Students from SIPA visit India, Meet Indian Prime Minister

(with contributions from my co-organizer Monoswita Saha, and trip participants – Eric Turner, Jiaming Ju, Adrian Talbott and Pablo Alfaro)

India has a way of wrapping its visitors into a bear hug of colors, smells, sights and sounds.  As the organizers, one of the most enjoyable aspects of the SIPA South Asia Association’s first ever SIPA India Trip was watching our 13 trip participants experience India for the first time.  Through their awe, surprise, appreciation, and delight, we saw India through fresh eyes once again.

Starting from January 5th 2012, in 11 days, we traveled from the orderly layout of Delhi to the enchanting city of Agra. We crossed the hectic streets of Mumbai in the quest for cool green coconuts, and finally, it was in Kerala, after a meeting with the chief minister, that time stopped for a moment.  We enjoyed the ocean breeze under the moon light, and quietly took in the sunset while lounging on a house boat in the beautiful backwaters.

Over the course of our trip, we met with ten of India’s foremost public and nonprofit leaders to learn from their experiences in tackling some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Each meeting was as varied as each day we spent in India. Our first meeting was with the Honorable Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh, who framed the problems of India in the right context.

In our subsequent meetings, we focused on the micro realities, for example through site visits to primary school education initiatives run by Pratham in slums of Mumbai. Although India defies summarization, our participants have created vignettes on each destination that provide an overall flavor for the trip.

Delhi

On January 5, after a 25 hour long flight from JFK, fifteen weary Columbia graduate students landed amidst the thick fog of Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi. Despite the inauspicious weather, it was the start of a memorable journey – the first-ever, student-planned, student-led SIPA trip to this magical country. The group wasted little time.  Rest, it seemed, was for the weary. After a half-day of some quick sight-seeing, the group visited Hazrat Nizammudin Dargah, where we jostled our way amidst the crowded streets to view a Qawwali performance, a form of Sufi devotional music popular in South Asia that stretches back more than 700 years.

Next day, the country’s Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, surprised the group by making time in his busy schedule to welcome our group at his official residence for a twenty-minute question-and-answer session. From there, we quickly hustled to meet Dr. C. Rangarajan, Chairman of Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister who gave us a crash-course lesson in the dynamics of India’s burgeoning economy. Our full day of meetings culminated with a session at a nonprofit called PRS Legislative Research, where one of the co-founders, Mr. Madhavan, explained their work on promoting transparency and accountability in the Indian Parliament through watch-dog research.

On our final day in Delhi, we met with Dr. Madhav Chavan, co-founder and CEO of Pratham, the largest NGO providing quality education to the underprivileged children of India.  The scale and efficacy of Pratham, and Dr. Chavan’s legacy, was virtually unfathomable: 2.4 million children had been reached through the organization’s Read India Program, 61,000 teachers had been trained, and 65,000 volunteers had been recruited in more than 47,000 villages across India to achieve this ambitious mission.

Agra

Even though our one-day trip to Agra was our shortest visit to any of the Indian cities, it left the deepest memories in all of us. Our journey began from our hotel at 5 am, watching the empty streets of Delhi while we headed to the train station. Once in the train, the “Brides and Grooms wanted” newspaper sections kept many of us busy. In Agra, we first visited Fatehpur Sikhri, capital of the Mughal Empire for a short time in the 16^th century under the reign of Akbar, and also a filming location for the Bollywood movie “Jodhaa Akbar” (highly recommended!). Soon thereafter, we were heading to the Taj Mahal.

“The Taj”, as it is called by the locals, surprised us with a sight even more beautiful and impressive than our initial expectations. We went into the Taj watching its white marble walls decorated with beautiful figures, made with semi-precious stones perfectly inlayed into the marble as if they were drawings. After taking hundreds of pictures trying to treasure all these memories (jumping, watching the horizon, smiling romantically, etc.), we addressed the impossible mission of getting the perfect marble souvenir at “the fair price”. We tried showing off our bargaining skills, but with limited success. Anyways, this marble craft was one of the most beautiful handicrafts many of us had ever seen.

