8PM - LIGHTS OFF for Gurgaon Administration

“What the Hell ……. Are we in Gurgaon” I exclaimed when I first put my foot on the soil of this so called Millennium City of India.

“Gurgaon nahi bahi……. Yeh Gandu Gaon hai” Sorry for the loose words but these are the exact words used by the Rehri vala who was over listening our conversation, when I & my friend Amit were cursing the Bus-stand facilities of Gurgaon. It was a pool of mud & sewage water; urinals were over flowing, there were more number of rehri’s than the buses in the stand, considering the amount of garbage there you can call it junk-yard of Gurgaon instead of Bus-stand. Some how we moved out of it and found a worn-out steel box on the name of local public transport; they call it 55-56 bus service, no need to mention that it was filled to the capacity of 5 buses.

Our nightmare ended when at last we reached our office, for which we were here. (As a fresher we had that curiosity to see our future office, when we got placed in a MNC during campus interviews. So we were here in Gurgaon just to visit our future company, two months before the actual joining). The office was just great, the building itself was a marvelous piece of Architecture let aside the facilities in office. Infact every building around the office and on the way were beautiful and presented a perfect picture of a beautiful modern city. We went back to college with big dreams of joining the bustling crowd of the millennium city very soon.

Few years down the line – Now, I am part of the mad crowd of this millennium city. But now I could not find any reasons to be happy about the city. The city which has beaten the country's capital in private sector development. The city which is now home to most of the big corporate houses of the world. The city whose real estate market is increasing out of any leaps & bounds. The city which spawned a huge 'mall' culture with plenty of opportunities for shopping, entertainment, fine dining and bars.

But that is where the all good ends. While the private sector rose to the new heights, the government administration has failed miserably. Here you find nothing on the name of basic infrastructure. The non-existing roads, the poor public transportation, zero rain water drainage system, erratic power supply, and worst sanitation. Which ever way you look at it, it is more like a corporate slum.

In between, there seemed to be some hope with the development of the Metro that too by DMRC not by the state government, but that to fizzed out with no such further development of public transport. The district administration is failing in every segment and the latest in the league is the diktat to ask women to stop working after 8 in the evening.

It is perhaps the most stupid diktat. It is like if the administration is screaming: We are useless. We shun our responsibility. We cannot provide safe place to the residents of the city. Our police force is good for nothing. We can’t nab the culprits so it’s better to bind the probable victims. We admit this lawlessness is beyond us. Brilliant, isn’t it? 

Everywhere on TV, newspaper, FM we hear ‘INDIA SHINING’. Is this the picture of shining India? Instead of inching forward we are moving backward towards 19^th century. If this continues soon there will be few more diktats, not to wear jeans & shorts and then a more to wear a veil. And why this upheaval about late working only, Isn’t it applicable for shoppers? Or the rapist will first ask if the woman walking out is an office-goer, or a shopper or a BPO employee or a bar employee?

These are the problems that need to be tackled head on. Giving diktats such as what the administration has done is even worse. It shows that the administration consider women a problem instead of the culprits. It is enough to shake the confidence of the city residents on the administration and law & order of the country.