RCUES is the Regional Centre for Urban and Environmental Studies, part of the All-India Institute of Local Self Government.  Dr. Sneha Palnitkar is the director.  I had an encouraging meeting with her yesterday.

I learned about the center's work, which focuses on research about urban administration, poverty, sanitation and related issues, and also trains government officials on these subjects.  It has several offices across the country, and is the only organization of its scale that works on these kinds of issues.  Dr. Sneha is a really knowledgable and well-connected person, and she has offered to faciliate my meetings with any public officials.  I just have to figure out exactly who I want to talk to and get back to her.  I think that once I start volunteering with an NGO (which may begin today!), I will have a better idea of the kind of questions I have on the government side of things.  She also handed me a hefty pile of literature that I'm going to start reading today.  A lot of it is specifically about local citizenship and political participation.  She told me to come back as often as I want with my questions and ideas, and I will definitely take her up on that.  Especially considering what a busy person she is, I'm really grateful that she has extended her help to me to this degree.

I got kind of a kick out of the actual visit to the office as well.  When I got there, Dr. Sneha had a few other meetings, so I waited for her in the lounge.  I was immediately brought a cup of tea.  It felt very... high brow.  But its just the way things are done.  Whenever you go to a professional meeting with someone, they seem to go out of their way to treat you like a a guest.  At the very least, they offer water and tea, and maybe some chocolates.