Mumbai

Descending into Mumbai, with its sprawling slums and high-rise buildings lining the horizon, the contrasts with Delhi were immediately apparent. The weather was perfect for an afternoon tour that featured the Gateway of India, a public bus ride down Marine Drive, Gandhi’s residence in the 1920s, the seemingly endless open-air laundromat or Dhobi Ghat, and one of Mumbai’s most impressive structures, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus.

Mumbai was an ideal setting to address major urban policy issues, which we had the opportunity to discuss with the city’s Municipal Commissioner, Mr. Subodh Kumar. As the leading policymaker for the city, Mr. Kumar emphasized the difficulty involved in managing a city with over 15 million residents, 53% of who live in slums. Soon after, we met Ms. Chetna Sinha and her colleagues from Mann Deshi Bank. They traveled for 10 hours by bus to meet us, and provided us with an overview of the microfinance services they provide to rural women entrepreneurs in India. Their bus also serves as the Mobile Business School for rural women. It was exciting to be able to board the bus, and observe participants learning computer processing skills side-by-side with women sewing handbags and other crafts.

Next day, we visited a relocation facility of the nonprofit organization – Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers (SPARC), which advocates for housing rights of the neediest slum-dwellers and the homeless. This was followed by a visit to pre-school learning centres operated by the NGO Pratham in slums of Mumbai. The evening ended with a networking reception organized by the Columbia Alumni Association for our group. It was good to see many past and current SIPA students join us for this event.

Kerala

The warmth immediately embraced us upon our arrival in Kerala. The abundant coconut plantations, sweet sunshine and verdant landscape made Kerala the perfect final destination.  On our ride from the airport, communist flags and political banners signaled an upcoming election but were in strange contrast with the overall relaxed atmosphere.

At first glance, Kerala doesn’t seem to be a place of interest for policy wonks. But the state with the highest literacy rate and gender equality in India has been on the frontier of human development for years. We had the opportunity to meet with Mr. Oommen Chandy, Honorable Chief minister of Kerala. Mr. Chandy touched on challenges such as low growth, and the difficulty to maintain a healthy eco-system with a tourism driven economy.  To gain a different perspective, we visited the Center for Development Studies, India’s leading development economics institution. Here, Prof. Joseph Tharamangalam gave a historical overview of the Kerala development model, and suggested solutions to the challenges ahead.

Kerala is famous for its sandy beaches, flavorsome cuisine and unique culture. The mouthwatering fish fried in coconut oil, crunchy mango pickles and fresh stir-fry were a refreshing change from the curry dishes. The colorful Kathakali performance, Kalari Payattu (Kerala martial arts) and the traditional Ayurvedic massages gave us a sense of the incredible diversity and culture Kerala is home to. After a long bus ride, our trip ended with an overnight stay at a houseboat on the quiet and scenic backwaters of Kerala.

Should India Receive Development Aid?

(Cross-posted from The Morningside Post, November 18, 2011)

Last month, Japan announced that it will make significant cuts to its Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) program to other Asian countries, with the exception of one – India. Despite a declining economy and the twin calamities of the tsunami and Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japan has increased its commitment to fund development projects in India to the tune of $2.6 billion this year, making India the largest recipient of ODA funds from Japan for eight years in a row.

Japan’s decision underlines an important yet surprising trend in the murky and sometimes comical world of international development aid: as India continues to register strong economic growth and accumulates vast amounts of foreign reserves, it is rising to become world’s largest borrower of bilateral and multilateral development aid funds.

India’s sovereign external debt has risen steadily over the last decade to $ 78 billion, with an average growth of 18% over the last two years. Last year, India was the single largest borrower of funds from the World Bank ($9.3 billion) and the Asian Development Bank ($2.1 billion). Besides Japan, the UK too has been a longstanding bilateral donor to India. Notwithstanding the Euro zone crisis or its domestic budget cuts, UK recently announced a $1.6 billion aid package to India to be disbursed over next 5 years.

