Lessons still to be learned

A number of countries in the world, whether for administrative efficiency or otherwise, excise a part of the country that is the "capital district" - the US has District of Columbia (Washington DC), Australia has the Australian Capital Territory (Canberra), and India has the National Capital Territory of Delhi (New Delhi).

Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delhi#Civic_administration) tells us that, within the within the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT) lies the Delhi metropolitan area. The NCT has three local municipal corporations - Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the New Delhi Municipal Council and the Delhi Cantonment Board, with the capital of India, New Delhi, falling under the administration of the New Delhi Municipal Council. New Delhi was laid out to the south of the Old City which was constructed by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan. However, New Delhi overlays the site of seven ancient cities. Delhi also has four major satellite cities which lie variously inside and outside of the National Capital Territory of Delhi - Gurgaon and Faridabad (in the state of Haryana) and Noida and Ghaziabad (in Uttar Pradesh).

Forgive the geography lesson, dear reader, but all this is by way of preface to the next lesson I was to learn about India and her multivariate way of operation.

I had left Singapore on the SQ flight looking forward with anticipation to returning to India, not as a neophyte foreigner, but as a seasoned traveller who would sail smoothly from the plane through the airport to the pre-paid taxi and on to Ghaziabad to the ISDSI conference digs. Hubris? Reasonable, experienced-based expectation? Whichever it was, I was to discover that there continues to be much to learn about India and her ways.

Having completed customs formalities and collected my luggage in reasonable time (a first!), I was confident that my expectations would be fulfilled (Why do you build me up, buttercup baby just to let me down, should have been the song going through my head).

As I came out of customs though, things looked different (or was that just my imagination?). Anyway, in addition to the prepaid taxi sign at the end of the hall (pointing out into the street on the right hand side) there were a series of counters promoting taxis of different varieties. A voice kept saying, just go outside and follow the same routine as last time, but I'm good at ignoring sensible advice and so I fronted the inside counters (and here the earlier geography lesson takes on its signficance).

The first counter I attended was labelled as the "Delhi City Police Taxi", where I was assured by the friendly faces that there were "no prepaid taxis outside sir, only here". Notwithstanding that I had been outside on my last trip only several weeks earlier, I would not have been surprised if if the outdoor service had been closed and shifted (this too, I thought, is part of the new and improved IGI airport service we had been waiting for). I certainly wasn't surprised when the upshot of our conversation was, "Oh no sir, our taxis are within New Delhi city only sir. You will need to see the man over there", pointing to the next counter. I quickly ascertained from the next counter that his taxis were only for the Delhi NCT and I needed to speak to the man attending the counter beside him.

Under the sign of "Radio Taxi" (which, it happens didn't have any radios in them, except perhaps for the purpose of listening to the latest Bollywood hits), resided a rather diffident character on a mobile phone to whoever, who was not going to be interrupted by anything as lowly as a commercial transaction. Ok, this time, right place, but the price! Stifling my outrage at the sum (INR780 all of about $AUD22 for a 40 km ride), I paid and proceeded to the appointed location to find the allotted taxi number not there. Returning to our diffident chappie, his response is to change the taxi number, but at this point I decided I wanted my money back and I would check the veracity of the Delhi Police taxi representatives' claim about the absence of prepaid taxis on the other side.

Aha! The Prepaid Taxi service is alive and well and living in its same spot as last time - I'm back on track! But I need to go to the second window because I want to go interstate. The man at the second counter, who was on my side of the counter, with no board listing of prices as for the Delhi NCT counter, told me in what was "compound fracture" version of broken English that the fare was INR950 "because we are a cooperative, with state taxes and other burdens good sir". I don't want the gora price, says I, tell me what the local price is. But the man would not be dissuaded.

I was getting nowhere making myself understood in very difficult circumstances. Deciding that the price was part of the "white man's burden" (how easily the extra $AUD5 had produced a sense of umbrage - I must have learned something about the value of a rupee, remembering my experience at the Delhi domestic terminal?) and failing to make any headway on reducing the figure, I returned dejectedly to the Radio Taxi man and we completed the transaction once again.

Oh well, thinks me, out to the taxi and then it's Ghaziabad ... but wait, ... there's more! Ghaziabad? - OK, but IMT? Harpur Road? Raj Nagpur? (I had forgotten that taxi drivers actually knowing where to go is an optional extra here). The guy with my driver knew where to go, but he wasn't my driver (ain't that always the way?). Still, with the benefit of India's own special brand of GPS (a combination of a series of frantic phone calls to friends and family and the good old "stop and ask the locals") we managed to get to IMT with a minimum of fuss and with me having learned another lesson about the Indian "system".