India, Dec. 4 -- Imagine a grand tea-party in a sprawling mansion, but the guests are not lords and ladies. Instead, they are economic indicators, policy pronouncements, market flows, and corporate boardroom whispers. The table is groaning under the weight of GDP growth numbers, stock valuations, inflation readings, rupee-dollar exchange rates, and investor sentiments, hopes, and desires. Yet somehow, between the teacups and scones, the house creaks. Something feels slightly off, though everyone behaves as if nothing is amiss.

This is the rabbit hole that India tumbles into every so often, an elaborate hall where optimism, anxiety, momentum, and fragility attend the same banquet. As observers of this odd spectacle, we are the bewildered ...