The times they are a-changin'

… And what explains the directions of change?

There was a time when I was in my late teens and preparing to embark on a train from my home town in Kerala to join IIM Calcutta, where I had just gained admission, that Bob Dylan’s famous song “The Times They Are A-Changin’” kept playing in my head (after having heard it first on Radio Ceylon Service, which then, at least in south India, was the main source of western pop music). At that time I used to be mystified why that song kept reverberating in my head, but looking back I can understand why: Venturing out to a