Table of contents for 11/14/2016 in Open Magazine

LETTER OF THE WEEK This refers to Gurcharan Das’ essay, ‘The Dharmic Economy’ (November 7th, 2016). As he writes, dharma and artha need not be at opposite ends of the market. A few decades ago, business was governed by principles and morality. Businessmen weren’t out just to make profits and cut the best deal at any cost. They cared about the economy, their market and their employees as well. Today, however, such principles have almost entirely been forgotten and abandoned. There is no dharma left in business any longer. A businessman will laugh if you ask him or her to consider putting welfare and justice before profits and company growth. Corruption has taken over all parts of the market and it has become so deeply entrenched that one no longer…

WINTER’S HEAVY AIR is here and now the laments on Facebook and Twitter on the asphyxiation of cities. But don’t. However racking the cough, it is in your best interest to remain silent. If you are in Delhi, where habit makes it difficult to not join in the annual railing, still desist. Your cause might be just and as evidence you have the daily numbers of pollution in the air, but even so, don’t join the online clamour because all that will do is make your life even more miserable. The pollution is not going anywhere, the air will suffuse with more and more hazardous PM 2.5 particles, but in addition, you will have to walk to office for what is left after ‘Odd- Even’. In the face of a…

NOEL TATA 59 Chairman, Trent Tata family member Retail sector success An in-law of the Mistrys An in-law of the Mistrys N Chandrasekaran 53 CEO, Tata Consultancy Services Superb business performance Exposure to diverse challenges Young; entire career at Tata Seen solely as a software man S Ramadorai 71 Former CEO, TCS Great performance record Familiar with the Group Government task experience Only four years for retirement RALF SPETH 61 CEO, Jaguar Land Rover Dramatic revival of JLR Outstanding profit delivery Vast global exposure Relatively new to the Group ISHAAT HUSSAIN 69 Finance Director, Tata Sons Crisis manager par excellence Dedicated guardian of integrity Too close to retirement age of 75 Finance more than market-focused BHASKAR BHAT 62 Managing Director, Titan Industries New venture experience Keen consumer focus Expansionary outlook…

In this sense, no text is original, yet no telling is a mere retelling—and the story has no closure, although it may be enclosed in a text. In India and in Southeast Asia, no one ever reads the Ramayana or the Mahabharata for the first time. The stories are there, ‘always already’. One is reminded of these words from Three Hundred Ramayanas by AK Ramanujan when one walks into Bikaner House, which is hosting an exhibition on the Mewar Ramayana described as ‘one of the greatest achievements of Indian art’. Adjectives fail these paintings. To call them ‘glorious’ and ‘dramatic’ would reduce them to artefacts on the wall. The colours are lush and the detailing exquisite. But there is so much more here than mere prettiness and splendour. Like a…

OF ALL THE overseas trips I have made in recent years, a short visit to Jerusalem last year was perhaps the most memorable. ‘Official’ engagements made it difficult to spend more than a day in the old city. But even that was enough to soak in the atmosphere of a place that, more than being a city, actually epitomises a sacred idea. To believing Jews and Christians, Jerusalem approximates the importance we Hindus attach to the river Ganga. As a city, Indians are likely to see parallels with the old quarters around the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi. The cobbled lanes winding their way past sacred shrines and denominational outposts, the small shops with sharp salesmen selling souvenirs and reproduction of relics and the quaint ethnic quarters, all serve to…

SPY GAMES ARE normal fare in New Delhi. India’s western neighbour tries to gather as many military secrets as it can. Often, it succeeds. But once in a while, the spooks get caught and thus begins a game of tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats between India and Pakistan. Something of this sort happened last week when a Pakistani official was caught red-handed near the Delhi Zoo. He was asked to leave India. In a retaliatory move, an Indian diplomat was asked to leave Pakistan. This has now snowballed further. The spy, during his brief interrogation by the police, named four others in his embassy who are involved in the ring. By some reports, the number is as high as 16. Meanwhile, in Islamabad, the names of eight Indian diplomats have been…

Indian stock indices fell on November 2nd partly because some polls in the media reported Donald Trump catching up with Hillary Clinton in the White House race. The United States is a poll-driven society and the result of polls actually influence who people vote for. Trump’s gains would enthuse both Republicans and Democrats to go out and vote. The sample of many of these polls are a few thousand, often unrepresentative of the electorate, and yet they shape global events. Their predictive power is usually dubious. The Brexit polls which got it all wrong is a recent example. Polls have become seminal to modern societies because of an impatience with absence of knowledge and the inability to take decisions without data. Any data is better than none. WORD’S WORTH “Public…

