Festival of Lights?

It's a bit ironic that on Diwali, the festival of lights, there's no power in Delhi.

It's only for an hour or so, and by now, Tyler and I have gotten used to it -- shifting from our computers to just walking around our apartment, talking. During my first year in India, my good friend, roommate, and co-Acumen Fellow, John Tucker, helped me reframe the daily power outages. After one of my usual tirades about "How can any work get done in this country?!" when the power consistently went out in the middle of the working day (although never at the same time, so you could never just plan for it) -- he suggested just taking it all in stride. "Have a cup of chai and just talk to your colleagues."

Four years later, I have finally started coming close to exhibiting chalta hai -- the Indian sense of "it is what it is" -- so just make do.

There's a recent Financial Times blog post appropriately titled: "Life in Mumbai: blackouts, floods, deadly disease, and other opportunities" discussing the dichotomy between Mumbai becoming a global financial hub (with housing prices rivaling London and NY), yet still enduring daily blackouts and other not-so-insignificant nuisances. I remember Chris Walker talking about his daily commutes to work, having to wade through knee-high water but also not knowing if there were huge potholes on the ground.

The FT writer blogs:

"A few powerless hours in Mumbai aren't unheard of either. But prolonged blackouts like Sunday's are a vivid reminder of how India's shoddy infrastructure -- even in its most economically vibrant city -- does not match up to the country's ambitious as a global economic leader.

After all, how do you do business in a city where, on a given day, you might be stuck in traffic for two hours just to travel 15 km, be trapped for days by rising floodwaters, or contract a deadly disease in the comfort of your own home?

Those things tend not to happen in London or New York or Singapore. Even China, India's closest rival, has urban infrastructure that largely rivals that of the West.

But Mumbaikers -- they make do."

So, I should add, do Delhi-ites.