The other half of the story is even more interesting.

The Indian economy has grown at an impressive rate of 7 to 8% since 2000, resulting in growing national wealth and a rapid rise in government expenditure in infrastructure and social programs. Last week, India’s central bank reported a total of $320 billion held in foreign exchange reserves, making India the world’s seventh richest country by the size of its reserves, above Germany, South Korea, and France.

Over the past few years, India has steadily increased its aid commitments to countries in Africa and South Asia. This year, India confirmed its intention to join the ranks of big donor countries by announcing plans to set up its own development aid agency on the lines of USAID to disburse $11 billion in aid over the next five to seven years. If this wasn’t enough, India also decided to contribute $2 billion to the fund setup to fund bailouts of troubled Euro nations.

This paradox in India’s foreign aid policy has upset many analysts.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal’s blog, Rupa Dahejia questions the need for India to receive charity to build its roads when it can afford to splash money on Commonwealth Games, or for the World Bank to continue giving interest free loans to India when the money is more badly needed in the poorest nations of sub-Saharan Africa. The UK’s decision to extend aid to India was heavily criticized by its national media and politicians. Gerri Peev, writing for the Daily Mail, noted, “surely it is madness for us to be channeling precious funds to a country which… is the fourth largest economy in the world… and chooses to have prestige projects (nuclear and space programs) that are beyond our own means.”

Is India’s foreign aid policy really contradictory? Should India set its record straight, stop receiving outside development assistance and start financing its projects through its own money?  Perhaps not.

Even though India is amongst the world’s top emerging economies, over 40% of its population is still below the poverty line, far exceeding the number of poor in the entire sub-Saharan Africa region. In its 12th five year plan covering the period 2012 to 2017, the Planning Commission of India has outlined an investment need of $1 trillion in infrastructure. Undoubtedly, the government will face a tough challenge marshalling the resources to fund India’s development – social and economic – and will need to tap suitable external sources.

So the question boils down to this: What is the most efficient way for India to access global finance to fund its developmental needs? Against the popular perception, India receives very few grants or “free money”. Most of the development assistance channeled to India is in the form of long-term low interest loans.

It is true that unlike some countries, India has the option of raising funds directly from the capital markets by issuing sovereign bonds. However, India’s bonds do not receive the highest rating, and hence must pay a larger interest rate than bonds issued by the World Bank or ADB to raise funds that are eventually loaned out to borrowing countries. Simply put, it is cheaper for India to borrow from bilateral and multilateral donors than to raise funds directly. The difference in interest rates might not seem much, but adds up to significant amounts when the money being loaned runs into the tens of billions.

But what explains the fact that institutions like World Bank have steadily increased their loans to India, at the expense of funding other poor and more deprived nations?

The reality is that in today’s increasingly multi-polar world, countries tend to secure their interests through a complex web of bilateral relations and regional affiliations. Most multilateral institutions are battling to stay relevant, and see good reason in aligning themselves with countries like India that are fighting extreme poverty, yet have a significant say in shaping the future global economic order. Besides, with political turmoil in Africa and a deepening global economic crisis, India – with its excellent track record of debt repayment – is a more reliable borrower than other countries.

This leaves us with one final, and seemingly the most contradictory of India’s foreign aid policy decisions. If India is really serious about its development, shouldn’t it stop giving out vast amounts of aid to other countries, and use its scarce resources to fund its own road construction and anti-poverty programs?

India’s response here is better understood from the viewpoint of its national interest than a normative view of the country’s responsibility towards its citizens. Unlike the past, “bilateral aid” today is largely a political and diplomatic tool to advance the foreign policy interests of both aid-giving and aid-receiving nation. As India joins the league of the world’s top economies, it is eager to assert its dominance in the region and in the world. The world too sees a good trade partner in India, and is keen to have a counter-balance to the growing dominance of China. Hence it plays in.

