WELCOME TO MILLENNIUM CITY-PART 2

I asked the residents yet another simple question. I asked them where they lodged a complaint in case of a power failure. Again, they were clueless. ‘Lodge a complaint? Is that possible?’ was their reaction. Suddenly I felt immensely proud to be a Keralite and of the fact that KSEB is a very ‘efficient’ organization. Down south, you swear the moment the lights go off. You call KSEB all the names that you have learnt since childhood. But, at least, you have some system in place and the fact that people are well informed makes all the difference.

Yes, India is not self sufficient in meeting its electricity needs. Fine, but what is required is action and also information regarding the same. The citizens must be well informed and must have clarity in such matters of concern.

Another shocking discovery during my initial days in Gurgaon was that you don’t have any public transport system. The only mode of transport available is overcrowded autorickshaws in which you hang on to the autorickshaw as though in some chase scene in the climax of Priyadarsan movies. Including the driver, 16 people travel ‘comfortably’ in this super carrier. And, you don’t have ‘those kinds of autos’ as you find elsewhere, where 1 person can independently hire the auto for his or her private use. It is totally unknown and unheard of in this part of the country.

Forget about buses. Apart from a few that you can count with your 5 fingers, you cannot find buses plying from one destination to the other. Even those few buses run in a straight line route between two destinations. To go to places located in various sectors, either you hire the cycle rickshaws or walk or have your own vehicle or even worse, beg for a lift.

If you take the officials of the transport department of the Haryana Government to cities like Calicut, Cannanore or Cochin (to Kerala for that matter), they would go crazy seeing the huge number of buses plying between all possible destinations. No wonder if they go on to ask, “Why the hell do you have so many buses? People need to have their own vehicles.”

Traffic jam is assuming its worst possible forms day by day as people resort to own vehicles even to go to the market to buy a needle or a packet of milk. The affordability and showbiz is so high that people do not prefer to drive a bike to the market, but rather show case their most expensive cars. Result-Lengthy cars-difficult to maneuver-more traffic jams.

Come rainy season (an annual event that lasts for 7 days), things get an added flavour. Even after the slightest drizzle which has less intensity than a child peeing, you may be tempted to believe that you are in flood-affected-Mumbai. You will have to literally wade through water that would get stagnated within minutes for want of drains to flow into. I think text books of civil engineering taught in engineering colleges of Haryana do not have the chapter pertaining to drainage and sewage disposal systems. That might be the reason the PWD engineers are not aware of the fact that you need to drain water after it rains or you need to have good waste water drainage system.

Even for a single day, if it rains with the same intensity as it rains in Kerala or Karnataka, trust me, Gurgaon will be totally submerged. It would be a good option to put the PWD civil engineers on a training program in one of the towns in Kerala so that they can study ‘Effective methods of disposing water’. One week of training during the monsoons would be more than sufficient.

The Haryana Government is supposed to be one of the richest state governments. In spite of that, the performance and fund utilization is pathetic and condemnable. Only if the people react, will be situation get any better. And also, they should not commit the mistake of electing under performing governments for consecutive tenures as it is in the present situation.

I welcome you all to have a taste of this unique ‘Gurgaon experience’, after which you will have more respect and pride towards the city in which you currently reside.

Welcome to the Millennium City!!!

WELCOME TO MILLENNIUM CITY-PART I

Hearty Welcome to the Millennium City, the city which is called the call centre capital of India, the one and only Gurgaon.

I do not see a single reason why this place is called so. A place where you do not have electricity for more than 12 hours on an average day (seriously, I am not joking), a place where there is huge dearth of public transport system, a place where the drainage system is in its worst form. The list continues endlessly.

Every city or town has its own limitations and shortcomings. But, if you are hailing a city as the ‘Millennium City’, there must be reasons enough to do so. But frankly speaking, I couldn’t find any. But, yes, if the name is on account of the hoards of corporate offices and the sprawling malls located in Gurgaon, then perhaps the name befits this city. You can find all the big names flashing on electronic boards adorning multi-storeyed buildings. You also have the biggest malls in India located here.

