Posted on 05/19/2026 2:37:03 AM PDT by Cronos
In recent days, President Trump’s face has started popping up around New Delhi. His portrait, splashed across the red, white and blue of American flag, from the back of dozens of rickshaws buzzing all over the Indian capital.
“Happy Birthday America!” the words read. “250 years old.”
The campaign was launched last month by Sergio Gor, the U.S. ambassador to India, who has established a flair for spectacle since he arrived at his post in January. The U.S. Embassy announced the rollout on social media last month, saying “Freedom is on the move … literally!”
Dozens, possibly hundreds, of these freshly decorated vehicles, referred to commonly as autos, have hit the roads. About half of them bear Mr. Trump’s visage, the others feature the Statue of Liberty. ...The U.S. campaign was rolled out ahead of a visit by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is expected to arrive in New Delhi this weekend.
Md. Tayemkhan, who has been driving autos around New Delhi for 25 years, mostly works from the embassy district. He spent two or three hours waiting in line near the U.S. Embassy to have a free Trump-with-flag canopy attached to the vehicle he owns, and was paid 1,500 rupees (almost $16).
Raj Kumar Singh, 46, has been driving his own auto for 18 years. His new canopy is the version with the flag and the Statue of Liberty. He said he was not paid for taking it on.
“I’ve met many Americans and I like them,” he said. The flag is a good thing, he was convinced. As for Mr. Trump, he said “I know he is famous, like a big prime minister, but I don’t know much more.” He did not recognize the Statue of Liberty.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
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That’s a surprisingly pleasant looking, tree lined street scene from New Dehli - not the typical trash strewn cityscape I’m used to seeing from India.
Quite frankly, it depends where - there are utterly gorgeous and clean cities in India - like Jaipur, Aurangabad (where you can go to see the 2300 year old Ajanta and Ellora cave Buddhist, Jain and Hindu temples) and Thirvandaram and Cochin.
the megacities of Delhi and Bombay are dirty definitely, but they have tripled in size in the past couple of decades as the rest of the country has moved to them.
but even there, there are some really nice parts — in Bombay the Colaba area has some really old - 200+ year old buildings that are very beautiful.
THey are not rickshaws, whichi are hauled by a man.
These are called Tuk-Tuk.
After the sound they make.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto_rickshaw
Some of them are all souped up and can reach speeds of 50 mph. but most top out at 25 mph.
PDJT is known and respected around the world, a very nice thing indeed.
Simla, as described by Kipling in many of his short stories, always sounded nice to me. It was where the more senior British officials would go during the summer to get away from the sweltering heat of the plains. Of course what he was describing existed about 150 years ago so who knows what it’s like today.
They need to stay in India and run their own computer systems.
Sam Lor........Why I know a Thai gurl by that name ! LOL.
What church is that?
CC
That look’s like a photo of Alpharetta Georgia Main Street
I think Tuk tuks are the name in the Philippines - in India they are autorickshaws
the first one is Afghan Church - an Anglican church built between 1847 and 1858 to commemorate the dead of the First Afghan War and the disastrous 1842 retreat from Kabul.
the second one is St. Andrews Catholic church in Bandra - a historically Catholic suburb of Bombay - I think it was built in the 1500s
I’ve been there - I was traveling on and off to India, Singapore and Bahrain from a based in the UK from 2002 to about 2007. I visited India again in 2017 - to the Tiger enclave and visited historical cities in south India south of Bangalore — definitely worth visiting.
Simla, and the Assamese tea gardens and Darjeeling - I went on a relaxing vacation en route to Tokyo - in, i think 2023 March and they are exactly as Kipling described.
Re: kipling, I think he really, really loved India and felt out of place in the UK, so tried to huff up his chauvanism - Kipling was born in Bombay (Mumbai) and raised by Indian native servants (ayahs), speaking Hindi/Hindustani as his first language. At age 5, his parents abruptly sent him to a cruel foster home in England—a period he referred to as the “House of Desolation.” This sudden exile traumatized him and permanently cast the UK as cold, strict, and alien.
When he returned to India at 16 to work as a journalist, he experienced a euphoric homecoming. His sensory, vivid descriptions of Indian streets, foods, and people in works like Kim and Plain Tales from the Hills demonstrate a genuine affection and deep-seated longing for the subcontinent that he never felt for England
He was caught in a painful psychological limbo. In India, he was a white Sahib (colonizer) who could never fully blend with the native population. In Britain, he was a crude provincial outsider who didn’t fit Victorian societal norms. He was perpetually homeless, a theme deeply explored in Kim (”I am Kim. And what is Kim?”).
Because his British identity was questioned by metropolitan elites, Kipling overcorrected. To prove he was “supremely British,” he leaned into aggressive, performative jingoism.
Make India the 51st state. ;-)
We already have half of the Indian population working in the states.
Not yet…but soon. India has 1.5 billion citizens. 100 million more than China. They will take all your jobs. It’s just pure supply and demand.
This reminds me of a conversation I had on a flight from NYC. I was sitting next to a photographer who had just come from India. He was working for an NGO. He was showing me his pictures. All destitute children. I asked him, all crying kids, not one single happy kid. He said, they were all happy go lucky kids who lived in slums. They were crying because the NGO offered them all lunch time meal, and then took it away to get them to cry so that he could take the pictures. The NGO wanted kids crying to raise money from unsuspecting Americans.
Go figure..
Not the official smiling publicity shot. 
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