In a meeting of the board of directors that I joined recently, the company disclosed that it had paid a bribe to recover an overdue payment from the government. My first reaction was: Holy cow, how did I land in this unholy mess! I wondered about my responsibilities as an independent director. Should I resign from the board? Do we sack the managing director (MD)?

We have been feeling pretty down recently after perhaps the most popular president in Indian history is about to be dethroned in unseemly backroom horse-trading. We have tried to console ourselves, saying that politics is competitive by nature and what else can you expect from political parties who are only ruled by self-interest. What finally lifted our spirits, however, was the news that our niece had landed a good job.   She called to say that she had signed a lease for a lovely room at an 'unbelievably low' rent. But after two weeks she was in tears. She had arrived bag and baggage at her 'new home' to find that the villainous landlord had given away her room on a much higher rent. She blamed her plight on the 'greed of capitalism'.

Budhadeb Bhatattacharjee, chief minister of West Bengal, must wonder what he did in his previous life to deserve Mamata Banerjee in this one. All his good work to make Bengal attractive to investors is beginning to unravel. Companies have begun to shy away from Bengal for safer, more attractive destinations. After Mamata threatened a few weeks ago to pull down their boundary wall, even the Tatas are worried and must rue their decision to build a car factory in Bengal. Most Indians, however, are confused by this debate, especially this animal called Special Economic Zones (SEZs).

Now that the dust has settled and the instant pundits have had their day, this may be a good time to sit back and reflect on the significance of Mayawati's amazing victory in Uttar Pradesh. For the first time in independent India a Dalit has won an absolute majority, anywhere. U.P. is, of course, not anywhere—it is 15 per cent of India and home to the largest upper caste population. The people of U.P. are euphoric. They finally have a government that will not be at the mercy of coalitions. Many Indians—and not just Dalits—see in Mayawati a future Prime Minister leading a national party. No wonder she has lit a fuse under every political party.

Chinamma was born a Devadasi but she refused to become a prostitute. She would collect neem seeds in the forests of Raichur district in Karnataka and earn Rs 12 a day. Her life changed completely when she joined a self-help group which helped her with a loan. She makes fertilizer today from the same seeds and employs 10 women. Her sales are Rs 250,000 and profits Rs 50,000. Rising demand from businesses like hers have lifted wages three times for the 12,000 women who collect neem seeds.

There is something a little sad in my encounters with non-resident Indians. I don't quite know why this should be. They are invariably successful. They have lovely homes and bright children who go to the best schools. Most have fitted in confidently and some have assumed positions of leadership in their adopted countries. But there is something missing at the core.

It came as a shock to me that India's cities have more water than most cities in the world. Delhi has 300 litres per person per day of treated water compared to Paris with 150 or London with 171. Then why do people in Paris and London get water 24 hours a day while Delhi's residents get it only for four? Gauhati sits on the Brahmaputra River but people get water for only two hours. The poor in our cities have to depend on tankers. When the tanker is late there is a scramble and even a riot. Recently, a tanker driver fearing for his life took off at a high speed, and a child died in the chaos.

I come from a family of government servants. So it was not a surprise when an old friend of our family, a senior IAS official, dropped in the other day.   He was almost in tears because he said his college going son was ashamed of him. Father and son had been discussing potential careers the night before, and when the possibility of the IAS came up, the son shot back, 'Dad, only corrupt, inefficient, and negative people join the IAS.'

Tata buys Chrysler' was the headline in the online daily, The Globalist, on 23 February. Its author imagines a scenario in which Ratan Tata buys the Chrysler subsidiary from DaimlerChrysler for a dollar. The famous American car company is cheap because its employees' health care and pension liability of $20 billion has bankrupted it. The story also has a message for Indians who don't know quite what to make of the global ambitions of their companies.

India's ruling Congress Party led coalition genuinely wanted this year's government budget to help lift the poor and narrow the rich-poor divide, but it failed of course. Hidden in the budget, which the Finance Minister, P.C. Chidambaram announced on February 28 were two items that almost escaped notice. One was the provision to hire 200,000 teachers and the other was to give away 100,000 scholarships to schoolchildren. In the profoundly differing stories of these two numbers lies the answer to the question why every Indian government fails to help the poor. India's economic rise bewilders Indians.