"It was a most awe-inspiring event again this year," he says. "Many wanted to act the various roles in this production, but they were told that they must be able to read their lines, not merely commit them to rote memory. Both the enrollment and the enthusiasm was most elevated in the months since I have returned and the production was a most stirring event indeed." India has an illiteracy rate of over 40% while in certain locations; those particularly rural or urban, it may range as high as 80%.

Kris returned to his teaching position at the jail last December, having recovered "as fully as I can expect to be so" from wounds suffered last September while covering fierce fighting between Muslim agitators and police in a predominantly Hindu section of Bombay. Kris, 49, a contributor to The India Times, was trapped between factions when small arms fire broke out. He suffered a grazing wound to the head and fragmentary wounds to his chest where his camera was struck by another bullet. As he was seeking to escape the area, a taxi pulled up along side and the cab driver had just offered him a lift before gunshots erupted, wounding Kris and killing the cab driver. Kris took cover, then pulled the driver's body from the cab and, despite his own injuries, collected two other wounded and drove them from the area. Stopped by police and briefly detained until his identity and those of the two passengers in his bullet-riddled taxi could be verified, the three were transported by ambulance to Bangalore- Pashti hospital.