India, Jan. 31 -- 'I am beginning to think God indeed exists.' Daddy, turning 70 this year, drops this bomb with his characteristic nonchalance. Munching on something, possibly gesturing to someone, he continues on the phone, "I think God keeps a record for everyone". My atheist yet culturally observant father's turn to agnosticism has been caused by the unusual amount of "work" he has been doing in the past two years, thanks to a new family project.

Though excited, he resents it from his core. Last year, he had candidly admitted to me, "I'm irritated with everything and everyone these days." He doesn't enjoy work at all; never has. He joined his employees in hard manual labour some nights, but also grumbled loudly when his brothers coul...