killer had not been blinded by anger and revenge, he could easily have seen that the better choice was to return 45 rupees to the customer and settle the matter with his competitor in a professional way. WHAT IS THE CAUSE? I n July–August 1992, the Olympic Games were held in Barcelona, Spain. A total of 171 countries took part. Out of them, 64 countries performed well in different sports and won medals. India, a country of 860 million people, could not win a single medal—not gold, not silver, not even bronze. Even in archery, a traditional Indian sport, other nations outperformed India. The top ten countries in the medal tally were: The Unified Team—a joint team consisting of twelve of the fifteen former Soviet republics, the USA,