Delhi - Greasin' the wheel!

Ah, Delhi! The captain of our plane described the city aptly in a thick Russian accent as we circled the skies above in position #86 for landing: "Zie condition in Delhi is smoke." As it turns out, this was an understatement. Upon first glance, Delhi appears to be an urban experiment in-progress, teeming with redevelopment and its by-products -- a familiar Indian trinity: traffic, trash and trade. And don't forget the smoke/smog.

Another interesting feature of Delhi (and much of India) is the need for businesspeople to grease the wheel when dealing with government officials. Our trip witnessed this firsthand after our bus attempted to make a U-turn on a busy four-lane highway. In addition to stopping traffic briefly, we were pulled-over by the Law. After about five minutes of negotiation, our driver managed to escape with a minor citation and a fine of just 100 rupees ($3). However, it cost an additional 500 rupees ($13) for the driver to convince the officer to omit from the report that we were travelling in a commercial vehicle. If the infraction had been cited officially on our bus, the officer would have been forced to suspend our driver's license and impound the vehicle for 1-3 weeks -- during which time it would have been impossible for the tour guide to make any money. One might call this a bribe, but I think it was simply a "pragmatic solution" given the huge disparity between the private and commercial vehicle code in India. (The picture is of the heated negotiation behind the bus. I'm posting the image only b/c the faces are indecipherable.)

Back in Mumbai, we took a number of tours through the developed and developing areas. This is a picture of a resident fishing on the highly-polluted coast not 50 yards from our hotel. About 35 paces earlier, I watched another resident trot up and dump a bag full of garbage into the ocean.

We also visited Gandhi's home in Mumbai after a refreshing yoga lesson. This is Andre sitting pensively on the ledge from which the Matatma inspired millions.

After visiting Gandhi, yoga and an acclaimed Indian revision of A Midsummer Night's Dream, we all got delicious yogurt on the street. Yum!

Two of our fine trip members (Geddes and Justin) hard at work on consulting case studies. Somehow, most first year students have found time to work on myriad cases this past week, both on the bus and on the water. Sweet!

We took a trip out to Elephant Island and got some great photos. But my internet connection is running out, so I can't tell you about them. Perhaps try following the link below?

If you would like to see more pictures of Mumbai, please visit the following site. Due to some computer problems (the light socket fried the transformer for our lone laptop), I've been unable to upload more-recent photos of Delhi.

http://picasaweb.google.com/redmocha/Mumbai
http://picasaweb.google.com/redmocha/Delhi