Further, most critics who argue that India should spend all its money on internal development projects fail to acknowledge the biggest challenge that India faces – the sheer lack of capacity to implement large scale development projects. Earlier this year, in March 2011, India’s auditor general released an incriminating report which revealed that India is sitting on $2 billion worth of unused foreign aid for water supply and sanitation projects. In fact, during the period 2009-10, India ended up paying $16 million in fines to the World Bank and ADB for delay in utilisation of approved assistance.

“With such high foreign reserves and an open access to capital markets, surely India doesn’t need this money,” says Dr Arvind Panagariya, an economist and a professor at SIPA who teaches a course on Indian economy. Dr Panagariya is right. India doesn’t need this money, but it surely wants it. And the world has its own reasons to give it to India.

Hyderabad, an Emerging Model for India's Cities

(Cross posted from the article I wrote for SIPA's student blog themorningsidepost.com)

On Wednesday, 14^th September 2011, when Dr. Sameer Sharma, the Municipal Commissioner of the city of Hyderabad in India, walked up to deliver his speech at SIPA’s Global Mayors Forum, few from the audience had heard or known of Hyderabad as a model for India’s urban development. Yet, fifty minutes later, few were left with doubt.

Global Mayors Forum is an exciting series featuring leaders of the world’s most dynamic cities, and is sponsored by the Urban and Social Policy concentration at SIPA. Prior participants at the Forum have included Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City, Mayor Boris Johnson of London and Mayor Syed Mustafa Kamal of Karachi. Introducing Dr. Sharma at the 2011 Global Mayors Forum, Prof. Ester Fuchs, Director of Urban and Social Policy concentration said “Cities are the world’s most important laboratories for innovative policy making. This forum examines both challenges confronting global cities and also showcases visionary and creative leaders of these cities and the kind of policies that they pursue.”

Dr. Sharma, who belongs to the elite Indian Administrative Services (IAS) cadre of civil servants in India, spoke candidly about his experiences as a city manager, and the challenges he faced in making Hyderabad India’s best governed city. In just under two years, Dr. Sharma brought about sweeping changes in Hyderabad’s community participation structures, used technology to increase accountability of government officials, and harnessed the forces of globalization to propel Hyderabad’s long term economic growth.

Hyderabad, India’s sixth largest city with a population of 6 million, is the capital of the state of Andhra Pradesh in southern India. Over the past two decades, the city has earned reputation as a global IT destination and the nickname ‘Cyberabad’ after successfully attracting firms such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon. However, the urban governance systems in Hyderabad exhibited similar shortcomings as all major Indian cities – poor service delivery and a highly centralized system of governance.

In 2009, soon after he returned from US with a Ph.D. in Urban Development at the University of Cincinnati, Dr. Sharma took over the office of the Municipal Commissioner of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. Under India’s urban governance structure, the Commissioner holds executive authority over a city and has powers far exceeding that of the Mayor. Dr Sharma used this opportunity to blend his prior experiences as a Municipal Commissioner (for the cities of Vijayawada and Vishakapatnam) in Andhra Pradesh with the theories he came across in his doctoral program, to initiate a variety of unique and innovative programs in Hyderabad.

One of these initiatives was the use mobile phones to increase government accountability. In a first-of-its-kind deployment anywhere across the world, the city of Hyderabad has built a web based Off Site Real Time (OSRT) monitoring system which relies on the inbuilt camera of a mobile phone and GPRS technology to match pictures of field level staff and their street locations with preset data, and register attendance. An anywhere, anytime accountability mechanism, the OSRT provides real-time information in solid waste management, urban planning, public works and street lighting to municipal managers and the citizens.

Another key initiative was the decentralization of local governance in Hyderabad to Ward Committees (similar to Community Boards in New York City) and Area Sabhas, or neighborhood associations. In determining which functions would be devolved, Dr. Sharma referred to the “Principal of Subsidiarity” – a commonly used concept in the theory of local governance. Given that participatory democracy is a new concept to India’s urban citizens, Dr. Sharma relied on 2009 Noble laureate Elinor Ostrom’s theory of “Rules in Use” when formulating the procedures through which these local participatory structures would function. The result has been a significant shift to bottom up decision making where public interest is constructed through local discourse. About 20% of the city’s annual budget is now decided through these new bodies.

