2/1/06: Constrasts and Paradoxes

The many paradoxes that define India came into clear view today. It is a land of inner calm and utter chaos, comfort and abject poverty, saints and destroyers, and world class efficiency and laughably inefficient bureaucracy and lethargy. In Varanasi, we learned about the inner peace and inherent tolerance that defines India’s home-made religions (Hindu, Bhuddist, and Jain) and attitudes. In contrast, day-to-day life is replete with examples of total disrespect for order. Drivers regularly turn two-lane into a three-lane streets by straddling the dotted line, cars share the road with bulls, garbage and rubble dominate the urban landscape, and 13 million share an infrastructure designed for less than a million. The consequent and persistent traffic jams made us reliably an hour late for every appointment.

Our home cooked meals in luxury condominium developments took place within 100 yards of shanty towns, and upscale mansion owners were next-door neighbors with impromptu tent-dwellers (similar to the Sinhas and Jacobson Kolskys:).

Our visit to the impressive five-story Qutb minarets and mosques, built by Hindu slaves, is a testimony to the potential evils of intolerant religious persecution. In stark contrast, we were all brought to tears by a visit to Mother Teresa’s orphanage, where 6 nuns care for 76 severely handicapped children, demonstrating the tender mercies enabled by truly religious souls.

Prabha also arranged an eye-opening visit in the early evening to WiPro BPO, a leading Indian outsourcing vendor, which has grown from scratch to more than $175mm in just five years, serving the likes of AOL, Dell, and Capital One. After hearing their story, we are not surprised by offshoring’s dramatic growth, in light of their significant improvements in customer service quality with process efficiency at 20% of the cost. However, how can this hotbed of efficiency also be home to airport checkin which makes O’Hare look like an Intel factory—with 25 employees required to check in 50 for a flight, three hand-checks and two pat downs?

Our final day in Delhi came to a delightful and fitting end with an encore dinner rendezvous at the Kebab Factory, accompanied by our new friends, the Guptas, and their Naperville-based daughter-in-law. Unholy cows and baby sheep beware at this Tandoori version of a Brazilian steak restaurant. Both the Sinha Six and the Guptas braved 90 minutes of bumper-to-bumper and door-to-door congestion, courtesy of crowds and rubber-neckers checking out a controversial demolition of illegal mafia-constructed chic boutiques (Tony “the Garuda” Patel meets Armani).