Gurgaon is a classic example of irresponsible and lackadaisical style of governance. I wonder how the government passes its time during its tenure. Its not enough to have big corporate offices and malls located in the city. What are required are basic needs. Here, you have everything else, but basic needs.

The most shocking of all is power cuts for more than 12 hours a day. Ask someone who has resided in Gurgaon if you are unable to believe it. Sometimes, I feel that I am stranded in some remote adivasi village located in some remote corner of the country or I feel as if I am currently in the 1980s where the government is still trying to figure out how to go about running the administration. It resembles the 1980s literally as everything is black and white as you do not have electricity so as to realize any colour around you. No way have I ever felt that I am amidst the 21st century.

The sad part is that there is enough power to run the industries and offices. The civilians suffer the most on account of the former. And also, thanks to the generator and invertor lobby which I suspect to have its presence here. Every household and every other office or building has the most powerful and efficient generator sets. The need would have arisen in the past due to some genuine short supply of electricity. But once they captured the market, why would they restrain themselves from lobbying? They might lure the government with some petty bribe to deliberate power cuts and meanwhile, make more profit by selling generator sets. It is simple logic and nothing else.

To top it all, the residents have no clue about all the mess that is here. Let alone people like me who are non residents of Gurgaon and who have come here to make a living. I have talked to people who have been residing in Gurgaon for more than 10 years about the acute shortage of electricity. The answers that I got were not convincing at all. Some opined that ‘it is like that only’, whereas some others were of the opinion that all the power from Gurgaon is supplied to light up Delhi. Bullshit.

INDIAN PAISA LEAGUE

As the 50 day 'extravaganza' comes to a close yesterday, I experience a sigh of relief. Now at least, I can watch TV channels in which people would be talking of something other than IPL.

During the last 50 days, you turn on any TV channel, you find some X, Y and Z talking some crap about the match which was played the day before, the match which would be played the same day and matches which would be played on the subsequent days. They seem to 'analyse' the performance on real time basis. I wonder if any of their analyses, predictions and projections have ever come true or not.

Now you might tell me that if I am not interested, I shouldn't be watching the matches and the discussions or rather I must be watching some other channel. Yeah, I was trying to do exactly that. But, trust me, finding a channel devoid of IPL content seemed to be the toughest thing on earth.

Let alone the discussions, the controversies that followed were even worse. The whole nation was discussing nothing but IPL. All the discussions about Dantewada massacre and other national issues were simply sidelined. Just sit back and think, what was all the drama about? Was it really necessary?

If fund misappropriation was the issue, didn't the IT department smell the rot one or two years back? Why did not anyone question about the source of funds or fund utilisation last year or the year before when it was clearly evident that huge sums of money were involved.

The very fact that a player (read M S Dhoni) was paid 6 crores in the very first edition of the tournament should have raised eyebrows of the IT department. It took three years the resignation of a reputed Minister of the parliament for the government to wake up and look in to the situation.

It was quite obvious that all these drama would happen as everyone wants the monkey's share of anything and everything that involves money. As mentioned in my previous posts, cricket, glamour (Bollywood) and politics have deep rooted connections. But, this time, more than the Bollywood, it was the tussle between politics and cricket.

First of all, cricket and politics should be completely delinked. Other wise, you would know people like Sharad Pawar for being someone linked with the BCCI and the IPL rather than an Agricultural Minister. Other than his active participation in the controversies, has he made any impact or radical change in the Agricultural sector which is ailing because of multiple reasons and which requires immediate and urgent attention?

With due respect to all fans of this great game, my request to all the cricket fans would be to apply commonsense and intution to question corruption and nepotism. Let us not delude ourselves by digging ourselves in the sand like an ostrich and believe that cricket is pristine and clean.

There are so many aspiring cricketers dreaming of becoming a Tendulkar or a Kumble. Let us not dissappoint them by commercialising and killing the game. Let the spirit of the game be alive!!