In a corner of the brick-and-mud house with chipping balustrade that Mohit Yadav called his home in Mainpuri’s Nagla Khushali village, there is a small wooden shrine before which he prayed every morning. Towards the end, as Mohit hurtled to his death, unable to deal with his joblessness after UPSRTC terminated his contract as a bus conductor following complaints in June that he had stopped the vehicle for two minutes to allow Muslim passengers to offer namaz, he felt his gods had deserted him.