Happy birthday, Governor!

He’s working on a Midas touch to soothe India’s runaway inflation and we hope Raghuram Rajan perfects it during this golden year. The charismatic RBI governor, who turns 50 today, spent an interactive weekend at the US consulate where his extempore speech on the kind of India that needs to be built drew especially rapturous applause from the large female component of the audience — who literally mobbed him when he stepped down from the stage.

For actor Ranveer Singh, who was also present, it must have been a humbling experience. While the economy is still work in progress, Rajan seems to be fighting a parallel battle to control the inflationary impact he seems to be having on the imagination of Indian women. “I am a boring central banker. I am trying to establish how boring I am. Central banking should be a conservative, boring business,” he told this diarist, laughing away comparisons to a fan following befitting a filmstar. “Frankly, I don’t relate to Bollywood.

A friend invited me to a film awards ceremony and I thought it would be interesting to see how it is done. It was quite an eye-opener. But I don’t consider myself part of that circle. I don’t know enough about movies to be part of that circle,” said Rajan. So when he gets time off from being a “boring banker”, what’s the kind of stuff he likes doing? “Well, the usual stuff. I either do some exercise, run, play tennis, play squash, or I read a book or newspapers, or I watch a movie. The stuff anybody else does. My wife is also working. If she’s at home, we chat.” Ladies, does that sound boring to you?