I’m writing about what used to be a well-kept secret. Today, it’s my intention to blow it to smithereens. It’s all about someone who’s not what he at first seems. In fact, he’s been leading a double life in broad daylight. He’s even gone so far as to create another name for himself. And it follows he also has a second career.

Now you know of him as one of our finest sociologists. In this capacity he’s authored 21 reputable books with titles such has Nativism in a Metropolis on the Shiv Sena, The Context of Ethnicity on Sikh identity, Rivalry and Brotherhood on the life of farmers, Mistaken Modernity on India caught between two worlds, and From People to Citizens on India’s changing profile. In Jawaharlal Nehru University, they’re praised and admired.

More recently, he’s established a keen reputation as a thought-provoking columnist in one of our popular dailies. Though they are profound and occasionally disturbing, his columns are........

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