Gurgaon: The Business Center of New Delhi

This morning was our first business meeting, in the "suburb" of Gurgaon. We ran into a little snag, as we ended up at the wrong building, spurring quite a bit of confusion when the guards were not expecting us and had now idea who we were. In India, there is not a street numbering system as there is in the US. Instead, an address contains things such as the name of the development (ie, Suchandsuch Business Park) followed by a sector, and a phase, and a building name or number. So we ended up about a half hour late to our meeting.





Nonetheless, this provided for some very interesting wanderings around Gurgaon. This area is a vast expanse of desert, south of New Delhi, with tremendous corporate buildings, and very large housing developments rising up out of the sand. Peppered here and there are some single family mansions, a few dozen yards away from some tarp shanties along the side of the road. The amount of new buildings under construction is staggering. Our friend from Caliber Point told us that this entire development is only 10 years old. The first building built in the park, can be seen below:

As staggerin as the poverty was between Delhi and Agra, it is just as staggering to see the hundreds of gigantic buildings that are housing and providing jobs for tens of thousands of locals. It suddenly seemed after looking at this, that there is hope for pulling people up from poverty. Ten years ago, this was an open stretch of desert. Now it is a source of income, food and shelter for tens if not hundreds of thousands of residents. These are people that otherwise may be unemployed. Say what you want about oppressive wages, sweatshop environment, etc. The people we talked to today (while it is true they are making a fraction of what they would in the US) Looked thrilled to be doing what they are doing. These were happy, passionate people. On top of that, the company they worked for was apologizing profusely to several of them, for asking them to come in early to meet with us, and distracting them from their family.

Granted these buildings don't go up, and then people move from their tarp covered home to a 6 room apartment, but I am a firm believer in the trickle down theory. These people have more money than they used to, and are now buying more local services than they use to. This will create more jobs. (by the way, we drove past two enormous vertical shopping malls in this district, filled with more working Indians, providing goods to the other working Indians.

I don't know that it can provide solace to any individual who has lost their job because it was outsourced to another country. But I will say that it provides a much better and long term solution to the problem of starving children than giving Suzanne Summers $0.60 a day.

Below are just a few snapshots. Between driving (ok-being driven...I'm not so brave as to attempt to drive in this place), and trying to figure out what building we were checking into, I wasn't able to get a good shot that truly represented the enormity of the developments, and construction in this place. Truly phenomenal.

This picture was actually meant to be of the buildings in the distance...not the cow. And I'm really not sure how I found a stretch of road with no cars. That does not exist in any of the villages and cities of India.

After our trip to Gurgaon, we had to rush to the airport and jump on a flight. We flew Kingfisher Airlines, which is a local Indian airline. (I think they only do domestic flights) We were all surprised at how nice of an airline this was, from the amenities, to the service to the food. It was a coach flight for only an hour, but it was a very pleasant one.

Landing in Mumbai, the weather was much warmer than Delhi. Also the sky was clear, unlike Delhi which was hazy/smoggy for the last couple days. We were a little upset to hear that one of our guides from Caliber Point got violently ill this morning. So we all wish her the best. It makes us a little more nervous to think that we've made it this far with none of us having any stomach problems, to have someone from this area, end up with that sort of ailment.

Driving through Mumbai was interesting. There is a very surreal mix of poverty and poshness. Flying in, you can see luxury looking apartment/condo developments, but then as your plane is landing, the entire area around the airport is slum housing. Acres and acres of it. Driving to the hotel, you see the typical small streetside shops, but then here and there is a very upscale, spotless, looking bar or restaurant (tucked between two dirt-covered stalls selling bike tires, and a guy selling tuk-tuk batteries.) Before dinner, I had a chance to do a quick walk up and down the street, and stopped in a few stores. I even crossed the street in front of our hotel twice. That was fun. (ever play Frogger?) I will say of the several hundred people I walked past, not a one was a westerner. People here are not shy about staring at the stranger walking among them. No one has been unfriendly though. The higher end shops, were very forward about pulling me into their shops, and showing me the silk rugs, pashmina scarves, and jewelery. Oddly enough, not all that pushy either. Eager to pull every carpet off the wall and unroll it, and and every scarf off the shelf and show it to me, but not at all pushy. I told them I'd be here for a week, and would do my shopping later.

Sorry, but I forgot my camara in the room, so no pictures yet, but I will get some and post them.