December 26, 2005

Far from the pulsing cities that symbolize modern China, this tiny hillside village of crude peasant houses seems disconnected from this century and the last. But follow a dirt path past a snarling watchdog, sidestep the chickens and ducks, and a small clearing on the banks of the Nu River reveals a dusty slab of concrete lying in a rotting pumpkin patch. The innocuous concrete block is also a symbol, of a struggle over law that touches every corner of the country.

Standing amid the rolling lawns outside his four-bedroom villa, Ajay Kela pondered his street in the community of Palm Meadows. One of his neighbors recently returned to India from Cupertino, Calif., to run a technology start-up funded by the venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers. Across the street from Mr. Kela is another Indian executive, this one from Fremont, Calif., who works with the outsourcing firm Infosys Technologies. On the other side is the top executive of Cisco Systems in India, who returned here after decades in the Bay Area and New York.

When Water Hardens From that run-in with Titanic to the prospect of global warming, a science writer examines the power of water in its solid form. Books of The Times, Page 16.

Ricardo Stefano spends 11 hours a day, five days a week brushing the scuffed oxfords and dusty loafers of businessmen near Grand Central Terminal, something he has been doing since arriving from Brazil 15 years ago. Shining shoes was a step down from fixing glasses in his father's eyeglass shop, particularly for someone with a year of college under his belt. But trailblazing compatriots told him he could make far more money shining shoes in New York than he could fixing glasses in Brazil, and the rumors turned out to be true. At age 43, he makes $500 a week, half of which he sends back to his estranged wife and three children in the state of Minas Gerais. He has not seen his children since he left. But Mr. Stefano does not regret his decision.

The six Kazakh villagers circled the stallion with movements so nimble and practiced that they disguised the difficulty of the dawn's first task. The animal before them, weighing roughly 550 pounds, was to be rolled onto its back. Aslakhan Mukanov, 13, pulled the stallion with a rope as it whinnied and bucked. Seimurad Maitai, 27, dodged the hooves, swinging a rope until he snared the kicking forelegs together.