India, June 12 -- See the photo. It alone is enough to tell the whole story. An autorickshaw is parked on a Delhi roadside bearing a "Happy Birthday America!" placard announcing the forthcoming 250th anniversary of American independence. The placard is part of an outreach initiative by the US Embassy. Behind the auto rises Dilli Gate, a monument that had already stood for more than a hundred years when the United States was born on the Fourth of July, 1776. This is not an attempt to diminish the story of present-day America. The photo simply offers perspective. When the American colonies declared independence from Britain, Delhi was already a very, very old city, weighed down by centuries of messy history (and yet to be colonised by those s...