Cliche

1,000 million Indians. 400 million don’t eat as much as they should. 350 million are neither rich nor poor. Ergo: 250 million are The Great Indian Middle Class.

Not all windows open out to the Taj, not all of us bathe in Benaras, not all of us spit fire and dance. But who will tell the firangs that a land of snaker-charmers we aren’t?

Why do the firangs wander our streets searching for means to wash their sins? Why do they think God is India, for if he was, would our per capita income be a few hundred rupees?

India may be a Republic for 51 years now, and kings and princes may be gone for as many years. But the Maharaja Myth burns bright.