Batra, who owns and edits a leading business publication, pointed out that Delhi currently had no less than 300 art galleries, while an event like India Art Fair saw a decent attendance of one lakh people. The latest World Book Fair registered a footfall of 10 lakh in the city, which also has no less than a 100 halls to stage music, dance and ballets. Yet, there is a general shrinkage in the graciousness of the city-dwellers compared to Ghalib’s era when, say, writers used to say “I’ll read out your poem, which is better than mine”, he added. Such selfishness, he reasoned, could perhaps be the result of a less leisurely life in the modern era.