facts please:
- almost all the corporates that exist in India have a glass-walled office in Gurgaon
- a parking space acc. to one of my friends cost 2 lacs, forget the flat/pent house - this is just the cost of parking space for ur car.
- the new state-of-the-art delhi-gurgaon expressway was just inaugurated, which has 21 bucks as toll tax for a single vehicle's entry on just one side!
- India's biggest real estate giant (who is on a virtual tour to grab India's prime land) DLF has a almost 50% hold over the gurgaon city land.
i was on a Haryana Transport bus called Delhi to Rewari.
So most of the occupants who were travelling in the bus were people who belonged to the lower strata of the society. when the bus crossed airport, almost all fo them turned left to see the flights taking off, one of them said: "woh dekho..aeroplane!"
wow! when did i last hear "Aeroplane" - i loved the sound of it! "Aeroplane" - and they were all so awestruck by the sight of 3 or 4 planes that it almost made me felt like that fevicol ad about the aliens coming on earth and the expressions on the faces of those actors. And as u go ahead, the expressway makes u feel like a runway. So, for those people the bus was giving them the experience of an aeroplane in the price of a bus fare! Thats development! :)
When the bus enters Gurgaon, it is a sight to be seen. Huge glass-walled buildings, Shopping Malls, Corporate offices, skyscrapers, never-before-seen design on buildings and what not! (one of the advertsing boards say: India's longest shopping mall now with a 1 km long shopping floor!) Woosh! are they going to have cabs now inside the malls?
imagine u coming out of Pantaloons and you ask the cabbie "bhaiyya next stop Shopper's Stop.!, wahi thodi der rukne ke baad, hum Tommy Hilfiger jaayenge!" But your kid will insist to go to Playstation joint, so u ask the cabbie wala, "jab tak hum Shopper's Stop mei ho, tab tak tum isse PlayStation ghooma ke leke aana" wow! i can see this... it will soon happen!)
bloody 1 km shopping mall!
the people in bus didnt have any option. a few must have closed their windows in disbelief and a few were still trying to figure out "whether the bus has taken a different route?", well i am exaggerating -
everyone knows and have heard about what Gurgaon has become - but never did they expect such a huge concrete jungle! I am sure, the residents of rural haryana are almost in a state of shock!
But the shocker comes now! half of delhi daily commutes to gurgaon but then there is
no such thing called Public transport! Its almost like a poor is not allowed to travel or live in gurgaon.
More shocking part, as i enter a high-rise building where my friend rents a flat - there is no electricity for the next 3 hours! so what are u suppose to do, but talk about the dichotomy...
what have we all made our cities to be?
there is multiplex, malls, offices but no transport or electricity.
i can see what rapid urbanization is doing to our country and this is just happening in the capital's neighbourhood. wonder what the other parts of the country has to say?
my series of blogs on gurgaon will continue with the frequent trips I make there!
to be continued...
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