Vinod Mehta is a rare bird. An editor who is totally un-pompous and utterly unpretentious—that too in this age of in-your-face media arrogance. But precisely because he is so un-tight, he is neither tedious nor boring. He has produced yet another very readable book, not an autobiography, nor a formal political treatise but a string of organised ‘stray thoughts’ on the manners and morals of our republic.