There are 20 million people on the road at any time, in buses and trains, walking; 500,000 villages, 120 million households, and none of them wanted to report if they had a case of smallpox in their house, because they thought that smallpox was the visitation of a deity, Shitala Mata, the cooling mother, and it was wrong to bring strangers into your house when the deity was in the house.
Bilo je u svakom trenu 20 milijuna ljudi na putu – u autobusima, vlakovima, hodajućih; 500.000 sela, 120 milijuna kućanstava i nijedno od njih nije željelo prijaviti jesu li imali slučaj boginja u svojoj kući jer su mislili da su boginje posjet božanstva, Shitale Mata, majke hlađenja, i bilo je neispravno dovesti strance u svoju kuću ako je božanstvo u kući. Nije bilo motivacije za prijavu boginja.