arun shourie

came for a lecture at IIMB today. amazing lecture. unmindful (or unknowing) of the presence of “sonia’s new whizkid” Rajeev Gowda in the first row, he went on in the same tone as his books (I’ve read about half of “Eminent Historians” – amazing) as he proceeded to explain the evolution of the Indian Economy through the ages. Brilliant speech, laced with anecdotes and forever playing to the gallery.

i was the first question to put CP (class participation for the uninitiated) and it proved a good move as Dr. Shourie answered every question in great detail and due to time constraints couldn’t take too many more. gave a decent answer to my question, so i was happy…

however, the best part of the evening came after the vote of thanks as Dr. Shourie quoted an urdu rubaiyat (a four-line poem) or somethign which roughly translated to “I don’t know whether you’re actually complimenting me or if you always speak that way!”

amazing. hope there are a few more lectures such as these. remind me of those good old extramural lectures (EMLs) at IITM, especially Subramaniam Swamy and Jairam Ramesh.

“What stand you take on a political issue depends on where you sit” – Jairam Ramesh, responding to my question as to why the congress was opposing Mr. Vajpayee’s government’s reforms while it was the congress itself which started them.

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