The <i>Swami </i>and the economist

Anyone who doesn’t know what Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor Subir Gokarn looks like may mistake him for a spiritual guru. At least that is what the wife of Bank of Maharashtra Executive Director C V R Rajendran initially thought. Gokarn’s special address at a banking conference hosted by the bank last week was followed by a special discourse from spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. In his inauguration speech, Rajendran said, “When we were going through the profiles and photographs of the invitees, my wife asked why there were two Swamijis at the conference.” When Rajendran told her Gokarn is an economist, his wife asked whether there is a relationship between the two. There is, he replied. “One is the cause of my problem and the other is the solution; one decides how many sleeping tablets I take in a day and the other tells me how to relieve this stress.”