‘And that’s all,’ he said sombrely, steering the car with care through the narrow, chaotic streets of Koilpatti, and out on the northward run to Sattur and Madurai.
‘It is enough,’ said the Swami. ‘Do you not think so? Has she not partially answered you? Do you think that justice consists in revealing everything to everyone? I think not. Why should we discomfort those two sad people by telling them that their daughter became a dedicated terrorist, willing to kill for a cause? And do you think it would redress that balance if we also told them that afterwards she proved herself, no less, a girl with the honesty and courage to turn back just as vehemently when her eyes were opened? To undo what she had done at the cost of her own life? No, I think not. They would not be at home with either aspect. Let them continue to believe in her as in an innocent victim, too bland for either role. I believe they will be happier so. And she…’
‘And she?’ said Dominic.
‘Do not despair of Patti. Do not despair for her. She accepted the evidence that refuted her. She ran without hesitation or fear to undo what she had done, as soon as she knew it to be unjustified – even by her own lights. By mine no violence is justified. Think of it! Your departure was already some minutes delayed, it was past seven o’clock, but still she ran to prevent Purushottam’s death. And having detached the bomb – for I doubt if she knew how to stop the clock mechanism once it was set – what do you suppose she meant to do with it? How dispose of it?’
Dominic watched the road, and kept his hands steady and competent on the wheel. ‘I had thought of that. The office was turned away from the courtyard, with its windows on the kitchen garden. It was quite big and empty out there. I doubt if she’d thought about it at all in advance, but once there, with a bomb in her hands due to go off in about twenty minutes at the outside, I suppose her instinct would be to throw it out of the window as far as she could.’
‘Yes,’ said the Swami, ‘so one supposes. And have you forgotten what you told me? There were three of the household children playing there in the kitchen garden. There were things Patti could not do, and that was one of them. She could not throw out the bomb where the innocents might be harmed, no, not for her own life. And then she did not know what to do. I think she was still holding it in her hands when it blew up and killed her.’
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[scanned anonymously in a galaxy far far away]
[A 3S Release— v1, html]
[August 01, 2007]