Kumar (a pseudonym) became close friends with Cosmo during and after his years with Athletes in Action. In fact, only months after being paid the equivalent of $18 USD to kill Cosmo in 1995, Kumar abandoned his beliefs in Hinduism to adopt Cosmo’s Christian ideology.
During 1996 and 1997, the new friends and missionaries to the poor found themselves repeatedly in trouble for sharing their personal encounters with Jesus the Christ. Along with Kumar, a dozen others who had once regarded Cosmo as an enemy changed sides when they witnessed the radical reorientation in his life. Many of these converts remain friends to this day.
Unfortunately, others have since died. Raju also shifted his allegiance to Christianity only to be cut down by his former Hindu brothers in arms a few years later. His widow was swiftly relocated in order to prevent further contact with Cosmo and his fellow Christians.
There are many other stories from this period (and every period) of Cosmo’s life waiting to be told. Some of them remain too sensitive to disguise with pseudonyms and altered locations.
Our efforts to contact people, to gain permission for their inclusion, have met with mixed results. Many of the young people Cosmo impacted during his years of ministry in Delhi have indicated they fear reprisal from government investigative agencies and militants.
Overall, the ministry Cosmo started after his years with Athletes in Action led a much more nuanced existence than I’m able to portray during the following chapters. In short, Cosmo and his comrades took up any opportunity they could find to reach out to their types of people—from distributing the Comic Bible to schools, to filming Coca-Cola commercials, to attending the Olympics as spiritual counselors.
The forces that would eventually lead to Cosmo’s transition from this season of his life to the next were numerous. Some are better left outside the scope of this book.
I apologize once again for the necessary censorship. Perhaps future reconciliation, both politically and religiously, will allow the story to be shared in its entirety. Until then, the edited version you have before you must suffice. Please, pardon this final interruption as I return you to the story in the spring of 1996, just after Cosmo’s twenty-sixth birthday.
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Empty Hand Revolution
Non-FictionBorn into a tribal war with India, violence his earliest memory, Comso Zimik trained as a black belt and street fighter from the age of nine. His vow: never show weakness. Tortured and left for dead in the jungle at the age of seventeen, Cosmo birth...
