NEW DELHI, India – His music and dance moves have woven their way into many cultures around the world - and India is no exception. Every now and then you can hear the unmistakable Michael Jackson track or beat seamlessly blend into India's Hindi pop music. Or catch a glimpse of some of Jackson crisp choreography in a Bollywood dance scene.

There was something universal about Michael Jackson, and that is being reflected in the way people around the world are mourning him. From Los Angeles to New Delhi, his fans seem to veer away from sadness and enjoy the invincible part of Michael Jackson - his music.

In a bar in New Delhi the Jackson memorial gathering was small - only a dozen or so people in a city of roughly 14 million. But it conveyed how the influence of one man had reached around the world.

On the wall of the Delhi bar that usually only plays hard rock, the King of Pop's music was blasting away, candles were lit underneath two framed pictures of Jackson and customers had written sweet messages saying goodbye.

Across the room, where framed pictures of rock legends hung on the wall an empty space was created. That space was set-aside as a permanent place for Michael Jackson’s pictures.

In a county where more than half the population is 35 or younger, the bar manager put it this way: "We all grew up with Michael Jackson. Other generations had The Beatles, or Elvis Presley. Michael is our generation."

I'm back in the helicopter with the U.N. delegation leaving Sri Lanka's war torn north.

I am beside myself with frustration. We we're given mere minutes to speak with the victims of war now living in camps.

There are more than 250,000 people in these camps and we only got to talk to two.

No matter what anybody writes from this trip it will not be sufficient.

We were hurried by the soldiers and hurried by the U.N. delegation that had a flight to catch.

I realize we would not have had much of an opportunity at all to tell the civilians’ account of the war if it wasn't for this chance handed to us by the U.N., but as far as I'm concerned the story of the innocent caught in the middle of Sri Lanka's war still hasn't been told properly.

I am on a massive air force helicopter just above the city of Colombo, Sri Lanka. I'm traveling with my photographer Sanjiv in a convoy with the U.N. Secretary General to the war devastated north.

The chopper is filled with journalists from around the world. There are more people than seat belts and I am sitting in front of a door that is wide open looking down at the tops of trees. But in this job where you take what you can get.

This trip is important to us because for so long we have been kept away from the story we wanted to tell the most - the story of more than 250,000-plus people who survived horrific conditions as fierce battles raged in and around their villages.

The government of Sri Lanka has put heavy restrictions on journalist's access to the north in the final months of the war. We’ve only had government statements and government video and periodical news from pro-rebel forces.

Getting to the truth about what is really happening to innocent civilians on the ground has been nearly impossible.

The stories from the two sides as well as aid groups working in the war zone have varied widely. Getting perspective is important but it just hasn't happened.

As a journalist it is the most frustrating experience because you can't get independent confirmation. Every time we report something, one side or the other disputes it, and the truth remains a mystery. Some of it always will, but at least we have the chance of talking to the very people who lived it.

NEW DELHI, India  - Traditionally, going village to village, city to city across the vast expanse of India is the way campaigning works in the world's largest democracy.

But the times are changing as the national political parties try to adapt to the Internet age to woo the country's 714 million potential voters.

"I must admit here that we were somewhat inspired by the use of information technology, Internet in particular, in the recent American presidential elections," said, Sudheendra Kulkarni, an e-campaign manager for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), referring to the Obama campaign's use of the Internet.

And there's good reason. This year another 43 million people are eligible to vote – many of them young adults, and many of them more plugged into technology.

The BJP is pushing the technology envelope this year. It is using video phones, Google ads, cell phone text messages, YouTube, and social networking sites, such as Orkut and Facebook. The party also has a glossy Web site for its main candidate as prime minister.

Working behind the scenes are some of the very people the party is trying to attract.

Mallika Noorani is in her early 20s and left her job as a banker to volunteer for the BJP campaign.

"I work on average about 12 hours a day for not a penny. A complete 100 percent volunteer," Noorani said.

"I seized the opportunity to learn more but also to understand how exactly I could make a difference," she said.

"Because at the end of the day, you know you can't always blame someone else, you kind of have to hold yourself accountable as much you want to hold your politicians accountable."

