India, Sept. 14 -- Ravi was eleven when he arrived at the shelter, thin, watchful, carrying a plastic bag with everything he owned. Three days later he broke a window while playing cricket in the courtyard. The warden, a kind man by every account, sat him down and said what most of us would have said. "Do you know how much that glass costs? You people never think before you act. When I was your age, we didn't have half of what you have here, and we still knew how to behave. You will understand this only when you grow up and have to earn money yourself. Now say sorry and go stand outside." Ravi said sorry. He stood outside. And something in him, something that had already survived a great deal, closed a little further.

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