While the community level decentralization project has been welcomed by citizens and NGOs, Dr. Sharma cautioned that the initiative is facing resistance from the city councilors, who are averse to sharing power and having citizens ask them questions about their work. The true test of Dr. Sharma’s initiatives will lie in the duration that they survive without being diluted or subverted by elected representatives, and whether if Hyderabad’s model inspires other cities across India to adopt similar programs. Nevertheless, this interaction with Dr. Sharma showed SIPA students how individual leaders with creative ideas can influence far reaching policies.

One down, Three more to go

“OH NO, one-fourth of our honeymoon is over!” exclaimed a friend as we walked out of a crowded Altschul Auditorium after finishing the much dreaded econ (read: Economics for International and Public Affairs) finals paper. While the joy and relief of having survived the toll of the finals was evident on most faces, it was accompanied by a queer feeling of disbelief how quickly our first semester at SIPA got over. Evidently most of us, and that certainly includes me, had fallen in love with life at SIPA!

It’s hard to imagine the insanity of the last four months at SIPA and New York City. Right from the time I left India in early August, I was consumed by this feeling of having to make the most out of my stay in US. After six years of (almost) non-stop work, two years of graduate study seemed like a nice long holiday and at the same time a unique opportunity to study and experience things that I had ever been wanting to! And so, as soon as I landed in NYC, I was up and about the business.

In the last four months, this was the story of my life in brief – lost a brand new smart phone in Central Park in Week One (Adversity builds Character, I am told), discovered the wonders of living at a place like International House, connected to old IIT friends in US and made some awesome new friends at SIPA from India, France, Brazil, Spain, US, NYC and California (friends from last two places insist that they be included in a list of sovereign states), credited 4 and audited 3 courses at Columbia (I did it coz I had to!), trained hard and ran the NYC marathon in 4 hrs (in the process, fell in love with Central Park – a runner’s paradise), got to learn about a fabulous non-profit called Union Settlement Association in East Harlem and raised $2000 for them through my marathon run, had a traditional Thanksgiving and Christmas day experience (thanks to my host families), and finally, enjoyed my first sledding experience in the post-blizzard snow of NYC yesterday.

This is where I live - International House (Special gift if you can spot me)

Ran the NYC marathon 2010

Thanksgiving day meal with Coleman family, Connecticut

Christmas day celebration with Joyce family, New Jersey

Fun in post-blizzard snow in New York

(Picture Credit: Chitrangada Choudhary's Stellar Moments Inc.)

One of the interesting things I attempted in this period was trying to unravel the intricacies of US politics. Armed with a paper subscription to New York Times (surprisingly, that’s very old-school in US), I was determined to understand the seemingly complex interest-group ridden world of US politics. Like many in my generation all over the world, I found President Obama’s rise to power immensely inspirational. At the same time, I was keen to see how exactly he would set about fulfilling his lofty campaign promises and how American citizens would react to the same. A mix of factors – reading some brilliant thought-provoking reporting in NYT, midterm elections to the US Congress, a large focus on US policy in many of SIPA courses – have ensured that what started out as deep curiosity developed into a strong (maybe permanent) interest in following US politics. This also means, that I haven’t spent as much time as I would have liked to in keeping track (major controversies aside) of Indian politics. I need to work on that.