Noorani is from Mumbai, where the terrorist attacks in 2008 triggered a rallying cry from the youth in particular to force government to take action and secure the country.

There is no doubt the campaigns have taken note of the clamor for change among young people.

"The youth vote acquires a greater importance for the simple reason that the largest segment of those who are going in voting on the polling booths.  That is why it is even more important," said Vishvjit P. Singh, e-campaign manager for India's National Congress Party - a longtime rival of the BJP.

At India's National Congress Party headquarters, they are working on their electronic campaign.

"We put up our Jai Ho ring tone on our Web site and you won't believe it– in the first two hours, we had 14,500 downloads," Singh said, referring to the theme song from the Oscar-winning movie "Slumdog Millionaire."

The National Congress Party also reworked the song with words to fit its campaign message.

But even in the Web world there is politics as usual. The National Congress Party, which offers information in three different languages, said its site was better for the common man in India and took a swipe at the BJP's site.

"It's got drop-down menus, it's got all kinds of navigation tricks, you know, which, is very, very good for a nerd, very good for a geek," e-campaign manager Singh said of the BJP site. "But how do you get a common man who is a young boy, who is just going into a cyber cafe, it will be very difficult for him to navigate."

Technology is making waves in the 2009 campaign, reaching tens of thousands of voters, but old-fashioned politics still reign supreme.

No one here believes Web sites will be the deciding factor this time around - but give it a few years and it just might click with millions more voters.

Especially the young and politically passionate, such as BJP volunteer Noorani.

"I am under no illusion. But I think it's the first step. We are reaching out, through the Web site, to 30,000 unique visitors a day."

MUMBAI, India - I was there watching the horror and feeling helpless. As I rattled on with the few details authorities would give us I stood, ducked and sometimes crouched next to my colleagues from all over the world as they did the same.

Children play at the hotel pool which left an mark on CNN’s Sara Sidner.

The scene was sheer madness unfolding before our eyes and through the camera's lens.

I was posted outside the Taj Hotel and Tower in Mumbai when terror rained down on India's financial capital for days last November.

For the 72 hours I was there, I slept exactly three, the same goes for many of my CNN colleagues working beside me or at other scenes.

There were four active scenes for at least two days. I happened to be posted at the one that ended last in a blaze of fire, bullets and grenade blasts.

Friends and co-workers watching on their television screens told me later it looked like a movie. But a movie ends in two hours. This went on for three days.

It looked like and felt like hell from the outside. On the inside it was hell for the dozens of workers and guests still alive but trapped as the dead lay where they were gunned down.

Today I am back at the scene for the first time since the attacks. I made myself stand in the same spot where I reported from and again turned to look at the majestic building.

I didn't want to go in at first. I was afraid of what I might feel. But I didn't want to remember it the way I first laid eyes on it. So I started walking towards the lobby of the 106-year-old building.

On the outside, the heritage part of the hotel still has boards covering some of the windows. The ones I watched burst with flames five months ago.

I had to pass white barricades that now lace the once open breezeway. There are three layers of security including an X-ray machine for every bag each guest brings with them.

Once inside you wouldn't know at first glance what happened here. The lobby is spotless.

But walk a dozen steps towards a glass enclosed area with a waterfall and you see a tree, a large marble plaque, and a sobering message. It has the names of the 31 people who died during those terrible four nights and three days.

Many of the public spaces have been restored. We walked farther in to the immense staircase that looks like something out of a fairytale. Not a thing out of place. Immaculate and almost too much for the eye to take in.

But as you climbed to the top there was another reminder. White planks of wood blocked two large windows that once looked out on to the ocean.

Then it was off to the poolside. I got one of those chills down my spine as I walked out between the chairs. It's because of that image in my head.

The image from the front page of a newspaper the morning after the attacks started. A man who was likely enjoying his drink poolside had been gunned down. He died there. Click. That picture won't leave my head.

But then you hear the noise of happiness. Children are splashing in the pool and adults are chatting and enjoying their lives.

It's trite but true; life goes on. Honestly, sometimes I forget to enjoy mine. What a fool I am.

The crew and I are staying at the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower for a couple of nights. We're here to cover the first day of the trial of the lone surviving suspect in the Mumbai attacks.

