Translations

Journalism can leave you with tattered minds and bloated egoes: so were the wise words imparted to me by the late RK Laxman early on in my career. He was right: over the years, I have seen perfectly decent men and women allowing themselves to be overcome by hubris and petty battles. Did I get my byline? What happened to my piece to camera? Why should I share screen space with someone else?

I have followed Narendra Modi’s political career since the Ram Janmabhoomi rath yatra in 1990. Through good times and bad, what has always marked him out is a sense of the occasion: Mr Modi knows what will make news perhaps better than any other Indian politician I know.