“FINALLY, Delhi dazzles”, gushed the Times of India on October 4th, a day after the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth games, to which the Indian capital is playing host until October 14th. Not everyone shared the enchantment, including many members of the crowd in the vast Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, who jeered and booed Suresh Kalmadi, the head of India's organising committee, as he made his welcome speech. Australian officials later complained that their athletes had been “treated like cattle” as they were forced to endure an hour-long wait in a hot tunnel after gathering to march in the ceremony.
After a disastrous run-up to the games it is unsurprising that the ceremony, a spectacular, mostly well organised display of India's performing arts, should be hailed as a turnaround. Only days before, Delhi seemed to be hurtling towards humiliating disaster. Structures—including a vast footbridge attached to the biggest venue—were collapsing, while the rooms built to accommodate 7,000 athletes and their families were found to be filthily inhabitable. Many of the problems were blamed on widespread corruption. By the time the games kicked off, the city was in much better shape, though a new litany of woes soon appeared. Bird droppings and feathers were found in the main lap pool, while the scales used to weigh boxers seemed to be adding a couple of kilos, apparently ruling most out of the competition.
Most worrying, the 60,000-strong crowd that gathered for the opening ceremony seemed to melt back into the city, never to return. Many events in the first few days are rumoured to have boasted more participants than observers. Perhaps the potential spectators' enthusiasm was dampened by the many star athletes who pulled themselves out of competition, citing security concerns. With 100,000 police and paramilitary personnel deployed in the city centre, and lengthy security checks at each event, those fears are unlikely to be realised. But however smoothly the games unfold in the coming days, they have already cost India dear, squeezing not only the state agencies, which have seen their budgets overrun by many billions of dollars, but also an estimated 100,000 slum dwellers, who lost their homes to the bulldozers.