New Delhi, Feb. 23 -- Once, what did we want our nation to be? Like the West. What did we want to be? To enjoy life like people in the West, but with better food. Where did we want to be? The West. Where did we want our children to be? Okay, you get the idea. To many of us, the West gave a moral and aesthetic direction. We have lost that. This has been happening over the past few years.

When I was a kid, I believed the West was a place. Then I realized that all of the West was not entirely the West. The West was an idea, an invention. When you put it this way, it looks as though it is some kind of subterfuge to overwhelm human instincts.

But I like that about the West-that it was an invention. What is so great about nature and human nat...