The biggest impediment to getting started on my work here was the issue of finding housing, something we did at the end of the last week.The flat I share with a couple other students is about 10 minutes from campus, which is a 10 rupee (25 cents) auto ride.If in Canada I would walk the short distance to school, but riding in autos is one of my favorite things to do during my trips to India.While careering through the busy streets avoiding people, cars, bullocks, and stray dogs - you get to look at asli India - and to have a bit of a thrill.In both Delhi and in Mumbai I have seen a lot of construction projects underway, as the metropolises continue to push outwards and upwards.

The Indian technological boom is something that has been written about at length, with articles praising high GDP growth rates, quality tertiary education, and innovation.On the other hand, there are an equal number of articles which paint India as a backwards nation full of beggars, superstitious folk, and a small handful of inspiring rags to riches success stories.

The signs of growth are everywhere, with high rise condos, efficient subway systems, and the trappings of a comfortable growing middle class.However, for every apartment building that is being built there is a slum right outside the gate - which houses the construction workers and domestic help for those who are living on the inside.The apartment building we are staying in is fairly nice, yet the moment you step outside the compound there is a smattering of corrugated roof shacks, where children and stray dogs play in the piles of garbage collected from our building which is dumped on the other side of the wall.

I realize that I need to have a thicker skin when dealing of issues of poverty, especially since my work placement is going to be in Dharavi, one of the world's largest slums.Still, it is difficult to not become frustrated with the bubble in which people here live in.There are so many individuals who make an effort to improve the condition of their fellow citizen, whether it is the people I study with here who are training to be social workers and NGO volunteers, or those who carry out small acts of charity.Yet, there are many others who through gated community lifestyles live in another India altogether, one where their exposure to the outside world is limited to what they can see through the tinted windows of their luxury cars.

As a visitor I suppose it is easy for me to judge those who bear witness to this kind of indigence every day.Still, as I apply for joint citizenship to regain my status as an Indian - I feel I have the right to desire a more equitable India that lives up to the enormous potential I see for it.