Dehradun, April 13 -- We, the Citizens

The world's greatest International Trading Company is winding down.

Its shareholders were proud of the fact that the sun never set on its many global branches. Its spin doctors burnished their employers' self-esteem, trumpeting loudly about their Land of Hope and Glory, proclaiming to the world that they were only doing their duty to Pick up the White Man's Burden! That's the problem with spin doctors and their clients. They start believing their own lies. Then they whirl so far out of control that they are flung ignominiously off the world's stage!

But all is not lost. If we rake through the ashes of an Empire-That-Once-Was we can still retrieve a few nuggets of wisdom. For one thing, though the ...