Anger and frustration. Reading here, makes me angry!

When I pick up the paper, I too often end my perusal of its pages by flinging the pages to the ground, my ire raised by the myriad tragedies and scandals I've just read about. India has problems! Of course, it also has talent, beauty and brilliance. India defies easy analysis and definition and the daily papers are chock full of the contradictions that make India all but impossible to completely comprehend. A first-time visitor, whose reading material on the incoming flight consisted of a business magazine trumpeting the "rising tiger" of Asia, might be surprised at the chaos, stench and criminality that greets the newly arrived at the Delhi airport. Touts swarm, line-ups stretch every which-way and customs officers' fingers nimbly search baggage before unfolding, palms upturned, expecting a few US dollars in exchange for making whatever customs violation they have invented, disappear. This does not mean the business magazine was wrong; much of India is rising, and most impressively. Meanwhile, however, much of it continues to crumble and too many of its people, despite the progress, are falling through the cracks by the millions. Even the most sanitized visit to India will reveal gross inequalities. So if the business visitor can take a break from an undoubtedly hectic schedule of meetings and consultations, to open the newspaper and read, for 15 or 20 minutes about the disturbing communal violence, endemic corruption and ineffective government, well, they may end up flinging it to the floor as well.

But India is not defined by its thousand and one problems, anymore than it is by a glowing writeup in some hyper-capitalist periodical. Descriptions that exclusively describe one or the other are superficial.
It is the contradictions themselves that define India; accepting this reality is an important step to understanding the country and if one is a foreigner living here, making peace with it.

I'm cynical, sometimes bitter, often angry. As such, I'm limiting my newspaper intake. There is too much wonder and beauty in India to focus on the negative. It is not even that we have to look too far to find this, living as we are as priveleged diplomats in a lovely, peaceful neighborhood in one of the most historically important cities in the world, one bursting with monuments, creativity, learning and inspiration. So I'm taking tabla lessons. Snapping lots of photos. Counting my blessings. Kissing my wife and playing with my beautiful son. I'll keep my newspaper subscription. But I'll stop throwing the paper around.