I'm Back

I finally made it home from India yesterday. An incredible trip, for sure. But very hard, absolutely the longest trip of my life. Coming home, from the time I left my hotel in India to the time I landed in Detroit yesterday morning was 24 hours. To top things off I came down with a really bad flu the last two days I was there. Burning chest, fever, night sweats, cough, runny nose (no, it isn't malaria). I have no appetite whatsoever. Almost anything I try to eat makes me feel ill. I have pretty bad jet lag too. But I will go to the doctor today and I'm sure I'll feel a lot better tomorrow.

What can I say about India? Unfortunately, I find it hard to put into words. It was a business trip, a training conference. I had very little free time and anywhere we went we were hermetically sealed inside a tour bus. We only went to top shelf places. Most of what I saw of real life was viewed from behind a window. But I did see a lot. We drove through many towns, and the roadways are jammed with throngs of people living hard alongside everywhere you go. All I can say is, the living conditions I saw were extremely rough. Very hard to look at but at the same time you can't take your eyes off of it. I found myself crying in my hotel room one night after thinking of something I saw, something I will never, ever forget for as long as I live. It is all a little shocking (for an Upper-Midwestern American anyway). After a while though you see that daily life goes on. There is beauty. And while what I observed stirred a hundred unanswerable questions my sense of humanity was profoundly touched.

India is absolutely booming and the mood of the people is good, confident. There is construction everywhere. Changes are happening at an incredible pace. And the benefits are reaching down to regular people. It's a very exciting time for India.

One thing I will say is that the problem of effective, affordable housing is very apparent. Sanitation is a huge problem, as are energy and appropriate response to a somewhat difficult climate. I'm not sure they're on the right track yet, because what I saw were a lot of of concrete high rise apartment buildings being erected. But I only had a very limited view so I'm not speaking from a particularly well informed perspective.

Thankfully, the trip wasn't all business, and I had one free day to spend visiting the Taj Mahal with my colleagues. Amazing! Whatever you think of this New 7 Wonders, the Taj Mahal belongs. It is really spectacular. Here are a few pictures I took.






















It's really something, isn't it? For me it was probably a once in a lifetime opportunity to see it, and I'm very glad I had the chance.

I'll be back to normal pretty soon. Regular posts should resume shortly, so keep an eye out. Sorry for the long time off, it wasn't easy for me to ignore my site for over a week like that. I was having bad blogging withdrawals!

It is good to be home.