Balle-balle, Mr PM

POLITICALLY INCORRECT/SHOBHA DE - The Times of India: "Is it then, not possible for our desi billionaires to do a reverse Branson on the West? I believe we are getting there. What's more, we are getting there at supersonic speed. Marketing is everything in an age where attention-spans are so frighteningly limited. Just as Branson and Donatella are opening their arms to embrace our ....errr... consumers? We should be returning the compliment too. Unfortunately, apart from a couple of notable exceptions, hi-profilers who are invariably described as �high-fliers' (like Sania Mirza can never be written about without attaching �Tennis Sensation' to her name), we don't really have anybody with the same sort of derring-do. Most of our industrialists prefer to adopt a saintly/godly approach towards distinctly unsaintly/ungodly pursuits � like hawking their wares in a competitive marketplace. Why? One feels like sitting them down and saying, 'Look at Branson...' he's willing to shout, sing, dance, pretty much do anything, even strip, to attract customer-attention. But that is only the first step. Service comes next. And he seems to deliver that as well. Look at our homegrown crorepatis. One of them insists he prefers to clean his own toilets, another travels cattle class, while a third claims he's a daal-chaval man who just happens to be in the super league. "