Two-year-old Maya stepped on to the gardens of Colombo’s Independence Square—a green oasis surrounding a monument built to commemorate the country’s independence from the British— and took in the vast open space that stretched before her. Never one to be thrown by a new experience, she took purposeful strides on the soft grass, a slight smile on her face betraying that she did actually like all this—the trees, the birds, the breeze, all so difficult to enjoy back home in Mumbai where she lived. I’d been to Independence Square a million times before but seeing it through a toddler’s eyes gave me pause.
