Glimpses of Indian optimism and frustration
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Mumbai
ARRIVING at the new international airport in Mumbai after an interval of several years feels like having gotten on the wrong connecting flight and ending up in Shanghai. The building is sparkling. The walkway to the immigration counter doubles as a museum filled with paintings, sculptures and handmade crafts from around the country.
But the old familiar India soon returns when you drive out of the parking garage and past the slums near the airport made famous by Katherine Boo's book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers. Stunning wealth and wrenching poverty have always coexisted here. And they still do - despite the unbridled optimism of politicians, business executives and middle-class Indians about the kind of economic transformation symbolised by Mumbai's new airport.
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