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Das, Gurcharan. India Unbound, Anchor Books, 2002, index, 412 p. (pb) Das is an Indian who was born into a post-independence India. The story he tells is a personal retelling of India as it shook off its British colonial rulers and began to look at independence and what it means. As Das sees it, the story is "soft drama. It is taking place quietly and profoundly in the heart of Indian society." It is a story of vibrant entrepreneurs fighting entrenched bureaucracy and it is a story of the world's second most populous country struggling to come to grips with what it means to be a player in the global economy. He compares India, where the vast majority of people live in poverty and where the economy was stagnant for the first 50 years of independence, with the Asian Tigers, where governments encouraged economic growth. It's not always a favorable comparison. Although the Tigers showed astounding economic growth for a couple decades, they have suffered for the last seve...
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The weekend

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If there was a theme to the weekend, it was "Rain." After the big deluge on Thursday, Friday was a beautiful autumn day. I walked and walked and walked and never saw a chance of rain. I was mildly concerned about Saturday and Sunday because weather.com was forecasting a significant chance of rain. Then the forecast changed on Saturday morning and with clear skies, I felt much better about the upcoming canal cruise. I got Amanda from the airport and after getting her settled, we found some food and spent a little time checking out shops on Elandsstraat in the Jordaan . A bit before 5:00, we meandered over to Cafe Wester where we were to meet our canal tour guide from Those Dam Boat Guys . As promised, Ben was waiting for us at the front door. He checked off our names and as soon as the other 10 passengers arrived, we were off to the boat dock. "Dock" is a rather misleading word, since the boat was tied up along the canal, along with myriad other boats. You certa...
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Touristy things

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Today felt like "Let's play tourist in Amsterdam". I let Amanda sleep in, which means that we didn't get started until about 11:00. Today was the day for Dutch pancakes, and we opted for The Pancake Bakery at Prinsengracht 191, which took only about 10 minutes on bikes. I tend to be skeptical of places that say "Best in Town" since those places most often are catering to the tourist trade and places that really do the the best whatever in town don't need to proclaim on their signs. But this place came with the recommendation of our waiter at De Pizza Bakkers last night. (Sidenote: who knew that pizza and prosecco went so well together? Our waiter also said that the best pancakes in Amsterdam are the ones he makes at home. But that didn't seem like it was in the cards for us. So we settled for one of other places he mentioned.)  The Pancake Bakery has much to recommend it. Walking in you would never mistake this for a US greasy spoon. It's in...
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