On the academic front, it has been a satisfying experience so far. I haven’t learned as much about policy issues all over the world (India excluded) in my entire life as I did in these last four months at Columbia. I think that was partly due to my deep interest in public issues in India and partly due to the inadequate reporting of international issues in Indian media. One of the wonders of US universities is that they are often (especially an ivy league like Columbia) the foci of world’s knowledge and attention – both explicit (library collections) and tacit (world leaders, faculty, guest speakers and students). When researching and writing a paper on failure of urban decentralization in India for one of my courses, I was amazed how the vast resources at Columbia made it much easier for me to research on an Indian public policy issue from here rather than from India. Every single journal article that I wanted to refer to was accessible online within 2 minutes and every single book within 2 days! As I settle down to a steady rhythm beginning next semester, I hope to make the fullest of the vast resources Columbia has to offer – wide range of course offerings, library, faculty, fellow students and innumerable talks held every single day.

A discerning eye would have noted a glaring exclusion from the what-I-did-last-summer list. Yes, I am referring to (truly) experiencing the myriad wonders of NYC – food, music, theater etc. Well, this is what I have dedicated my winter break to. J

Done with 20 mile Practice Run, the Countdown Begins!

“Will I finish this strong or will I collapse towards the end?”

“How will I keep myself hydrated given that I am running all by myself?”

“Oh no, the mid-terms are approaching and everybody is studying. And here I am, spending 4 glorious hours of a Sunday morning running in Central Park!”

As my training for the NYC marathon on 7^th November 2010 approached its peak, a flurry of questions started racing through my mind. I knew I had to get this run right in order to boost my confidence on the marathon raceday three weeks from today.

Having missed my previously scheduled 20 mile run (life at SIPA caught up on me!) two weeks back, this was the last opportunity to do a strong 20 mile practice run and get back on track for a super finish on 7^th November.

With all the burden that life @SIPA had imposed upon me, I ended up sticking to 75% of my ideal training schedule. Though I wish I had done better, I was also happy that I was running pretty strong in the last month. I ran several half-marathon distances (and more) well within my target marathon pace of 9:30min a mile. I also ran my fastest 10k at the Governor’s Island 10k race on a windy and chilly (11⁰C) morning at 7:55min a mile.

Pic: My troupe from I-House who ran the Governor's Island 10k run

But nothing was more important for me than finishing my training with a strong 20mile run, which would lead me into the tapering-off period before the marathon raceday.

I knew that running all by myself (as against running in a group / organized practice run) would mean extra effort. So I took extra care this entire week leading up to Sunday morning, just to be in perfect shape and strength on Sunday morning, including a nice pasta dinner on Saturday night at Max Cafe. If that wasn’t enough, I pepped myself up on Saturday evening by buying some extra gear - special runner’s socks and wrist bands!

I woke up today morning to discover a nice and bright sun, just as www.weather.com had predicted! A very light breakfast and a warm shower later, I hopped outside International House to begin my 20min walk to Central Park – my favourite running track.

Though I will reserve my impressions of Central Park for a dedicated blog post later, I can’t help but admit how much I have fallen in love with this patch of green land in the centre of Manatten, ever since I started running here two months back. I have seen some quirkiest of people doing coolest of things in the remotest of corners of Central Park which more than anything else, captures for me the spirit of NYC!

So as I began my long run today, I found it interesting though not surprising to see over a thousand supporters of “Avon Walk for Breast Cancer” completing the final stretch of their 40mile walk in Central Park. They were all jumping and cheering each other, and the air was filled with optimism for their chosen cause.

I think some of that optimism rubbed off to me, given how comfortably I finished the first 11 miles of my run. After a quick stop to recharge myself with some Gatorade, I started again. With each passing mile, I could see myself reducing my pace steadily yet slowly so as to be able to finish the entire distance comfortably.

The final few miles are always the ones where you need more motivation than strength to be able to get through them well. While the sight of 60yr old men and women running (very common in Central Park) and overtaking me never fail to motivate, my strongest source of motivation today ended up being a small comment from a runner friend in India last week. Training for the Bangalore ultra-marathon (75kms / 47miles), she said, “Oh, marathon? I could run that on any given day now”.

So as it turned out, I finished my 20miles today in 3hrs and 10min – just about the perfect pace I am shooting for. The best part, I felt reasonably strong at the end of it to carry on for the rest of my day as usual. In short, just the perfect kind of confidence booster I badly required.

