The other, in our reaction, asked him how he could put behind the atrocities, pain and suffering he had endured. The remembrance of them, in fact, made him bitter. Even as he walked into freedom, revenge and retribution were very much in his mind. The friend insightfully observed that though he was outwardly free, he was still in that prison. Celebrating freedom can often become a mere ritual. So the benchmark of inner freedom is the increasing ability to be free, to love and forgive