In many ways, India can be highly deceptive and contradictory. There are millions of mobile phones floating around. Dozens of swank hotels. Just about every major car manufacturer has set up shop in the country. Several designers are showcasing and selling clothes that are seen on the fashion streets of Paris, Milan and New York.
So visible are these that a foreign visitor might just about be blinded by them, the reflection from the sheen of a state-of-the art car or from a full-glass façade eclipsing the grime, dirt and degrading poverty that make up three-fourths of India. But it is this quarter of shimmer that the nation's political bosses and bureaucrats have never failed to brag about at home and abroad.
What they hide, though not always successfully, is the fact that the poor live in terrifying conditions, and that their numbers are huge. Hundreds of slums dot the surface, while skyscrapers tower over them, and from a distance it looks like a land of enormous prosperity. By entering a five- or seven-star hotel in New Delhi or Mumbai, one would feel like having stepped into a different world with its English-speaking staff, plush interiors, polished silverware and what have you.