The population of India is 1,129,866,154, The population of China is 1,321,851,888.    According an article on MSNBC, more than half of 2.6 million people do not have access to a proper toilet.   This means that over half of the people in India are living without access to a key requirement for a healthy and sanitary existence.   There is evidence of this everywhere you go in India.   The beaches away from the cities will have feces buried in the sand.   Men urinating in public is a constant, daily sight in the city.   In rural villages and parts of the city a field or vacant lot is the communal toilet ground.   Raw sewage flows in streams through the walkways of small villages.  It is difficult to plan an excursion away from home or the hotels of the city because of a lack of toilet facilities.      A summit to discuss this is unlikely to help the situation.    Sanitation requires the diligence of local government and  the backing of the central government.  Judging by press reports, both are too busy trying to stay in power to take the effort to fix this problem.   The woefully inadequate power system is the next problem and the government is similarly unable to make progress.

This is all unfortunate.   There is so much potential in this country, but so much wasted by inefficiency and a lack of infrastructure.   Perhaps the better way to look at the situation is to recognize the amazing amount of accomplishment despite the lack of basic infrastructure.

In the middle of the night the power came back on and the fan above me started up.    It reminded me of a favorite movie scene, the opening of Apocalypse Now.      The spinning of the fan blades, the oppressive heat and the realization that I am still in India.    Apocalypse Now is based on one of my favorite books, Heart of Darkness.    Francis Ford Coppolla filmed a documentary of his making of Apocalypse Now called Hearts fo Darkeness.   In that documentary he experiences his own apocalypse, moving up river and into the jungle until  “little by little we went insane”.

Like the Kurtz of Conrad or Coppolla,  we have moved further into “the jungle” of India.   We left the civilized comforts of the Hilton Hotel and moved 20km towards the real India.    True, this is the upper-middle class expat India, it is our own personal Heart of Darkness, and I fear we are starting to go insane as well.    I will share a couple of highlights about our current challenges.

Internet Access:  The teachers at the American School assume each student can read  the class del.licico.us page and comment on the discussion boards.  They expect students to email their assignments.   I am addicted to the internet and  have a strong dependency on being able to Google at will.   Looking out from the balcony of our house I have good view of the ocean, grass huts and scattered houses of other expats.    In one sense it is hard to imagine having internet access at all, but the lack of connectivity and the communication it provides is one of the most difficult forms of darkness.   I spent the better part of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday searching the city for a wireless internet card.    My current cell company, Airtel sent me all over the city to 5 different stores on false promises of available stock.    At one store that we had called to confirm stock, we were met with only an offer for the employee to deliver one to use later.    I finally found a store with some from a different company, Tata Indicom.   I took it home only to find out we are too far out in the jungle, beyond the reach of their cellular towers.

Quality of Workmanship:  At first I didn’t think our house was new.   It looked like a poor remodeling job.  The quality of workmanship and inability to finish a job are appalling.   We have hot water heaters that don’t work.   The pipe fittings under the kitchen sink included an open T connection that allowed the sink to flood the kitchen floor.    In the master bath, the toilet was installed without a proper seal belching up a room full of sewer odor every time it is flushed.    The list goes on and on, and I feel like I live in a house built by school children.    Worse yet, every day the plumbers and electricians come back to the house and we show them the problems and explain how to fix them and every day they don’t have the tools or the parts and promise to return tomorrow.

Electricity: Notice to people moving to Chennai, especially expats.   When you real estate agent says “the power rarely goes out, especially here along the ECR (East Coast Road)”  DO NOT BELIEVE THEM.  The power has been out every day, sometimes for over 4 hours.   At night the power goes out and the AC stops and the fans stop blowing the mosquitos away and the place turns into a giant brick oven.    And of course we have no generator, so we are literally sitting in the Heart of Darkness until the power comes back.

Sleep:  We are not getting much, between heat, sick (now Max is sick, with an e.coli infection according to Dr. Shawn), power outage, lack of furniture and respond to email all night expectations we are totally exhausted.     What sleep we get is on a borrowed inflatable mattress or an old couch the landlord left in the house.    Either way, quality sleep is a distant memory.

As with the post below, I am not complaining.   Everything is just a challenge that we are meeting with humor and good spirits, proven by the fact that we haven’t had anyone in tears for all week.   Most challenges get solved and sometimes the list gets shorter.   Next big milestones are the installation of the generator, arrival of our sea container of junk from Arizona and the end of the daily visits from incompetent tradesmen.   Until then, we are slowly going insane in our Heart of Darkness.

I just got off the phone with Amy who had two bad experiences today.   First, it was Abby’s second day at preschool.   She wore her “Princess Shoes” that have a picture of Cinderella and Snow White on them and lights that blink when you walk.    Her preschool requires shoes be removed outside and stored on a shelf.   As you can guess, when Abby went to leave, her shoes were gone.    We are hopeful that some other kid decided to wear them home and that an honest parent will return them tomorrow.   The worst part of it is that those were here best pair of shoes and the only comfortable ones that she had (the rest of us indulged in Keen’s before we left California).

I am not too upset about the shoes, this can happen anywhere and I was not under any notion that India was free from petty theft.

Amy’s next experience was more annoying.   Amy and Max (our 16 month old baby) went to lunch at the Marriott today and visited the spa.   While at lunch, at a small, two-person table, some man sat down at her table and  refused to leave.   He refused another table even when the restaurant manager asked.    I have been in a similar situation at restaurants in Chennai, taking up half of a table when the restaurant is filling up.   I had no problem when the last seat is at my table and someone sits down to eat their thali.  When some idiot walks into a half-empty restaurant sits down at my wife’s table, then refuses to leave, that is crossing the line.   Amy is more than able to take care of herself, so I am not worried, just annoyed.