Delhi violence: A room with a riot view

A solitary patch of violet stands out in what are walls blackened high with soot, a reminder of a room that was once coloured with shades of content and is now littered with the detritus of a riot -- except for a bed on which sits Nazar Mohammad.

His three-storey home in northeast Delhi's Shiv Vihar Phase 7, one of the worst-hit areas in the recent riots, tells the story of not just three days of clashes but also of hope rising from the ashes of violence.

A peep through the wide open doors into the home of the 44-year-old art teacher in a government school is unsettling.

Not because of the charred motorcycle outside, not because Nazar is surrounded by walls blackened from what must have been 10 feet high flames and not because it is impossible to walk across without stepping on shards of glass, metal and concrete.

But because Nazar can be seen smoking a cigarette and smiling widely.

Asked why he is smiling in times of distress, his wife Irshada Begum interjects, also with a smile, "Aansu toh sukh gaye. Muskurayenge tabhi toh jeeyenge (The tears have all dried up. We can only get through this by smiling)."
The violence could not have possibly happened at a worse time for Nazar's family. The violence, rooted in differences over the citizenship amendment bill, broke out