"But you are Muslim too. Why didn't your home burn down?"

The spirits come to Shah Alam Camp after midnight. They bring food, water, clothes and medicines from Heaven. That is why you won’t find any sick, naked, hungry or thirsty children in Shah Alam Camp. And that is also why Shah Alam Camp has become so famous. Its fame has spread far and wide among the dead. A certain dignitary from New Delhi who had come to inspect the camp was so pleased at what he saw that he announced: "This is a very fine place… all the Muslim children from all over India should be brought here."

This excellent story by Asghar Wajahat moved me deeply. Shah Alam Camp is a relief camp in Ahmedabad, where over 15,000 Muslims battle for space in the aftermath of the Ghodra riots. It's a lifting story; an allegory ending on a note of dry-humour that lifts you over the polemic on post-Godhra Gujrat, and provides a personal account of suffering, despair, alienation and bigotry.

Also read this piece by Zahir Janmohamed. Zahir is an Indian-American writing about his first visit to Shah Alam Camp.

Writes Zahid:

As I left the Shah Alam camp, another child asked, "Why are you able to leave? Why can't my family leave?" Any Muslim caught leaving the Shah Alam camp was arrested. Posted all around were police officers, their weapons facing towards, not away from the refugees. Muslims in the camp, I was told, were planning an attack. Conditions in the camp were so dire that an infant died in the camp of dehydration. What potential threat could people under such conditions pose?