It was this gentleman who was the first to speak. ‘Good morning, tigers! My name is Sameer and my colleagues here are Somaiya and Sanjay, whom you may already know. I hope your stay here has been comfortable?’

‘Good morning, sir. The bungalow is impressive. The stay has been better than the welcome,’ Nirav, Atharv’s former classmate, said tersely. His jaw was still sore, having taken a punch from one of the guards during the scuffle just a few hours ago.

‘Good, but don’t get used to it. For, you are standing at a point in life from where you will leap into a world of infinite opportunities and danger. You are getting the chance to fight for your country against its most hostile neighbour, Pakistan, by taking the fight to the enemy. History is a witness to the fact that those who are incapable of protecting themselves have only ruin awaiting them. Look at what happened to our country centuries ago to understand what I am saying.’

‘Please elaborate, sir.’

Sameer looked at the boys to make sure they were listening. ‘For centuries, external military adventurers have been drawn to India. They killed hundreds and thousands of soldiers as well as the unarmed, non-combatant citizens. They enslaved many and sent them back to their masters abroad. They looted the country’s wealth.

‘Beginning with Muhammad bin Qasim, who came to India for three things – wealth, land and expanding political–cultural influence – all of them left a trail of blood and sorrow behind when they were done. More than the armies in India, it was the civilians who bore the brunt of these invasions.’

‘What were the Indian rulers of the time doing? Why could they not repel Qasim’s attacks?’

‘Qasim, a nineteen-year-old Arab from Taif, which is now a part of Saudi Arabia, came here to conquer Sindh. There was utter mayhem in flourishing cities like Debal, near what is now Karachi in Pakistan’s Sindh, ’ Sameer said. ‘Like now, the civilians then too had nothing to do with the battles and wars of the states, big or small, ruled by kings or chieftains. Not with the victories, nor with the defeats. Yet, Debal, which prided itself on its position as an outpost of international marine trade and offered a good life to its residents, was burnt to the ground.’

‘That is what happens when there is no unity among those who are facing the same threats, sir. The local rulers may have thought that the threat was to others, not to them.’

‘Correct, Nirav. Then there was Mahmud of Ghazni, of the Turkic Ghaznavid dynasty, who attacked India seventeen times, beginning from 1001 AD. He went as far as Mathura in Uttar Pradesh and Somnath in Gujarat.’

‘You are conducting a tutorial on India’s history in brief. I was a laggard in history in school but here is another chance for me to brush up my knowledge. So, thank you, sir!’