I can now calmly sit back and wait for the magic of marathon raceday to unfold!

Support my Run at NYC Marathon 2010!

I've learned that finishing a marathon isn't just an athletic achievement. It's a state of mind; a state of mind that says anything is possible - John Hanc

There are several ways of experiencing the diversity of life that NYC offers, I am told. But none of them beats running the annual New York City marathon - one of the oldest, toughest and most popular marathons in the world.

When I was planning my move into NYC last summer, I vaguely hoped that I would get a chance to run the NYC marathon some day (only the top athletes get a direct entry). But I had no idea that I would get so lucky to run the NYC marathon this year itself!

Just a few days before I boarded my flight to US, a friend from NYC told me that his non-profit organization - Union Settlement Association, was looking for runners to run the NYC marathon on 7th November 2010 and support their work through individual fundraising efforts.

Though I was initially thrilled to learn of this opportunity, I found it difficult to arrive at a decision. I wondered if it would even be possible for me to train for a marathon within 3 months (as against the usual 5 months), especially since I had run my last marathon 3 years back. What would make this race tougher would also be the weather in NYC on race day – 5 to 10 deg C, way below my comfort limit! Not to mention the rigour of settling down in a new city and going back to college after 6 years to pursue a very demanding Masters program.

Eventually, I couldn’t succeed in talking myself out of it. The marathon bug had bit me badly and I enrolled myself to be a member of the Union Settlement team running the ING NYC marathon 2010. Ever since, I have been training like a mad man running 40-45 kms every week. The going has been surprisingly smooth so far, and I am hoping to finish the marathon in 4hrs 30min.

While I have been making great strides (sorry for that!) in my training, I need your help.

The Union Settlement Association is an organization that has been serving the East Harlem community (one of the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods of NYC) since 1895, fostering community leadership and self-sufficiency by helping local residents build better lives for themselves and their families. They do so by working in close partnership with the New York City government.

Over the last few weeks, I got to learn a lot about their work through my friend (a SIPA classmate who worked at Union Settlement before) and also after visiting their community centre in East Harlem. I must admit that I was left thoroughly impressed by the quality, professionalism and dedication of their work. In signing up to run on the Union Settlement Team, I have pledged to raise $2,500 to support their work.

They have set up a web page to provide donations to your favorite runner (i.e. yours truly :) ) and ways to learn more about Union Settlement. You can also view this brief video on the history and work of Union Settlement. I urge you to make a $100, $50 or $20 contribution today, if possible.

The last couple of years have been challenging for everyone here, certainly for those who benefit from the work of the Union Settlement. While I realize it’s a tough task to ask anyone for money, I ask that you dig deep and support me in this endeavor. If you are able to make a donation, any donation, regardless of the size, thank you for your generosity on behalf of the thousands of people who benefit from the life changing, sustaining and saving services of the Union Settlement Association.

It’s an honor for me to run under the banner of the Union Settlement and with your help, I look forward to reaching the double goal of raising $2500 and finishing the race in my personal best time!

Click here to donate funds for my run now

First Reactions of US!

As I complete my first month in US, I feel this strong urge to put down some of the great and not-so-great things that I have noticed about this country!

Before I begin, some caveats. The points listed below are not in any specific order and the observations may not be unique to US alone. But they are certainly true of US from what I have seen of it in one month and living in two very different cities – San Diego and New York. I am sure this list will evolve over time. But for now, here it goes…

Best of US #1: Sense of orderliness – This is an obvious one. The most striking feature about US (especially for somebody coming from India) is the sense of order that prevails in day-to-day life. Be it the streets or the supermarkets, flying by air or taking a ride in a NYC subway or bus, opening a bank account or locating an address, simple things are just so easier to do out here!

