If you want to understand as much as possible about India in a single day, maybe the best thing to do is take the slow bus to Agra. Actually, there are no fast buses, because the road to Agra resembles a war zone in which countless people seem to be fleeing for their life.
Most people go to Agra to get to the Taj Mahal. It's about a four-hour trip from New Delhi: the journey itself is worth at least as much as the destination. India itself is too great to rush through, even if that were remotely possible.
India is often touted as the next superpower, after emerging China and, of course, the United States. The big build-up mainly comes from the western media, especially in the US.
Both the Clinton and Bush administrations have imagined India as a kind of balancing-superpower to China, should the latter get too feisty, aggressive or in any way profoundly obstreperous to US interests.
With more than 1 billion people (half of whom are under the age of 25) and a tremendous science and technology base, India might not be a bad bet to make it. But it has a long way to go.
Travel the road to Agra and you see what's out there in the real world of ancient India. You leave the fancy hotels and well-kept tourist sites in the nation's capital and discover reality.
Reality is the caravan of camels pulling new and used electronics equipment up the road to a distribution centre; a monkey hopping across an open square with her baby clutching her back; a white cow, going in the other direction, albeit much more slowly.