Delhi – Day 2

On Tuesday, we drove to Wazirpur Industrial Aria on the north side of Delhi. I’m looking for a very specific stainless steel product to import and sell along with my cookbook and from all the research I did on the Web before landing here, it seemed that the manufacturers who handle all this are in this section of town.

I emailed a few of them from the States, but wasn’t hopeful I’d get a response. I didn’t. So instead I landed here armed with a few company names and addresses. The first reaction from everyone who heard about my plan – to just go into the area and start knocking on doors was, “You’re going to whaaat?”

I had been warned about the layers of filth upon filth and the corruption I’d likely have to deal with. “They’re all crooks,” one relative told me.

Everyone described it like a huge trash heap. One relative said the shopowners had actually lobbied the local politicians AGAINST building a paved road through Wazirpur because if it was paved and easily drivable they’d no longer have the open dirt path on which to dump all their scrap metal.

Even though we’ve been making progress and likely found a manufacturer to deal with, the reporter in me just had to go.

So, in the morning Sandeep and I set out with my cousin Bobby in a tiny but airconditioned car with a driver. We made great time despite all the warnings about Delhi traffic.

The first thing we realized is that the road is being paved. But, they’ve only finished half of it. So, that half winds through the huge cluster of dirty but busy factories and sits about six inches above the dirt. That’s fine for a car that stays on it, but it’s not easy for a small vehicle like ours when we’re run off it by an oncoming delivery truck. After trying to negotiate space with a vehicle literally a quarter inch away from our window, we realized we needed to go the rest of the trip on foot.

We made our way across the half-built road. I’m still not sure why there’s a 2-foot gap between the old slab of concrete and one that was being poured as we stood there, but we’re figuring there’s a reason. Bobby joked likely it was a gully for the sewage. I know, I know … but that was him talking, not me!

We met with a local manufacturer of the product I need. It’s his father’s company and he’s a 24-year-old MBA student looking make his mark in the world. He couldn’t have been happier to see a group from America walk through his door. He showed us his products and everything he could and couldn’t do with us. Then, he took us through his factory. It was eye-opening to see it. When I think of factory – coming from the West – I think of large automated machines cutting and piecing things together. Here, there were things being pieced together, but for the most part human hands were doing all the work. Men were sitting in pairs in bare feet and rags cutting sheet metal and piping – churning out metal that would be pieced together to make a metal wire rack for the bath or kitchen.

Even though this company doesn’t export keep in mind that many do. These pieces that are made for a buck or two here are then sold at US retailers for huge mark ups.

What I’m learning about India is that despite so many changes over the last two decades some things have perilously remained the same: the slow, tedious process of doing work by hand and the lack of infrastructure. Although the Metro is now running and a huge step in the right direction – it has yet to be completed. The roads meanwhile still bulge from the masses that crowd them. We’re not just talking about cars, trucks and buses but bycicles, scooters, rickshaws and pedestrians.

Everywhere there are gluts in traffic – and it’s even worse during rush hour. I – like most that truly love India – am nostalgic enough to love even this aspect of the country but I truly wonder how India will fare against the likes of modernism from neighbors like China. Instead of progressing forward in a real and viable way India seems to be at a standstill in some significant areas.

I visited here for the first time in almost a decade in April and everyone told me I’d be amazed by the progress. I was amazed to see all the huge mega malls, glittering glass buildings and showrooms and new fancy cars on the street but I was just as aghast to note that nothing else seemed to have changed at all. The infrastructure is still crumbling and it still takes hours to get from one part of Delhi to another.

For now, we’ll just keep plugging along, determined to get this business going despite the odds.