IN THE BEGINNING of civilisation, there was religious and ritualistic iconography of gods, animals and demons—complex and awe-inspiring, changing according to country, culture and custom. Gradually there were portraits of kings, queens, despots and conquerors, some taken to a god-like status, remote and far-removed from all around them, striking wonder and terror in their subjects. Portraits were grand, made in mosaic, stone, bronze, stained glass, tempera on hidden walls, and large oil-on-canvas paintings that glistened with sword, armour and heroic action. There are pre-historic portraits of man confronting wild nature in silent caves, funerary images on encaustic coffins bearing the likeness of the deceased, devotional friezes like Emperor Justinian offering myrrh to Jesus in a glittering mosaic in Ravenna, historic portraits of Napoleon crossing the Alps on his horse, wind…

A MEETING ON THE ANDHERI OVERBRIDGE Ambai Juggernaut Books 216 Pages | Rs 299 PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR Sudha Gupta is a busy person— all sorts of clients tend to seek her out and she also assists the police, and in this slim book she works on half a dozen different cases in three separate tales: As the Day Darkens, A Meeting on the Andheri Overbridge and The Paperboat Maker. Children have disappeared, a husband is up to something shady at night, and an elderly woman’s family thinks she is insane just because she seeks liberty, and so on. The story that really stands out is The Paperboat Maker, in which two separate investigations merge in a somewhat strained coincidence but nevertheless result in a compelling narrative. It takes us to Dharavi…

Not Without My Brother For senior filmmaker Rakesh Roshan, family comes first. It is a given that any film he directs or produces will be scored by his brother Rajesh Roshan. While their collaborations in the past have yielded successful results, more recent soundtracks composed by Rajesh Roshan have been at best mediocre successes. The songs of both Krrish and Krrish 3 are evidence of that sad truth. Still, Rakesh Roshan reportedly does not take any criticism of his brother’s music well. “The music will grow on you,” is his usual refrain for anyone who points out that Rajesh’s songs haven’t turned out to be the chartbusters they were hoping they’d be. Insiders are saying Kaabil Insiders are saying Kaabil director Sanjay Gupta, who is known to have a good…

WE ALL KNOW that an American presidential election is not a matter of America’s alone, and on November 9th, when the leader of the free world is announced, we will all be Americans, at least as long as the headlines last. In the campaign’s final hours, and when the winner is not a foregone conclusion, it is not the sublime that keeps us hooked. We don’t much hear about what Hillary means for, say, the Middle East, not in any nuanced policy vision certainly. Apart from his simplistic one-liners—bad trade treaties, parasitical Saudis, and thieving Chinese—the Trump weltanschauung doesn’t explain details of what his ‘America First’ means either. The world is watching the closest race between two unexceptional candidates—an experienced generalist and establishment insider pitted against a celebrity billionaire who…

Arnab Goswami argued his way into prime time to become the Dirty Harry of the Indian middle class, telling you what the ‘nation wants to know’. He was the stentorian interrogator, the impatient conscience keeper FOR SOME TIME now, Abha Singh has had absolute strangers and distant acquaintances accosting her with all sorts of queries. This happens as she goes about her day-to-day life as a lawyer-activist in Mumbai, sometimes aboard flights, sometimes even abroad on a holiday. They come and ask, “Do you think Peter (Mukerjea) did it (the murder of his daughter Sheena Bora)?” or “Do you think Salman (Khan) will go to jail?” This happens, she has come to realise, because across India, and even abroad, sharp at 9 pm, a lot of people tune in to…

On 4 July 2014 the leader of Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, defiantly ascended the pulpit of the Mosul Grand Mosque, slowly and deliberately, leading with his right foot. “Your brothers, the mujahideen, were blessed with victory by Allah,” he told congregants listening to his Friday sermon. “After long years of jihad, patience, and fighting the enemies of Allah, he guided them and strengthened them to achievethis goal. Therefore they rushed to establish the Caliphate.” Baghdadi was confirming a statement made several days earlier by Islamic State’s spokesman, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, who first announced the revival of the Caliphate as a fulfilment of the “promise of Allah.” It had been timed to coincide with the start of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting and penance. “Today the nations of…

When Bibhu Mohapatra first met Michelle Obama at a White House event a couple of years ago, he humbly joined his hands and thanked her for helping him fulfill his American dream. The US First Lady had then just begun wearing the Indian fashion designer’s creations, and he had become a celebrity in the long shadow of her grace. Mohapatra’s gratitude was justified: such is Obama’s fashion influence that she even inspired a 2010 study by Finance Professor David Yermack at New York University’s Stern School of Business, who calculated that an apparel brand’s stock prices increased by an average of $14 million every time she appeared in public dressed in its clothes. In one case, after she wore a J Crew dress on a TV show, the group’s stock…