Volume 4 · The Ledger and the Loom · Essay 58

Contagious Yawning

Some ideas arrive wearing uniforms. Contagious Yawning arrives in a kurta — plain, comfortable, and ready for work.

It is worth keeping in your pocket not because it is always right, but because it is always available. A tool you carry beats a perfect tool you left at home.

Consider the chit fund in a small town. It survives not on contracts but on the shame of defaulting before neighbours. Reputation is the oldest collateral in India.

Money is a good clerk and a terrible master; the arrangement is entirely up to us. You will meet this idea again this week, wearing different clothes. Now you will recognise it.