During my recent trip to the Indian city of Pune, I was told more than once that twenty years ago it was a slow paced, relaxed place quite distinct from Mumbai, its enormous, frenetic, over-populated neighbor to the north. Unfortunately, that atmosphere appears to have been a casualty of ‘progress’ as the city epitomizes India’s headlong rush into modernity. Once a city of bicycles, the streets are now filled with all varieties of motorized vehicles whose drivers seem to be playing an endless game of chicken with each other and pay little heed to pedestrians whatsoever. The air quality likewise has suffered from the traffic and industrial growth. Many people take on the ‘bandit look’, wrapping their mouths and nose with a scarf or kerchief to filter out the pollution.