I like to believe that Indians have long been used to facing extreme hardship with equanimity. If there’s a problem, we tackle it and move on, because that’s who we are and no catastrophe can affect us. It’s the sort of thing that allowed us to finally become a free country after the Danish, Dutch, French, Portuguese, and British had had their way with us.

It’s all about resilience and I think we have more of it than we acknowledge. I think of it as a superpower, and one that will soon take us to the top of whatever list we’re currently aiming for. Yes, there are some Indians who lose their temper at the slightest provocation but, given that they don’t number more than a few hundred million, they shouldn’t be taken seriously simply because they don’t represent the majority.