With its fair share of conservatism, Bangalore on Thursday got its chance to rendezvous with the Indian ?conservative? of the hour? Jaithirth ?Jerry? Rao, banker, business man and author of the Indian Express-published Notes From an Indian Conservative. The self-titled ?conservative? was here to showcase his new book, a collection of articles written by him for the Indian Express to the readers in his home town.
With strong views on an eclectic range of subjects ranging from the complexities of the Hindu religion to the paradoxes of the culture, from his love of RK Narayan to the depths of Karnatic music, from the harsh realities of a governmental failure to protect the environment to a heart warming anecdote about Dom Moraes and his poetry, Jerry, as he is popularly known, captivated a crowd of intellectuals, students and book lovers with excerpts from his book.
In the panel discussion that was the highlight of the evening, the consensus was that Jerry, despite calling himself a ?conservative?, was none of what the word may suggest. Ray and Keshavan (design firm) partner Sujata Keshavan called the writer a maverick in his style of writing. India Foundation for the Arts executive director Anmol Vellani referred to Jerry as a ?conservative pragmatist? who believed in evolutionary change in society and not revolutionary change. Echoing similar views, IIM (B) professor R Vaidyanathan spoke of Jerry as a wise man who?s literary work brought to the fore a forgotten history and names that have been buried in time.
A noted entrepreneur, an ex-banker with over twenty years of experience with banking giants like Citi, former chief executive officer of software company MphasiS Corporation and former chairman of Nasscom, Jerry said he thought of himself as a ?consequential empiricist? and that his work, while some of it had been practical and harsh criticism, was also written with a sentimental streak in it. Notes from an Indian Conservative is part of a series of books from the Indian Express.