India has had many foreign guests from multilateral institutions last week. A top minister who is always dressed to the nines hosted a dinner, where he held forth about himself and his achievements. His foreign guest was seated to his left. After listening to his comments and stories — which always ended on a self-congratulatory note — the guest turned to her dinner companion on the other side and asked, not exactly sotto voce, “How can India stand this man? Does he ever talk about anyone, but himself?”
The Prime Minister is known never to be rude, but at the last Cabinet meeting, when this minister began to explain issues relating to inflation, the PM said, “Yes, we know all that.”
