India's Great Economic Boom, The Arrival Of

Nothing Gives Us Greater Pride Than The Importance Of India's Scientific And Engineering Colleges, Or The Army Of Indian Scientists At Organizations Such As Microsoft And Nasa. Our Temples Are Not The God-encrusted Shrines Of Varanasi, But Western Scientific Institutions Like Caltech And Mit, And Magazines Like 'nature' And 'scientific American.

I Gather You Yellow-skinned Men, Despite Your Triumphs In Sewage, Drinking Water, And Olympic Gold Medals, Still Don't Have Democracy. Some Politician On The Radio Was Saying That That's Why We Indian Are Going To Beat You: We May Not Have Sewage, Drinking Water, And Olympic Gold Medals, But We Do Have Democracy. If I Were Making A Country, I'd Get The Sewage Pipes First, Then The Democracy, Then I'd Go About Giving Pamphlets And Statues Of Gandhi To Other People, But What Do I Know? I Am Just A Murderer!

Like Most People Who Live In India, I Complain About Corruption, But Know That I Can Live With Corrupt Men. It Is The Honest Ones I Secretly Worry About.

Too Much Of Indian Writing In English, It Seemed To Me, Consisted Of Middle-class People Writing About Other Middle-class People - And A Small Slice Of Life Being Passed Off As An Authentic Portrait Of The Country.

With Their Tinted Windows Up, The Cars Of The Rich Go Like Dark Eggs Down The Roads Of Delhi. Every Now And Then An Egg Will Crack Open A Woman's Hand, Dazzling With Gold Bangles, Stretches Out An Open Window, Flings An Empty Mineral Water Bottle Onto The Road And Then The Window Goes Up, And The Egg Is Resealed.