Stranded in Suburbia-Gurgaon

Cars and high rise buildings are the two greatest brandmarks of Gurgaon, a growing suburb south of the city of Delhi. My visits to Gurgaon have mercifully been limited but those who know better say that few years back ,Gurgaon, in the state of Haryana, was a sleepy town, the landscape dotted with villages, the economy largely agricultural. However, its proximity to Delhi and the International Airport , lower land prices, lack of a central planning authority and policies of the state of Haryana, moved into motion a snowball of real estate speculation. Soon, steel and glass glimmered through the the dusty landscape. Today, Gurgaon is a city living two very different realities. One reality is that of astonishing economic growth, of being a hub for information technology, multinationals, call centers and software companies. The other reality is that of insufficient infrastructure, power and water shortages and growing crime rates.

When I left India about 2 years back, I knew that my sister, having taken up a job with a UK based financial firm in Gurgaon would be moving there to live near her workplace. Having studied in Delhi University, close of Old Delhi, this would be quite a transformation for her. Delhi University, with a concentration of 30-40 premier colleges, residential and commercial areas, is a town in itself, with destinations to walk to and ,linked by frequent and multiple bus connections to the heart of Delhi. Gurgaon in contrast, would seem like a no mans land dotted with high rises and with a virtually non existent public transport connection, not only to Delhi, but also within. To make matters worse, being the youngest in the family, my sister never really quite mastered the art of driving.

On arriving in India last December, I decided to spend a few days staying with my sister in Gurgaon, before heading on to Chandigarh. I naively planned to occupy myself with sight seeing for the few days that she attended office before her vacation began. Surely, for the car-less like me there would be *some* alternatives. They may not be convenient, but surely they would exist and I would be alright.

After having discovered that there were NO buses that ran in the vicinity and none of the omnipresent Delhi autorickshaws ever ventured this side of the Capital, I stand on the 11th floor balcony, my mood quite as bleak as the landscape. Never before have I ever felt so marooned in India. There has always been *some* way to get around, to *somewhere*-a crowded bus, an autorickshaw, a cycle rickshaw, my own two feet!


I look down at the jhuggi (slum) that lies below. Makeshift housing of left-over brick and steel for the laborers constructing the neighboring high rise.
Seeing some laborers scurry around loaded with bricks on their heads and others drinking water at the 'stream' that seems to be the water source makes my situation seem far less worse. However, such in-your-face poverty is everywhere in the city and everywhere else, outside the swanky South Delhi Malls, in the underpasses in CP, next to the 'nice' neighborhoods.

To distract myself I wonder what this newest addition to this conglomeration of high rises would be called. Its quite an Ivy League neighborhood here, with the other two towers being christened 'Princeton' and 'Berkeley'.

In the evening, my sister takes me to the BIGGEST attractions of Gurgaon. So big that people from miles around drove to wallow in their splendor. They were the MALLS!!!

In India malls are a new concept. Most of the shopping areas in Delhi are open air spaces with shops with a covered passageway in front, circling a square of sorts . In the high end shopping area of GK, shoppers jostle for space in a 6' wide corridor with the makeshift commercial enterprises of hawkers; in CP they try to avoid stepping on the pirated books and CDs laid out in the colonnaded pathways. But none of this open air wandering in Gurgaon. Here you step through underground parking decks into multi storey atriums, in a maze of steel and glass, with brand name shops competing for the attention of Gurgaon yuppies. Along with the malls have crept up trendy eateries like the 'Khaja Chowk' that make all desi things cool.
In the town of cars, the autorickshaw is an eatery table!

Finally, fed up of being unwillingly homebound, I decide to take a cab to take me to South Delhi. The 20 km journey each way does not come cheap. As we make our slow progress towards the city, through potholed roads, dodging bicycles and rickshaws, I feel a collision coming any second.


Things really slow down as a red turbaned Jat steers his sheep through rickshaws and scooters on the busy road. The scene is quite amusing. Here we are, on the main road of the Delhi's IT capital, few yards away from an office tower that would fit in effortlessly in Buckhead and there are sheep- real sheep on the road.