Michael Cronin's job as a college admissions officer took him to India two or three times a year, so he had already seen the usual sites -- temples, monuments, markets -- when one day he happened across a flier advertising "slum tours." "It just resonated with me immediately," said Cronin, who was staying at a posh Taj Hotel in Mumbai where, he discovered, a bottle of champagne cost the equivalent of two years' salary for many Indians. "But I didn't know what to expect," he said. Soon, Cronin, 41, found himself skirting open sewers and ducking to avoid exposed electrical wires as he toured the...
photo: WN/Bholanath Bhattaray
