Greetings from Sector 17

I have now arrived in the city of Chandigarh in Northern India. We are approximately 250 km from the Pakistani border. I am sitting in a very large hotel room on the 5th floor and through the large gaps in the door out on the concrete balcony I can here the sounds of this 114 square km city with over 1 million people. I am residing that is called sector 17. This city is the first purpose-built city after India's independence. There was mostly jungle then but now it is a place of wide streets and avenues. It is amazing how something that is only 60 years old can seem so run down but that seems to be the way of India.

There is a very large military presence here due to the close proximity to Pakistan. The airport is joint with a military base and you are instructed not to use cameras while taxiing in. There are stray dogs on the runway, one of them casually sniffing at the decaying body of a former companion and the whole place looks tired. The terminal building is surrounded by construction because they are building an international airport. The building site is blocked off by gaping metal plates.

I think I see someone go off with my suitcase but it was a false alarm. I think I was a little high strung after heavy turbulence and the feeling that this is not a place you might instinctively trust people. As we walk out to the parking area one walks besides a guard. There is nothing abnormal in that, but the point is that he is standing in a reinforcement with sandbags at the top. From a opening in the handbags there is protruding a machine gun. He is standing behind pretty much ready to get mid-evil on anyone: Machine gun on shoulder = I feel safe, Machine gun pointed out of a mini-bunker = I have just stepped into a war zone.

When we get out to the parking area I see approximately 15 soldiers and their are using mirrors to check for bombs under cars. Same procedure when we arrive at the hotel, which after a 30 min drive is the nicest building I have seen.

Tomorrow morning at 05:00 we set off for a 6 hour car journey north. I have been assured we aren't going to Kashmir, so genereally all is well.

The section below was written on the plane, just to account for any changes in writing style.

Since i wrote last I have gotten by first encounter with the Indian bureaucracy. On Monday I visited a public office in India and it was one of the most derelict thing I have ever seen. This place was probably built in the 50's and hasn't been renovated since. Things seem to work in ranks here and the top guy is the only one who talks. Everyone just listens. Phones ring and are answered during the meeting and papers come in that need to be signed. I am very happy that I read up a little on this and it totally rings true. The top guy was very no-nonsense and to the point and I rather enjoyed that.

The next meeting was with a consultancy firm and this was located in a beautiful office building with green lawns and a lake outside (obviously within a walled off area). Also a little warn down but the building and office could easily have passed for the US or the UK. Meet very kind people and they seemed genuinely interested in our proposal.

Now, these two meeting took up most of the day. Now what I mean is that we spent in total for the day 30 min waiting (very very good by Indian standards apparently), 1.5 hours in meetings, 45 minutes for lunch and the approx. 5 getting to and from where we needed to go. The distances are big and the traffic is appalling. Luckily we have always been driving in cars with very effective A/C. The temperature has thus far not been a problem at all, which has been a very pleasant surprise. The area where I'm traveling to now has current highs around 10 degrees, so I finally have a use for the down jacket I have been lugging with me.

The traffic has amazed me and how I hadn't seen an accident: monday changed all that. I also wondered how people manage to stay calm in such a hectic environment: That has also changed. I motorised rigshaw had crashed into the front end of a car. As we drove by I would tell the conversation was heated. As I look back the car driver i continuiously beating on the rigshaw driver. As far as I could tell the driver was down on the ground before anyone decided to interviene.

I have more encounters with poverty as inevitable. I have seen children sitting in the middle of the road picking fleas and lice out of each others hair: Filthy dirty and malnourished. I have seen begging cross dressers or what might have been unichs. I have seen begger with his forearm destroyed: half way down the forearm he must have had an accident because it ended in a stub and the hand was point 180 degrees, hence resting up the forearm with the fingers pointing in the direction of the elbow. I have seen a woman holding a small childwho was entire made up with eyeliner: I don't know what that was about but I fear the worst. I have seen mothers trying to beat the filth and dust out of their children s clothing, the children standing naked waiting because that one garment is the only thing they have to wear.

I have also seen the lifestyle of the haves. I have seen many Mercedes S-classes, a Lamborghini, a number of Porsche Chayenne, Jaguars, Range Rovers as well as the local Rolls Royce dealer.