The Indian Disconnect

When I flew into hyderabad's state-of-the-art airport last fall, I hadn't visited the city for 37 years. I found the airport filled with information desks. Alas, the men behind them professed to have no information at all. There were "free-Internet terminals" near many gates — but I could use them only, I was told, if I paid. Since my "superluxury" hotel had failed to provide the airport pickup it had repeatedly promised, I took myself to a "prepaid taxi" booth. There I discovered that, even in India Rising, prepaid taxis are neither prepaid nor taxis. Two teenagers slipped the...