Reporter Sees Contradictions in Her Native Land

Bombay, India

Bombay is a city of paradoxes.

It is a place where wealthy executives driving expensive sport-utility vehicles plod to work over potholed roads no faster than the poor and middle-class people crammed into open door trains that run up and down the length of the city. It is a city where skyscrapers and slums stand side-by-side; and where a visitor always feels the past mingling with the present.

Returning to the city where I was born and grew up is always an adventure. In the nearly nine years I have spent as a resident of the United States, India has been experiencing historic changes. Pricey cars on unpaved roads honk impatiently at pedestrians accustomed to a slower pace of life. The golden arches of McDonald's with their Maharaja Macs have replaced traditional restaurants run by families of Persian descent that served cardamom-flavored cakes and hot, buttered buns for breakfast. And, of course, there are the technology whiz kids and computer call-center technicians talking on cell phones as they walk the same streets as 4-year-old...