India, Nov. 22 -- I return from an intense, heartwarming tour of Kolkata, a city whose warmth embraced me again. I spent a fortnight walking its lanes, speaking in its historic halls, signing books in its beloved bookstores, speaking with morning walkers at Rabindra Sarobar about Tagore and Camus, and listening to adda that still carries the old fire. Kolkata is alive with literature, music, argument, and a rare human gentleness. Yet one also notices the quiet scars that history leaves behind: whispers of a bygone ideological season whose fragrance, and at times its constraints, still linger in the air.

Bengal's middle class today leans heavily towards government-linked jobs. The energetic private-sector youth, ubiquitous in cities shape...