New Delhi, Nov. 30 -- Silence has become a rare commodity. Not the silence of peace, but the silence of attention. The world today is saturated with sound, yet hollow of lis tening. We do not hear one another any more; we perform at one another. Diplomacy has become theatre, power has become spectacle, and noise has been mistaken for strength. What is missing is not intelligence or will. What is missing is discipline. An orchestra understands this in its bones. In a symphony, nothing important happens by accident. Every entrance is weighed. Every pause matters. Every musician must be aware of the others, not merely of themselves.

The great paradox of orchestral music is that power only appears when ego disappears. Politics once understoo...