Subtly yours

“After I finished India Unbound,which I ended happily predicting India’s growth,I found myself getting depressed. I found myself noticing that even though India as a country was growing,the people were not happy mainly because of poor governance,” explains Das,who retired at the age of 50 from Procter and Gamble (where he was the CEO) to devote himself primarily to writing. Citing examples like having to pay a bribe to renew a driver’s license or widespread corruption in the police department.

“This drove me to the Mahabharata simply because it deals with politics,is obsessed with dharma and none of the characters in it relies on God to intervene,thus increasing their moral reasoning,” he adds.

Reverting to explaining the strategy he used while writing his book,he said,“Each chapter is broken up into parts where in the first I explain the incident in the Mahabharata and then go on to draw parallels in today’s world. There are incidents of envy,greed and status anxiety,each of which can be related to in the present times. Duryodhan’s envy of his cousins’ success is the same as Anil Ambani’s envy of his brother. His obsession with his brother’s downfall is not going to do Reliance any good.”

Anu Aga,former chairperson of Thermax,who officially launched the book,disagreed with Das on many a point,especially his admiration of his central character — Yudishthira. “I am all for Karna,” she laughed but admired him for his sheer honesty,especially about himself. On Dharma,she said that it was a question she couldn’t really answer.

“Would the system at all change if you don’t bribe? Should you change or should the system change? These are questions that plague me frequently,” said Aga. Adding to her perception was Vijay Bhatkar,internationally-acknowledged scientist and IT leader,who was also present at the launch. “The concepts of dharma,kama,arth and moksha are ambiguous which is why they are so beautiful,” he said.

Answering questions about how dharma can be practically achieved,Das said,“The only thing that will bring dharma is reforms and not just economic reforms but administrative,judicial and political reforms. Punishing bureaucrats who break laws,speeding up the judicial system and making sure that politics becomes more transparent is the way to go.”

He also expressed the opinion that the education system needed to become a lot more inclusive “Schools in India do not teach the Mahabharata on the mistaken notion that it is about religion. India is a land of storytellers and the best way to teach dharma is through stories,” he concluded.