I can’t think of a better example than the amazingly well-organized streets of US. All of them have clear signboards (In San Diego, they even mention the plot numbers covered) and lane markings, traffic flows smoothly, everybody obeys signals, and most importantly pedestrians have equally good if not better facilities than anybody else! I wasn’t surprised when I learned that Google had mapped almost each and every building in the top US cities. I learnt this in San Diego when our GPS device running on a Google base map indicated that our destination was on the right side as we stopped our car besides the building!

NYC takes this one level further by numbering and not naming all its streets - I live off 122^nd street in Manhatten, while my home in Mumbai is on Swayambu Ganesh Mandir Marg. Not just that, my address here fits in line 1 itself (I still can’t believe it), while most Indian addresses need 3 if not more lines, with one exclusively reserved for a nearby landmark!

Best of US #2: A new concept of public spaces – One of the most striking and impressive things about US cities is the prominence they accord to creating beautiful public spaces, and the efforts they undertake to maintain them.

Be it the beautiful beaches of San Diego filled with people (even on weekdays!) doing all sorts of activities – reading a book and enjoying the sun, surfing or kayaking, jogging or listening to a free rock concert; or the Central Park in NY – a dream come true for runners and cyclists, a perfect setting for music performances and a great picnic spot, it is so refreshing to know that malls are the last thing in the minds of people here when planning a fun time outside.

I found it remarkable when a friend from San Fransisco told me that she loves her city even more with every passing year since the city government is constantly at work redeveloping and beautifying various parts of the city! I dream to hear that of an Indian city one day.

Best of US #3: Dignity of human life – Though not very obvious, I feel this is a wonderful virtue that runs deep in the American society and manifests in multiple ways. Almost all public spaces – streets, stadiums, parks, buses, toilets etc. are carefully and meticulously designed keeping the needs of the handicapped in mind. A few days back, I almost stopped and watched in awe when I saw a person on a motorized wheelchair cross multiple streets of New York, faster than the other pedestrians! In contrast, on the pavements of India, even ordinary people sometimes feel handicapped.

Besides, people smile at each other very often and though they don’t always mean it, do take the effort of asking how the other person is doing. I also noticed that most people here accord great dignity to any kind of labour, and would strike a conversation with their building security guards, bus drivers or housekeeping staff just as with any other friend.

Ok, time to move on to some not-so-great things about US…

Worst of US #1: Give me more! – Widely known as it is, the daily life of an American is indeed quite energy intensive and clearly unsustainable.

Complete reliance on cars (except for the top few cities), packaged foods, over usage of tissues and paper napkins, automated cloth dryers and dishwashers – the list of what seems to be grossly out of tune with modern sensibilities on energy consumption is endless. It almost seems like all of human knowledge has been pressed hard into service to ensure that extra little degree of comfort in doing mundane things, with little regard to that imaginary (unfortunately so!) carbon footprint.

What is depressing is that there are hardly any efforts underway to change this way of life anytime soon. Take the case of reliance on cars. As the 8^th largest city in US, San Diego is a perfect showcase. Only limited areas of the city are covered through public transport, that too with infrequent service. While part of the blame clearly goes to an urban planning paradigm that doesn’t seem to incentivize high density and multi-purpose zones resulting in large spread out cities, what was also missing was any serious attempt from the city government to put high quality public transport infrastructure in place. My guess is that the case with most other American cities won’t be very different.

Worst of US #2: Mobile industry is a big cartel – It’s strange that the mobile industry in US is hardly what you would expect it to be at a model free market society. Battle lines are clearly drawn and alliances between mobile handset manufacturers and service carriers run deep, often hurting the interests of the consumers.

For example, I can’t use an I-Phone handset if I don’t choose AT&T as my carrier howsoever poor their network might be (I am not saying it is!). Each handset manufacturer releases different (if any at all) models for different carriers resulting in a limited range of options for any consumer. What is worse is that all carriers lock you into a 1 yr or a 2yr plan with high penalties for violation, and you get to choose only between fixed talktime plans (eg. 400 or 700 mins per month) even though your average usage might be much below that.

Worst of US #3: Yet to figure this one out. Certainly goes to show that the country has more good than bad to offer to any discerning visitor!