The lack of grandstanding on the part of politicians and the person on the street actually helped. The floods did not become an occasion for issuing statements of an inflammatory kind with the benefit of the video camera. The only time someone took a ‘selfie’, the individual found himself in the river waiting to be rescued. The Tamil Nadu government, whether by design or default, practises management by silence. The Sphinx-like leadership model initiated by M.G. Ramachandran holds an instant appeal to the South Indian mind, trained as it is to recognise their deities by the various symbols—a furry headgear, a coloured shawl, an open book, a cape—and their inimitable hand gestures. They don’t ever have to speak. MGR actually perfected an expressive two-digit sign that could be a V for victory or the two-leaf signal of his party.