This review is more of my personal take on a city where I have been staying for about 6 years now. I have stopped being surprised at MS now, else I would have been surprised to see Gurgaon listed under tourist spots. Why? Just read on to know that.
Gurgaon was known a Guru Gram in the days of Mahabharata, as Guru Dronacharya’s ashram was situated somewhere here(I don’t know which tower stands on it today!). It was one of the sleepy towns of Haryana till the late 80’s and the early 90’s, till something quite radical happened. Haryana government decided to build a city of the future with world class infrastructure in Gurgaon. Since its elbows touched the national capital, and a highway joining New Delhi to Jaipur passed through it, the idea was geographically viable. That’s how the story the the city of dust began.
The ball has been rolling for nearly 2 decades now, and the landscape of Gurgaon has undergone a transformation similar to chicken pox on an otherwise healthy person’s body.
Some for the salient features of Gurgaon are as under:
1. Suspended Particulate Matter(SPM) or Dust: This currently remains between 15000 to 18000 parts per million as against the permissible limit of 500 ppm. With a few cubic kilometers of Earth being dug and moved at any point of time, this ought happen. A major portion of the dust is respirable and a possible cause of several respiartory ailments( Dr Anil Dhingra - another Gurgaonite can add his valuable comments on the same). I personally suffer from a very sensitive nose(or just sinus). It does help me in distinguishing among various food delicacies, but the flip side is that I have a hard time in dusty surroundings. I am sure there are others in the same club.
2. Drainage / Sewage: Yes, I prefer to discuss them in the same category. In developed nations, drain water has a different outflow passage, while sewage has its own path, as both require diffrent kinds of treatment. In Gurgaon, the authorities somehow fail to understand this. There is a project called "Master storm project" going on throughout the city. That, apart from adding its cubic kilometers of dust to #.1 above, is supposed to take care of draining out rainwater to some waterbody(I didn’t care to research) and preventing venice like experience during rains. Our friend Alok Ranjan had to once virtually swim to get into his car after meetimg a client in Gurgaon. Since we do not have proper water drainage system around, even 30 mins of good rainfall are good enough to bring Venice here.
3. Power(or the lack of it). Ahh, how could I overlook this. In a place, arguably hailed as the Singapore of India, 6-12 hours of power supply is always there. On a lucky day it may go as high as 15 hours. Invertors and DG sets fill the rest of the time and the atmosphere with green house gasses. On a few legendary power cut days, invertors do run out of charge as well, reminding us of our modest past. Since the dozens of Malls here have their own power backups, I don’t mind spending some time there in the cool ambience while power Gods are angry.(That has an associated cost too!)
4. Roads(or again the want of them). There is something special about Gurgaon’s roads. Thery are spoilt after every decent downpour, and they get re-built overnight, just to wait for another downpour. More interestingly, all the cabling and plumbing projects wait for roads to be re-bullt before digging portions again for their work. The after effects can be seen till the next rebuild. Another interesting fact is about the spine breakers well.er.speed breakers I meant. These are invisible to all drivers and are present where no one can speed. These are very smooth where one can speed, just enough to prevent the need to slow one’s vehilce. Besides, the fun of driving on the surface of the Moon is an experience worth envy.
5. Real Estate: The prices are very unreal and getting more and more out of the reach of the poor and the honest. Every Tom, Dick and Harry is a real estate agent(even the roadside chai wala). Original bookings are nearly non-existant, while houses on re-sale cost a fortune(including a whopping black component). House rents have also soared like a Tsunami wave, thanks to the increase in interest rates on home loans.
6. Local Transport: This is virtually non-existant. Hence a personal vehicle is a must for all those who reside here. There are some private operators, but they are very disorganised and scanty. Gurgaon is not to be mistaken as a cousin of Delhi on this front at all.
7. Tourist Attractions: Well there are just 2 that I can think of, but since this topic fell under this category I will write about them:
1. Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary: Situated about 20 Kms from the "Malls" of Gurgaon, this is a place which provides hundreds of migratory birds a place to spend few months there. I have visited this place about 7-8 times and have seen the water body shrinking and expanding, depending on the rain and the current state of tiff between the managers of the sanctuary and the Haryana Jal Board. It is a good place to visit for bird lovers.
2. Damdama Lake: This is an ox-bow lake situated 25 kms from the Malls area, where people can go boating and see some flora and fauna in their natural habitat. A resort managed by Haryana State Tourism Corpn is there to provide you some food and a clean environment for picnics etc. The water content at Damdama is decreasing with every passing season. We may have a Sun City standing there say 15 years from now.
3. Heritage Village(Manesar) - I haven’t been there but have heard that it is a good place to spend a weekend if you have big bucks in your pocket or an employer that displays occassional love for its employees for an off-site stay.
4. Malls, Multiplexes amd Eateries: These would barely qualify, but wanted to mention the same for the impluse shoppers, die-hard movie buffs and hungry desperados. There are at least 6 on Mehrauli-Gurgaon road in Gurgaon and others are coming up fast. Hence more dust is about to be found in the atmosphere.
So here’s my account of what the City of Dust is today. People like me live here because we work here. I do understand that there are more cities in India that resemble Gurgaon in one or more of the
characterstics described above, but this review is just about Gurgaon with comparison to no other place. So other writers have the right to call other cities as bad or worse.
I can just recall what a freind of mine said about Gurgaon sometime back(in Hindi, if you please)
"Idhar bhi Khudaa hai
Udhar bhi Khudaa hai
Jahan dekho wahaan Khudaa hai
Jahan nahin dekho wahan bhi Khudaa hai
aur jahan nahin Khudaa hai.
wahan Khud raha hai!"
Thanks for bearing with me.