Fear And Loathing

My own admittedly defensive explanation for why India regards Calcutta with disdain is that this is a form of self-delusion. It's human nature that if you put down someone else, you're less likely to notice that you are both thrashing about in a gutter. The irony is that when one asks people elsewhere in Asia to name a city with slums that are mushrooming, sewage and water supply systems that can't cope and traffic that scarcely moves, they are as likely to point to Mumbai and Delhi as to Calcutta.