New Delhi, Nov. 20 -- There was a time when the Indian stock market behaved like a market. Today, it behaves like a patient running fever. It has the energy, delirium and confidence of someone who thinks the body can run faster because its temperature is 103deg Fahrenheit.

The frenzy of investors, the breathless market movements, the cult of FOMO (fear of missing out), the reverence for every new stock listing, as if it were the second coming of prosperity-all of it creates a spectacle that is at once fascinating and deeply worrying. Something about this bazaar has become bizarre.

The most peculiar part of the current drama is the casual acceptance that a company can list its shares at a price that would make its promoters blush and the...