Sweet Smell of Success: Arindam Chaudhari
This is a google cache copy of the article in The Caravan that appeared a few months ago. Our man Arindam has now sued Caravan and Google for over 50 crores in damange. Read below and make up your mind.
How Arindam Chaudhuri made a fortune off the aspirations—and insecurities—of India’s middle classes
A PHENOMENALLY WEALTHY INDIAN who excites hostility and suspicion is an unusual creature, a fish that has managed to muddy the waters it swims in. The glow of admiration lighting up the rich and the successful disperses before it reaches him, hinting that things have gone wrong somewhere. It suggests that beneath the sleek coating of luxury, deep under the sheen of power, there is a failure barely sensed by the man who owns that failure along with his expensive accoutrements. This was Arindam Chaudhuri’s situation when I first met him in 2007. He had achieved great wealth and prominence, partly by projecting an image of himself as wealthy and prominent. Yet somewhere along the way he had also created the opposite effect, which—in spite of his best efforts—had given him a reputation as a fraud, scamster and Johnny-come-lately.
