In New Delhi (Delhi from here on), India's capital, sacred cows and horses, pigs, stray dogs, camels, and even elephants, occasionally, live among the clamor of cars, motorbikes and bicycles. Cows with peaceful, gentle eyes stand stock still in the middle of roads crowded with cars. This typical Indian scene evokes an immediate sense that you are in India. Also, perhaps because it has been customary since the days of the British Raj to treat trees with care, roads are lined with massive trees, which are heaven for wild birds. I awake to the sound of birds singing every morning. There are little birds with jocular voices called gaur, green parrots, peacocks, and quite vividly colored kingfishers. All are worth seeing and the kingfishers even have a beer and airline named after them.

Kolkata, on the banks of the River Hooghly, which empties into the Bay of Bengal, is the largest city in eastern India. Controlled by the Communist Party for over 20 years, its industry is in decline. In spite of India's remarkable recent growth, for better or worse, the qualities of the former India still linger here.
The Bengal region of India, on the other hand, has long held ties with Japan. Asia's first recipient of the Nobel prize for literature, the poet Rabindranath Tagore, communicated with Tenshin Okakura and other literati. Subhash Chandra Bose, the Indian independence fighter after whom Kolkata's airport is named, traveled to Tokyo from asylum in Germany, with Japanese support, to participate in the struggle for India's independence. (Incidentally, I heard that another Indian freedom fighter, Rash Behari Bose launched pure, Indian-style curries for Nakamuraya Co., Ltd.)

Tata Steel, one of this office's major clients, is located a bit inland in Jamshedpur, where the temperature is around 45 °C in mid-summer (April to June). Technical cooperation by Nippon Steel Corporation is one of Tata Steel's operational mainstays, but it is truly a scorching hell in the blast furnace vicinity during this season. I have to take good care of visitors since many of them become ill. The roads are also often flooded during the July to September monsoon season. Add cyclones to all of this and plane and train schedules go haywire, making this a season that drives visiting business people to tears. I once spent 12 hours on a train with visitors when the station was flooded.
Such is this region, but with the expectation that India will follow in China's footsteps, many manufacturers' representatives continue to visit. It is good to know many enjoy their stay here because of the unexpectedly genial lifestyle and tasty curry.