India - The rest of the story

India perspective:
We’ve talked a lot about how wonderful it is here and how great an adventure India is for us, we’ve also bragged about the great meals and wonderful people so we figured we are all overdue a bit of a reality check before covering the last couple of days’ events.
India truly is all those wonderful things we’ve talked about but it also has a less wonderful side – it is dirty, crowded, poor, polluted, noisy, corrupt (we’ve paid a few bribes ourselves) and in desperate need of good infrastructure. The roads are bad, the rivers, streams and ponds are polluted, the streets contain every imaginable species of feces (to include that of elephants) and the poor are so far below any rational poverty level that we in the States could never even imagine their life. It is also a land of magical contradictions.
With all the dirt, corruption and poverty if you know the magic symbols of technology you have the keys to a parallel magical India were everything is efficient, fast, honest and everything works. With the words WIFI you can book a train without waiting in line, print you ticket without an extra fee and reserve the best seat and get confirmation, with a discount, in a matter of minutes with either of two magical words: text message (SMS) or email. There are no lines or fees to get money if you just say “ATM and PIN number”; you can talk to the US for pennies a minute if you can cast the correct spell over your cell phone to place money on it (by a phone call). You can obtain a magic key to the WIFI kingdom at any airport if you can text, “wifi IAP” and you’ll receive an instant reply with the secret code. All these wonderful things are possible in the technical magic that is the new India; however, without these keys you seriously struggle –long lines, extra fees (bribes), poor choices, delays and sometimes an impossible mission.
Steve