A deep and abiding disdain for India and its conditions makes any foreign idea a favoured option, however ill-conceived its application. It has taken the politician and bureaucrat 60 years of tireless foreign study tours to look for solutions to Indian problems. A two-week tour of Sydney to study Olympic facilities, a week to study expressway interchanges in Los Angeles, a month of serious scrutiny of the Brazilian rain forest, a careful week-long assessment of the Russian metro system, a thorough investigation of Singapore and Hong Kong airports. All, to what effect? Is there any similarity between Hong Kong, and say, Delhi airport? In fact, is there any similarity between Hong Kong and Delhi? Are Indian forests any better preserved after the international study?

In the government’s eyes, the physical visible landscape has always been the most potent sign of a country’s progress. The sudden urge to connect all major metropolitan cities in the ’90s with the Grand Quadrilateral of highways was meant to be just another symbolic reminder of India’s arrival on the world stage. If you took the highway in western UP, the four-lane road had all the attributes of the American expressway: high speed driving on a raised tarmac, steel guard rails, and a surface so utterly smooth and flawless, it was hard to imagine you were in India. Till suddenly, without warning, you encountered a series of broken embankments, crossings of bullock carts, and a complete disruption of traffic flow. In the urge to be global, the minor details of Indian rural life got missed. And over time, the surrounding villages created the cross traffic required to connect them to each other during harvesting season.

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