Dear Vikram,
How are you and your mother? I hope, God Willing, all is well.
I want to thank you, Vikram, for what you have done. You befriended my father in Delhi, & shopped for him. You even had him to your home; he told me.
Vikram, you even gave my father a gift- you didn?t have to do that. It was a gift strange to the American eye; a gift of wood: two small statues.
One was of a human with an elephant?s head. The other was of a woman.
You know Vikram, my Dad?s from D.C., straight from the Old School. They called us Negroes back then. A guy like that wouldn?t know what to make of such a gift. But I recognized them, Vikram, & I knew what to do.
I knew that the elephantesque was called Ganesh. The feminine was not so easily recognizable. Kali perhaps? Sati? Parvati?
I took the the two in one hand, Vikram, my left. I did not feel them move. I laid them on the sidewalk. No power stood them up. Then I shattered them, Vikram, I shattered them to pieces with an old sledgehammer. This I held with my right.
Why did they not stop me, Vikram? Your gods should have paralyzed me. Has Shiva not the victory over such activity? Did Rama not destroy all evil? Perhaps they know it is Allah Who Brings forth the vegetation, including the tree from which their images were carved. Vikram did you see the seed split, & then the ground?
Perhaps they knew that it is Allah Who Send down the Iron, of which my hammer was but a shard. Vikram, did they hear it whistling down to crush their effigies?
Perhaps they knew that it is Allah Who taught mankind speech and all the names. Vikram, do you prefer names which you have named, you & your forefathers, over that for which there is proof?
Or perhaps they know nothing, and you should know better. There?s an argument for every god, Vikram, but from Allah there is an answer: the Qur?an. And wAllahi I would teach you.
Because I like you, Vikram. If friends, why not brothers?

Namaste Bhai Sahb,
may Peace come permeate you,
Ameen.
Sincerely,
Daniel ibn Gerald