I picked the Taj as our hotel on purpose, I guess I needed to see a bit of normalcy here after what I witnessed from the outside.

I'm staying in the tower that is fully up and running. It had minimal damage during the attack. But next door in the old world rooms of the tower's older sister there is still a lot of work to do.

Of the 565 total rooms in the two buildings only 268 can be occupied. All I can say right now is, I am glad to be one of the occupants.

NEW DELHI, India - Every day on my way to and from work I pass a community that exists on the side of the road in the dirtiest of conditions.

Homeless children play outside their destroyed huts.

Out in the open tiny children use the bathroom just outside their huts on sheets of newspaper, men wash themselves with a pail of water and women prepare breakfast on tin plates on the ground.

It's sometimes too much to behold. Seeing it makes me feel a sense of guilt for having so much and not doing enough coupled with a sense of curiosity about how they survive day in and day out.

But over the days and months that I have been watching another feeling has surfaced, a sense of amazement.

No matter where these families are tossed they somehow manage to form a real working neighborhood of their own.

Children play with jumps ropes made of rags, families keep pets (I see a great Dane tied up every morning protecting its owner's hut that is about the same height as the dog), and mothers comb their daughters hair on Charpoys (rope strung beds) that sit outside the huts.

Then there are the businesses that exist along side the homes.

There's the guy who makes furniture, the vegetable vendor, the ironsmith, and the people who go around collecting garbage found all over the streets of Delhi and bring it home to pick through it and recycle the bits that can bring in some money.

After a year of drive-bys, this Delhi street side neighborhood had become a small part of my daily life.

So when I drove by two nights ago I gasped, the entire neighborhood had been leveled. Its tenants left sitting on piles of bricks and mortar looking dazed.

They had no warning except for that fact that most knew this settlement was illegal though they had been living there for years.

This is life in the slums. One minute you have shelter, the next you don't.

These people live on about $1 a day so being able to afford proper housing is next to impossible. They are here to work, many from destitute villages, but they can't make a living in anymore.

The government said this settlement on government-owned land was bulldozed because it was encroaching on the right of way and more importantly the road had to be expanded to accommodate the thousands of visitors expected to attend the Commonwealth Games Delhi is hosting in 2010.

Delhi has a master plan to relocate its millions of slum dwellers but qualifying for housing can mean going through a maze of bureaucratic maneuvers.

In this case the residents don't qualify. Even if they did, right now there isn't enough housing built to accommodate them.

It's not politically correct to say aloud (just try getting a politician to admit this on camera) but the truth is the city is also trying to clean up its image by erasing its slums. The question is how to do it humanely.

It's easy to judge those in power for their actions or inaction but it is much harder to figure out real solutions. Maybe you have the answers. Any takers?

For the first time in three days of covering the horrific events in Mumbai, I finally got carded.

What do I mean by that? I'll explain.

While terrorists and commandos tried to blow each other away inside the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, journalists and the general public were able to come and go as we pleased in this hotbed of danger.

We were all standing within 200 yards of the stand-off.  We listened to grenades exploding, bullets whizzing by and massive explosions so loud they rattled our ear drums.

We saw glass exploding out of windows, big flashes of light, fire in three places, police with automatic weapons and in the end, a body being pulled out of a window by the feet.

We were so close to the action that we changed our positions several times. There was nothing between us and the war torn hotel. No barricades, no police tape, no police.

On the second day of the siege I was able to get so close that I could have walked on to the steps of the front lobby of the hotel.

We were being told by authorities it was over. But it was not even close to over. There were still three terrorists inside but you wouldn't have known it from the lax security outside.

I know it's a bit late but I'm now well aware we were all simply too close.

Which takes me back to my first sentence: I was carded today by police who wanted to check my ID before I was given access to the same area.

The public is now being held back and a big rope has been put up to keep us back. But all the dangerous action is over.

I guess my question is why now? Maybe you have the answers out there because I'm not getting any here from the authorities.

MUMBAI, India - My heart is pounding. I have some knowlege of what is going on behind me but it doesn't register with my senses until I hear the sound: Bang. Rata tat tat. Bang, bang.  This is a hostage situation.

Ducking for cover outside the Taj Mahal Hotel.

