Gurugram is a city of nostalgia.
Situated 32 KM southwest of the national Capital the place in its own strange
little way lets one relive the childhood memories, more so if you were born in
a small town. The summers here are all
about long, frequent, unannounced power outages. 6-8 hours of repeated,
unapologetic power cut is what you get ready for, as the memories of growing up
in a pre-liberalized India comes crashing in.
The city doesn’t allow you to look too far away for company .It has lots
of incubation centers, not only for startups, but also for mosquitoes. And the
poor insects are always ready for company and quite flexible too. Depending on how
your boss treated you on a particular day, you can decide if you want to
unleash yourself on them or helplessly go to sleep as they sing and sting.
The traffic here is a
connoisseur’s delight. On the connecting
roads, they move in all direction , at the same time , as the helpless traffic
police stands still exactly like the hapless Gandhi statue , that symbolizes
secularism while the mass celebrates beef ban and pork fest . And on the
highway, that apparently is the life line of the city, the circus begins at the
stroke of 8 in the morning and 6 in the evening. The sight on most days can be
compared to the sight of ants moving towards food item at negligible pace in
one straight line. Call it the power of pheromone or the symbolic representation
of herd mentality.
Every time one intends to indulge
in small pleasures of life, the city like a true Bournville chap, asks one
simple question- “Have you earned it “. So if you want to watch a good film
(e.g. MuktiBhawan. Anarkali of Arrah, A death in the Gunj) either you have to
fight the traffic woes to travel far off or risk safety and sacrifice sleep to
catch them at odd hours. The choice of course is yours. And if you are the kind
who loves to explore a city and its happening places, Gurugram of course offers
few places. Actually two to be precise, Cyber City and sector 29. You can keep
visiting them till you die of boredom or claustrophobia.
As far as the seasons are
concerned the Weather God here follows a simple binary programming mechanism. In between navigating through dense smog and
braving blows of strong loo wind, you do encounter bouts of passing showers. And
buoy those quarter hour of quick shower are enough to drown most city roads as
you sail through your childhood memories of paper boat voyage. When you move
towards the outskirt, along with pigs you can also spot peacocks and peahens. I
was told their numbers are dwindling. But you can’t blame the peahens for that.
May be the polluted city air that makes us teary eyed every now and then isn’t
doing enough for the sanskari peacocks to cry.
But as a city that houses the
“who’s who” of corporate India, the city that headquarters most of MNCs ,Gurugram
reminds you that life is a great leveler. Like a true Indian Dad it reiterates
at every given opportunity that you must struggle hard today if you want to be
happy someday.
The city bears a strong
resemblance to Katrina Kaif. In spite of not learning the “ A” of acting in
fifteen long years she still
commands a premium and Gurugram in spite
of being a below par place to live still gets the best of talent. One has
looks, the other has opportunity. She started her career with Boom (yes the
film was named boom, blame it on nostalgia once again) and Gurugram with the
boom in Indian economy and American dream.
And both I guess have been lucky. One was close to Salman, the other to
Delhi, at least they were when both of them started out!
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