The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Then, as she had already died four or five times, the apartment had remained available for a drama more serious than her own death.
JEAN GENET

a part of me walked out of my body and wrapped itself around her. And there it still remains.

Mrs Gupta, who thought of herself as a Gopi, a female adorer of Lord Krishna, was, according to her palmist, living through her seventh and last cycle of rebirth. This gave her licence to behave as she wished without worrying that she would have to pay for her sins in her next life. She had her own amorous involvements, although she maintained that when she attained sexual climax the ecstasy she felt was for a divine being and not for her human lover. She was extremely fond of her husband but was relieved to have his physical appetites taken off her plate, and therefore more than happy to do him this small favour.

What if I self-destruct too?
I could—unless music rescues me.

Only the dead are free.”