Word: dalmia
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...suspect that he is running for sheriff. In India, where the climate is more spiritual, unconventional behavior is often taken as a sign that a man is angling to become a mahatma, a saintly soul. Last week the talk in New Delhi was that Seth Ramkrishna Dalmia, wealthy owner of the Times of India, was an active candidate for mahatma...
From Shekels to Sainthood. In his 57 years Dalmia has won for himself four wives, India's second largest industrial fortune and all the comforts that rupees can buy. About two years ago the tycoon's ambition began to shift from shekels to sainthood. In a frank autobiography Dalmia made it clear that he possessed unusual spiritual qualities: "I shall die peacefully with a smile on my face-an enviable state unattainable by ordinary...
Since a penchant for public confession is one of the most essential items of equipment for a would-be mahatma, Dalmia concentrated on owning up past misdeeds. He admitted that he had once been seized with passion for a distant female relative. "Shamelessly, I proposed a meeting to [my first wife] . . . She lost no time in getting friendly with the lady and persuaded her to agree to my beastly proposal." He admitted, too, that his business morality had been shaky: "I feel as if I had sucked the blood of the poor in establishing the big name of Dalmia...
...Reverence. Two weeks ago, in a newspaper statement, Dalmia reminded the public that he and other Indian industrialists had contributed heavily to the Gandhi Memorial Fund, one of the government's pet charity projects. "But," said Dalmia, "truly speaking, this was not pure charity . . . We gave . . . not because of reverence for the departed high soul, but because many of us were expecting that by so doing we would not be dragged into the sphere of action of the Income Tax Investigation Commission...
Many Indians found a disturbing plausibility in this statement, for some of the largest contributors to the Gandhi Memorial Fund are also widely suspected of being high on the government's list of 1,365 major tax evaders. Others were angry at Dalmia for having associated the memory of Mahatma Gandhi with anything so unsavory...