Gridlock, Delhi Style
My first experience of some of India's 'too manys'. Too many people, too many cars... and not enough roads.
At the India International Trade Fair held in New Delhi this week, the first was much in evidence. Once the doors were flung open to the public, the crowds swamped what was otherwise a vast exhibition centre like an tsunami breaking over a pile of sandcastles.
And this was notwithstanding the traffic outside. The papers were later to report that the traffic today was among Delhi's worst ever. For me this was epitomised by both people I was due to meet at the show telling me "I'll be fifteen minutes" and subsequently taking an hour and a half.
The problem was exacerbated not only by the cows (plus elephants, camels and other slow-moving creatures that use India's highways) but a wedding procession that blocked up a whole district of the city. The police simply could not cope.
In a sense all this is a bit romantic, but really it is not. It has become very clear to me that India's infrastructural improvement is paramount if it is really to enjoy the benefits of the economic boom Otherwise it will remain stuck in the traffic jam of history for eternity.
