Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Delhi to Gurgaon

I have gone through many difficult phases in my life during the last 5-6 years. I have gulped them down my throat and sometimes taken them up my ass and made no fuss. Every passing year, I am seeing more and naturally swallowing them down. Anyway, it hurts, mind it! Sometime back I thought I needed a change, I tried to get a job in a different place and in course of events, found myself in Gurgaon to give an interview during June, this year. There were more than one reason, none of them were professional, that I finally decided to take up the job, knowing very well where I was coming.

The very first time I landed in Delhi airport to go towards Gurgaon, I was appalled by the condition in and around the place that has made so much buzz. I had come out of the airport and was waiting for my cab driver, to take me to my company. Due to some mis-communication (lack of prevalence of Angrezi in the region & callousness on the part of some people), I had to wait for sometime, make calls to finally locate my driver. The searing heat outside made me feel I had been suffering much less at the sea-bordering city of Chennai. Anyway, still "Chennai sucks"! is what most of the people I have met, feel. It can be a whole different unending post to study the psychology of such people. But as most of the times, less said the better. Ok, we'll talk about it some other time.

The cab started, the sun was beating down so mercilessly that the a.c. inside was making hardly any difference and I had to move away from the window glass. The very good feeling of cab of travelling inside an a.c. cab disappeared in a matter of few minutes because it was evident why it was almost mandatory to travel in an enclosed box in the NCR, with heat and dust blowing all around like a mild desert hurricane. We left the highway that was going to Jaipur and took some left turn somewhere obscure and I was not sure where I was going. The cab had a radio which was playing rare good and frequently horrible hindi movie songs, that kept me interested to see more.

As I started humming some arbit Hindi song (my own voice makes me high), I received the first blow. For a moment, one who has heard me sing, is well aware that I deserve punishment. But not to the extent that followed. The road deteriorated from bad to worse in a matter of a few metres from the national highway and ultimately there was no lane as such. It seemed like I was travelling through some parched fields. The dust and the wind was almost blinding the sight from inside the cab, but still I managed to see some Indian sky-scrapers here and there. It seemed like these huge glass buildings were remnants of a civilization that once flourished in Gurgaon desert. I could see nothing on the road side, no trace of something remotely modern or developed, except rustic people covering their everything to escape the heat and the dust, and some cars bumping and jumping their way to some obscure villages here and there. I reached my office finally (please excuse the personal attachment I show towards the office and don't feel anything for God's sake, give yourself a break).

It's now more than a month since I have been going to office here, in Gurgaon. It's another matter I stay in Delhi. I sometimes wonder how skewed the development in even Delhi is. Every day I travel with wonder to office and cannot really make up my mind to laugh or cry at the horrible condition of the infrastructure in Gurgaon. I see huge residential apartments, residential complexes with names that sound like somewhere in SF Bay Area, USA and also not to mention glass-windowed high-rise buildings which are nothing but some 'offshoring' business parks. But if I take my eyes a little downward towards the ground reality, it is a reality that has truly been ground to nothingness. Beyond the national highway, the roads are in such pathetic conditions, that it reminds me of the solitary bus journey once I took from Kharagpur to Jamshedpur (now those are Maoist-infested areas) and almost regretted the entire month after that. It is very strange though why people over here are not becoming anti-nationals, even when they are living in such horrid conditions. I quickly realised however that these are smart people and have out-smarted the educated Indians These educated shirt-trousered/jeansed Indians are happy to work inside those buildings that can anyday fall down like a pack of cards, how beautiful they may look and also live inside multi-storied 2000-3000 sq feet apartments in obscure villages, with car-parking and other urban realities, that they have always dreamt to achieve. The local people however have successfully inflated the property prices to match the expectations and dreams of such moronic Indians (which include me too).

Gurgaon is a city of malls, no shops, no public transport to really rely upon, no roads, frequent power-cuts, no civic amenities, it is indeed not a city, but a disastrous attempt to build a city. The secret to living in Gurgaon is to buy a 4WD premium SUV (if not a copter) with dark window-panes in the car and myopic eyes and only open the door, when the driver says,"Mam, mall aa gaya hai". It is a shining example of the development that India is apparently making. Even I agree to that. Indian development is quite as much flawed and have loopholes like the potholes in the roads of Gurgaon that house the biggest MNCs one can name of, and the tallest residential apartments in such huge numbers scattered randomly over the marshes and deserted lands.

However, it is most funny to actually see people like us toiling hard to be part of this pathetic reality and living it like it was never better before. Honestly, I would not be here for long. But so is true for many other people, but those who have bought their houses and properties in Gurgaon, my sympathy is with them. Not because they need it, but as I show it to dumb people. The amazing reality is to see a Mercedes C class coming out of these complexes with people inside in expensive apparels and invariably wearing sunglasses (all their ancestors had been cursed with poor sun-resistant eyes in generations to come) and living the big fat Indian dreams that sum up to zilch.

Somebody I know of, was cursing the Haryana government for their inactions, which is indeed a very commonplace sentiment and of course is true. But I feel it is the people living in Gurgaon who are at a greater fault. It is their asininity and lack of temerity which translate to their lack of understanding of the way to live a life of honour. The people living in these housing complexes are seldom people of the state and are mostly white collar employees and their families coming from less prosperous parts of the country. These spineless creatures, used to offshoring for their white counterparts have lost their ability long back to speak for their own rights. Even when it comes to fight for their fundamental rights, they have lost it. The state government and municipalities of course don't care a shit about such people who are dumb and scared enough not to come out of their generator powered AC rooms and big shopping malls to face the ground reality.

9 comments:

  1. dolly, i wana come back to you, but Gurgaon won't change without me still :P

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  2. San, a treat to read!
    Best Part - " Every day I travel with wonder to office and cannot really make up my mind to laugh or cry at the horrible condition of the infrastructure in Gurgaon.".....Cracking :)

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  3. thanks san!...diwali mein plan banao mayank :)

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  4. Well written :).
    But i would say, one cn't appreciate a thing or a city untill he knows wot exactly he needs to look in that city ..!! :P Delhi rocks, man

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  5. Yes San, sure thing.....see you guys this diwali, may be a Ooty trip again. :)

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  6. @ Rajesh, my objective was not to crib, but just point out the realities in a manner that strike ppl piercing their hard skin...anyway thanks....next post will be not a basher..for sure.

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