wishful thinking

I have been watching the events in Mumbai unfold with keen interest and concern, since I spent much of the last fiscal year living and working there, and made a lot of friends along the way. (They are all safe and sound, I know in the meantime.)

I've talked before about a phenomenon I call "Indian truth," where often you are told what the other person thinks you want to hear, no matter what the truth actually is. Your new kurta will be ready on Wednesday, the electrician will be arriving within 15 minutes, the meal does not contain ingredient X, the scarf is 100% pashmina, etc. This truth-they-think-you-wish-were-true is harmless enough, if incredibly frustrating, when it comes to quotidian examples like the ones I just mentioned, but it has been showing itself in matters of far greater import this week. Something like 48 hours ago the Indian authorities were asserting that the situation at the Taj hotel was completely resolved, yet as late as a couple of hours ago there were multiple eyewitness reports coming in that suggested anything but. So, apparently the officials meant that other than the continuing gunfire and explosions, terrified people holed up in their rooms, numerous dead bodies still scattered inside, at least one terrorist alive, armed, and roaming the building, and...oh yeah, the building being on fire again, the situation has been resolved? Way to go with that!

I'm not surprised either that many are questioning why the fire brigade is so inadequate and why it is taking so long for the situation in general to get under control. In India it seems everything is either not organized at all, or organized to the point of being choked with pointless, circular bureaucracy. Now throw in a soupçon barrel of corruption and a shocking lack of infrastructure and mix it up with a city of about 15 million people, most of whom live in slums. Of course they can't pull their shit together.