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Flickr Slideshow
Reportage from the Road
There is a special bond between a man and his chicken and no darn bird flu is going to change that. Damnit.
I am told that 80% of all buildings in Delhi are built illegally, that is without proper permits or on land zoned for some other purpose. The problem is not unique to Delhi but the city government and courts have been particularly aggresive in punishing the offenders. The odd part is that offendors are often big property developers that are building sleak shopping malls or office bulidlings.
Last week I photographed what the Delhi government considers the solution. They use bulldozers to demolish the shiny new buildings, which would be fine if they actually demolished the buildings and hauled away the rubble. But they never get that far. Instead they ruin the buildings, then put a sign outside saying the building is dangerous and condemned. So the end result is the nice buildings are ruined and the old, dirty buildlings next to them are left standing.
The logic is theater of the absurd to me, but most people I talk to here agree with the policy. You have to start somewhere they say. And why not start with the rich developers that have skirted zoning laws to save a buck and have paid off politicians to make it happen.
Fine but why destroy the buildings and not remove them. Better yet, why not fine the building developers or just take their buildings and use them for the community. Or have the government rent them out and use the revenues for special programs.
Preview of Fashion Week coming to New Delhi, India.
It's a bad idea to give teachers guns as demonstrated by a professor shooting competition at St. Steven's College in New Delhi
I am working on a story here about people that spend outrageous amounts of money on the most extravagant flowers.
Muppet master, Marty Robinson, on the set of the new Indian version of Sesame Street called Galli Galli Sim Sim.
Sesame Street is finally hitting India. I shot on the set of the new show here called Galli Galli Sim Sim. Big Bird is gone but replaced by the fun loving Boombah the Lion. The costume is so big that the actor who walks around in it cannot see. Thus he is clumsily led on and off of the set.
Most of the time we must take auto rickshaws, here just called autos.
They have regular rickshaws too, the kind that are drawn by a man on bicycle, but those are only for small journeys and the city is quite large.
By and large, the auto drivers are out to screw you for the fare. They try to screw locals on every ride so you can imagine their delight when they see us coming. A few days ago a driver tried to hit us for ten times the real fare. All of the autos have meters but very few of the drivers will agree to use it. So most of the time you must negotiate. Which would be fine if the drivers would take a reasonable rate, but most would rather lose the fare entirely than miss an opportunity to screw you. I don't quite get it.
At this point, I know the price of most fares around the city, but sometimes it still takes me talking to five or six autos before one will agree to take me for a reasonable rate or the meter.