like bosnia, beirut, baghdad, or bombay. we take our religion seriously, we are very diverse, and we respect one another across the faith lines. tavis: you said a couple of things that i want to go back and get. are we as religious as we once were? as far as the trend goes? >> we are probably about as religious or a little less religious than 50 years ago. we try to have an in-depth survey of religion in american life. one thing that has happened is that we become more polarized. some of these are less religious than we used to be. we have moved either to the pool of very religious or not religious at all. tavis: this is my term, not yours. i'm not so sure that our of religiosity makes it -- makes us as tolerant as we think we are. muslims come to mind. our tolerance seems to be decreasing. >> you have to have the right historical perspective here. 100 years ago, there were anti- catholic riots. by now, catholics are probably the most popular religious group in america. muslims are a special case. they seemed to be tied up w

have you been back to bombay since, and if you were to go back or have been back recently, what are your thoughts, views etc. somewhat personal. >> guest: well, i go back all the time, yes. i mean, i was there beginning of the year, earlier this year. and as you may have heard, we are in the middle of trying to make a movie of "midnight's children." and, of course, a lot of that is set in bombay, so that was another reason for going back to reexplore the world of that book. but, clearly, the city has changed eye gantically from the town that i grew up in. it's very, very much bigger, as you know. and not only that, the weight of the city has moved from the, if you like, the kind of manhattan-like peninsula that used to be the city which is now called bombay, used to be called bombay, and the city has spread enormously onto the mainland and become, you know, ten times the size. so i find myself now in my visits there having to learn the new city, you know? having to learn the city that now exists as opposed to the city that i wrote about that i knew about as a child. and that's, i mean, i

bombay which was a british mission foundation. it was the cathedral school. and many of the teachers were either english or with english educations and so on. and my parents in that generation still thought the would be to send me to an english university, you know, to be educated.it now in india now, i think there are changes this. i think parentsth like my paren might well want to send their children to american universities. they mighter well want to go to stanford and mit instead of oxford and cambridge. that was a generation where the influence of the british was still there but waiting. -- waning. the new modern state was coming into being. and so we grew up in that -- in that time of great change. and it's interesting to write about. >> and in your writing, you identify yourselves as a british writer and an indian writer. >> i yeah, i think basically i'a boy from bombay. that's where i was born and raised. and that's where my family lived and that's where i still have deep connections and roots and feel very much at home whenever i go there.wh but, you know, in the way -- the place where you're a ch