On yesterday's greats

After Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi passed away, Suresh Menon persuaded lots of people to write about him

How many economists write about each other? Even in those tedious festschrifts, they don’t write about the person for whom it’s intended. It’s mostly dreary essays, hastily written as a duty, on something no one cares about.

But why single out the economists? How many footballers have you read writing about other footballers? Or tennis players? Or, heaven forbid, bureaucrats, for that matter?

But cricketers have started a new trend: They have begun writing about other cricketers. The first of these was Sunil Gavaskar’s Idols. But that was three decades ago.

After Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi passed away, Suresh Menon persuaded lots of