New Delhi, Nov. 5 -- What might be the rarest luxury in India? Perhaps it is quietness.

When was the last time you were able to be in blissful silence? No matter where you travel in our country, you encounter human activity-related sounds. I have been deep inside forests where, along with the roar of a tiger or the tap-tap-tap of a woodpecker, I could hear airhorns from far away trucks, or the distant strains of amplified music.

During the recent Ganesha festival I was in Mumbai, enchanted by a beautiful pandal but distracted in my prayers by a deafening and distorted aarti broadcast over giant outward-facing loudspeakers. The attendant at the entrance shrugged and smiled when I blocked my ears with my fingers. I wondered if he had beco...