Contents
The Book I Wont Be Writing 1
1 INDIRA GANDHI 2
THE POLITICAL INHERITANCE 5
A Prophet Disowned 7
Three Prime Ministers 11
He Began It All 21
The Succession 25
The Other Saviour 31
THE WAYS OF POWER 37
First Among Unequals 39
The Head of the Indian Political Family 42
Limits to Greatness 49
Only a Few Good Men in the Political Jungle 54
J P 59
Morarji Desai 62
S Nijalingappa 68
INSTRUMENTS OF POWER 73
The Shape of the Kitchen 75
Advice and Advisers 80
P N Haksar 84
Is Our Bureaucracy Good Enough? 88
Heavenborn Once 95
Diplomacy 100
A Triumph Shared by Two Nations 107
Was the Emergency Unavoidable? 112
The Doodler 115
Ali Baba in Anand Bhawan 121
A Cold Dinner Far Away 124
VALUES AND VOGUES 127
Back to Education 129
The Scientific Approach 132
Neglected Children of Uncaring Ministries 138
Must We Teach Children to be Dishonest? 143
From Gandhis Dhoti to Gujrals Safari Suit 148
Taking Teddy Bears to Bed 152
Discrimination Begins Early 156
More Sanskrit? 161
The ThreeLetter Bogeyman 166
Even Prayer is a Privilege 171
March of Ugliness 175
Content Analysis of a Conservative Mind 181
The Crorepati Lure 185
SOME AUTHORS AND ARTISTS 189
Sadasivam and Subbulaksmi 191
Shivarama Karanth 195
R K Narayan 201
Mallikarjun Mansur 204
G Tendulkar 210
K K Hebbar 213
Raghubir Singh 219
A K Ramanujan 225
R K Laxman 228
A Young Woman in Her Eighties 233
THE INFORMATION 235
Information Abounds So Does Ignorance 237
Who Pays the Bill? 242
Televisionaries 247
A Plaything 253
The Art of the Press Conference 259
Politicians and the Press 263
ART OF WRITING 269
The Heart of Writing 271
On Editing 274
To Whom Does English Belong? 280
Faithful Friend Formidable Foe 284
PASSING THOUGHTS 289
On Nervousness 291
Some Harmless Dislikes and Pointless Rules 296
Genes and Genius 300
Its Insatiable Hunger 305
The Apology Epidemic 310
A Love Story 314
On Being a Child Prodigy 318
Four Little Bells 323
Three Tales About a Sage 327
An Afterword 331
Copyright