There’s been a spate of news reports and opinion pieces regarding the succession issue at the Tata group. For starters, Tata Trusts is the largest shareholder of Tata Sons. The dispute reached a turning point when Tata Sons reappointed N. Chandrasekhar a month after he himself said he would not offer himself for a third term. Shareholder ownership has proven good for businesses, and taking them under the wing is important. The Tata group has long stood as exemplars of what good, ethical corporate management should look like. A prolonging dispute does not help its reputation in the long term.
My relationship with the concept of solo dining is complex. I frequently fine dine at high-end restaurants alone. As soon as I’m seated, I’m often asked if someone will join me. There’s no difference in the treatment or service meted out to me — but today I felt the pinch because I didn’t have any assigned waiter hanging around the table. I had to turn around multiple times, and wave my hands to call them. Not that it hurt or embarrassed me, but it was unusual for me. Plus the fact that I got down at the mall which houses the restaurant in a somewhat low-grade taxi added to my woes. That said, once you become comfortable with solo dining, especially at luxurious restaurants, it can boost your confidence and self-esteem. The exercise works both ways: you need confidence and a reasonable amount of self-assurance to dine alone, and the doing the latter regularly can in turn help you feel at ease, whenever you’re at a place that demands a certain decorum and etiquette. Some research suggest that solo dining can increase depression and feelings of loneliness, while multiple experts repudiate the findings citing evidence to the contrary. Reserving tables for one are becoming increasingly common in the United States, especially due to the rise in single-hood, business travel and even as a hobby. The last bit is interesting because when one dines alone one can order whatever one wishes without trying to accommodate the other person’s preferences. Solo dining can also offer some me-time to indulge in light reading or just pondering things we’ve been putting off while we await the dishes.
Sunday morning reading turned out for the good with an illuminating Economist piece on Ledalero — a training college in Flores, an Indonesian island, that churns out Catholic priests more than any other place in the world. The clerical establishment had been earlier skeptical about training priests outside Europe, much less having them travel across the world and preach. But rising secularism and dejection at incidents of sexual abuse by the clergy had turned down the allure of priesthood. The young don’t see a viable future in it. Celibacy is also a tough ask. The little island has been producing priests at such a pace that Pope Francis, during the months before his death, pointed to it as a source of hope. The country that is home to the largest Muslim population in the world may indeed be the hope for sustaining catholicism. The island Flores has 85% Catholic people but Muslims and Catholics live harmoniously in line with the state ideology of Pancasila which promotes unity across religious communities. The prevalence of interfaith marriages, local and familial ties support the coexistence. The writer of the TE article wonders if the priests trained in Flores, seen as local heroes, would thrive in Europe and other Western countries to which they are sent. At a time when religious polarisation is strife, this article helped reinstill my faith in humanity.
Effective altruism, the quaint 21st century movement, that attracted the likes of Sam Bank Freidman and many elite university goers, has had its moment and may be looming closer to its end. It began with the basic premise that “suffering and death from lack of food, shelter, and medical care are bad.” The thought took shape in Oxford philosophy seminars and Californian computer labs in early 2000s, wherefrom it matured after melding with forms of consequentialism, rationalism and (sometimes naive) idealism. The community is growing offline and online. It rejects conventional norms and prefers truth-hitting straightforwardness, polyamory, and other social characteristics. The community has been apprehensive of AI safety for long and the discussion has even extended to whether AI agents must be treated as moral creatures. Anthropic said it observed hints of happiness’ and ‘dismay’ in its agents. Effective altruism is at crossroads, with different adherents holding different visions of it, and an agenda so wide and encompassing that anything (even the potentially destructive), goes.
In other news, three of the four constituents of the United Kingdom — Scotland, Wales and Ireland — the opposing, independence-oriented political parties essentially, have expressed their desire to leave the UK and join the EU. The idea finds less support among the public in the three regions, never crossing the halfway mark. Analysts say it could be a pressure tactic to reverse Brexit. Andy Burnham, and his successors, have their hands full.
I reluctantly picked up East of Eden since everyone is talking about it because of the new series. And also because my local bookclub can’t stop talking about John Steinbeck. Just a few pages into it and I found myself hooked even though the story is based in an unfamiliar terrain, among unfamiliar, unrelatable people. Some say it is an autobiographical novel, with the character names just changed for anonymity. The introduction to the novel says that Steinbeck’s works are appreciated for its realism and moral optimism. I’m yet to find that out as I work my way through the book. Perhaps this is why they say Mr. Steinbeck will never disappoint. American novelists are certainly a class apart.
Lastly, the much-anticipated Trump-Xi summit, was an exercise in ‘diplotainment’ with no visible progress observed except for the pompous display. The picture of U.S. staff rolling out the red carpet to welcome Mr. Xi has been doing the rounds on the internet. It is amusing that some Indian commentators on the internet see it as an expression of power reversal — of China, and by extension India (inserting itself, of course), reclaiming its throne.
That’s it for the week — happy reading!
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