Welcome to Yale

My friend Sanjay Sarma (https://twitter.com/nick_sarma) had been insisting for a long time that I start writing my blog again. I had been resisting it for as long as I could on one pretext or the other. My reasons were many. After a long day of political work, wherein one meets tens of people and is required to change mental track multiple times, there is little inclination and energy left to put pen to paper. Secondly, I am a lazy writer: having written something I hate to re-read it and/or make corrections. Wherein with a newspaper or magazine article one is safe in the knowledge that what one has written would go through the fine combs of an editor's gaze, how does one ensure that one's blog is free of bloomers and typos? Thirdly, one is communicating all the time: SMSes, phone calls, emails, Facebook, Twitter, what have you! So without dipping into what may be referred to as 'intensely private', what material is one left with that could be of sufficient public interest?

Sanjay's answer was: write about your experience at Yale.

This year I had been selected a Yale World Fellow (http://worldfellows.yale.edu/), one of a group of 16 people from around the world found fit to attend what Yale calls 'its signature leadership development programme'. This is the 11th year of the programme and over the years it has indeed picked an eclectic group of people. For instance, click here to see the honorees from India. The programme picks mid-career professionals, mostly in their mid-30s to the early 40s, that have shown both performance and potential. Looking at members of this cohort and earlier ones, I feel humbled to be in such august company.

Anyway, more out of respect for Sanjay's insistence that any creative impulse, I start my blog again. Only God knows how long I would keep at it!

So what of Yale?

I landed at the Newark Liberty International Airport after a 15 hour flight on Saturday morning and was picked-up by a limo sent by the university. I don't know if they do it for all students, but it was nice to be waited upon and not having to look for a taxi in a foreign location. Although Newark is part of the larger New York Metropolitan Area, it is actually in the state of New Jersey. Newark to Yale, New Haven, is almost a 2-hour drive. New Haven is in the state of Connecticut.

The drive from Newark to Yale, New Haven

As I flipped open the introductory docket that Yale had sent with the chauffeur and poured over the maps, one question came to my mind: if a New York Metropolitan Area can have multiple airports servicing it, why can't our Delhi/NCR too have more than one airport? Why do planes have to hover for so long over the Delhi airport waiting to come down, when we could have easily decongested the airspace by building more airports in places like Greater Noida, Sonepat and Meerut? What is logic of having a rule like 'no new airports within 500 kms of an existing one'?

Anyway, the 15-hour flight and my further mental flight of fancy took their toll, and I easily slipped into slumber for the rest of the journey. When I woke up, I was in front of my residence for the next 4 months.

Welcome to Yale!