I got my comeuppance tonight. I had thought the previous day how lovely it was to hear the chant of the Mullah over the water of the lake. But today was the feast to mark fifteen days before the start of Ramadan. The chants continued from the mosque without ceasing all night.

I have talked of Britain as the nation that forgot God. This is the opposite. This is the nation that never seems to think of anything else but God. What would happen if churches in Britain set up loudspeakers and wailed out the psalms all night? I can’t believe people would take it.

However, my youngest son, on arriving in India, had promptly fallen sick, so I prayed along with the chanting, then slept and woke again. I had already promised God that I would not hold anything against the well-known person who had upset me. I now made an even more difficult deal. If my son got better I would not hold the grudge in my heart. Later in the night I woke again and immediately had to banish the aforementioned grudge I had in my thoughts. This would be a difficult deal to keep.