I am standing just outside of the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai. The fabulous 105-year-old five star hotel has been raided by terrorists who police say have taken hostages, and killed and maimed across 10 sites in Mumbai.

As we go live outside describing the scene, that sound jolts my body forward. Bang. It doesn't matter who you are or where you are from, when you hear a sound like that you do what instinct tells you: Duck and run. In this instance I happened to be on the air.

These moments have a way of reminding those of us who cover stories how terrifying it must be for those who are living it up close and personal. Not talking about what is happening, but experiencing terrorism first hand.  All I can say is my heart goes out to the victims of terrorism around the world.

Watch footage of an explosion at the Taj Mahal Hotel

NEW DELHI, India - Getting in was easy but getting out with the story was the tricky bit. When we first went to the West Delhi Kabari market (Kabari is Hindi for junk) to film it for India Means Business, it was all smiles and welcomes.

Pick the parts and name the price at New Delhi's junk market.

We went in without a camera just to talk to the people who own businesses there, the workers and customers to get a feel for the place. The entrepreneurial spirit was certainly evident.

At first glance it looks like a morgue for vehicles. Parts from all kinds line the dusty streets. There were even ship parts and old gutted gas pumps.
Decades-old Mahindra army jeeps sit in rows ready to be dismantled or dolled up, whatever the customer orders. The parts from all kinds of vehicles are put together in any combination you can afford.

If you want a Mahindra jeep to look like a Hummer the scrap mechanics will use the most recognizable parts from the Hummer and attach them to a Mahindra.

The owners of one shop told us the cost for a reconfigured jeep is about $2500, a car about $1,000 and they can get it done in less than two weeks.
Those who buy range from the poor who need simple transportation to those with money to burn.

Everything is done out in the open. There are hundreds of workers doing by hand what commercial car manufacturers automated years ago.

So it seemed like an easy enough story to do. Everything that needed to be photographed and all the people that we needed to talk to were outside in plain daylight. No lights, no security guards, no problem.

But that wasn’t the case.

The junk market has a shady side and we found out all too quickly once we walked along the streets with a camera. At first no one wanted to talk to us even after meeting several people who had given us a tour the first time we were there.

Twice, men surrounded us and demanded we turn the camera off and leave.

We did.

Well, we walked down the street and around the corner and finally talked to a businessman who told us in no uncertain terms that a criminal element existed in the junk market.

Basically, because many rules and regulations are broken, including dangerous working conditions, some of the business owners pay off police and officials to continue to operate. And it’s also a cash business so tax evasion is also part of the equation.

The junk market is part of a vast area of employment that operates under the radar. It’s part of what the government of India calls the “Unorganized Sector”.

The latest study said 93 percent of India’s workforce is employed in this informal sector. It typically pays dirt-cheap wages and affords no rights to workers. It does however create jobs where there is a desperate need.

In the end we got our story but again found ourselves surrounded by angry business owners when we tried to get one last shot as we walked out of the market.

We didn’t get the last shot but we did leave with our camera and tape intact, and no one got hurt.

Watch Sara Sidner's report on India's "unorganized sector"

NOIDA, India– I am sitting on the set of a local Indian television station that CNN has a partnership with. They have dedicated more than seven hours of their news coverage to the U.S. election!

With all the bells and whistles, huge graphics touch screens, and talking heads.

I asked a couple of journalists why exactly they and other stations that broadcast in English are spending a great deal of their 24 hour news cycle on the American election.

The answer in part is they believe their viewers are fascinated by Barak Obama. They think those who are watching realize the historic significance this could mean for people of color in the country and look at themselves as people of color.

Also because of the growing ties India is forming with the United States.

However, Indians in India who are paying attention to the race in the United States also tend to come from a high-level socio-economic and education background.

The vast majority of Indians still struggling to eek out a living every day is not watching the minute to minute coverage of the election or any of it at all. Many could care less about it and are worried about the issues they and their country are facing.

It seems to be the media itself generating the majority of interest. The U.S. election has often been front page news and lead story material partly because Indian journalists see it as significant and interesting.

Still ... Imagine the U.S. networks dedicating seven or more hours of news coverage in a day to the electoral process of another country, especially one that is known to have a very peaceful change of administrations.