Mani-smriti

Mani-Talk, the signed column that Mani Shankar Aiyar used to write from 1989 to 1999, was one of the most popular columns in Sunday magazine, the publication I had the honour and privilege of being associated with for more than five years.

- ADITI PHADNIS

Many references to Mani-Talk in the second volume of his biography were gratifying and brought it all back, especially Aiyar's despairing wail when it was suggested gently to him that columns were more effective when they were short and pithy. "But it takes me 500 words just to clear my throat," he said helplessly.

This book is Mani-Talk 10X: witty, rapier-sharp, sparing no one, not even himself.

The first volume ended when he turned 50, resigned from the Indian Foreign Service and joined politics.

From this book we learn of the trials and tribulations of an MP who wants, in all sincerity, to junk caste and class and just "develop" his constituency.

He contested Mayiladuthurai—the name means the bank of the Cauvery where Siva danced as a peacock—but found it hard to manage both the supply side and the demand side of an MP's responsibilities.

He got a TV relay station set up in the constituency, organised many high-profile visits, (including by Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh as prime minister) and tried to get businessmen with deep pockets (or so he thought) to invest in a variety of businesses including food processing, an IT centre and an oil refinery to turn Mayiladuthurai into an Indian Dubai, a rash promise to begin with, that led to much chortling later.

Few of the projects actually panned out.

But failures notwithstanding, Aiyar must have done something right because the same constituency elected him thrice.

His brief tenure in the Trinamool Congress, seeing no future in the Congress under Sitaram Kesri, led to his expulsion.

He returned when Gandhi took over the party.