Have you ever tried, lately, to travel to the DT City Centre or Metropolitan mall after 3 PM on any of the weekends? I have, albeit, unsuccessfully. If you drive from IFFCO chowk towards the famous twin-malls, the first things that hits you is the mile long queue-jam. Only once you have cleared it, bumper to bumber, over a period of 10 minutes, that you realise that the parking on the Metropolitan Mall is full - the realisation comes by way of a rude sound byte by the blue clad traffic-cum-security regulator near the entrance. You give one curious look to the queue of 10 odd cars, still waiting and then drive on. Thinking that you are smart you take a U-turn from the almost hidden U-turn, made out of corrugated-sheet and decide to head for the DT City Centre mall. 
Same result. Now, after 25 minutes, you are facing where you came from, originally. You are still in your car and have been deprived of an opportunity to park your car in the basement and yourself onto one of Barista’s hard wood chairs. And you wonder what would have happened if you had tickets to a movie in either of the malls? Welcome to Gurgaon’s busy malls.
Years ago, Karol Bagh used to be a similar experience. You would spend a loooong time looking to park. The saving grace with Karol Bagh was that you could, with a lot of apprehension and reluctance, hand over the keys to your car to that ubiquitous parking wala. Here, that luxury does not exist, either. I wonder what the architects of these malls were thinking. If you build 2,50,000 sq. ft. of shopping space, don’t you account for car parking space for the people who will visit it? Or do you not expect the mall to be a success ? Is the Metro station the solution to it ?
The concept of a mall was to provide a hassle free single place where one could drive to and park at and shop at ease. Somewhere, the concept has been ‘Karol-Baghed’.
Other roads in the city are no better. As traffic is increasing, jams are frequent and it is not being helped by the broken roads.
As a matter of fact, I travelled to Karol Bagh, last week and it is a lot less congested, now, than our own favourite ‘mall road’.
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Tags: Bijlee-paani-sadak (Power-water-roads) · City
“Gurgaon (PTI): In a broad daylight robbery, armed men on Saturday looted a branch of Punjab and Sind Bank in Jamalpur village and decamped with Rs 7.57 lakh.
Three motor cycle borne youth forced their entry into the bank branch situated on Gurgaon-Pataudi road at about 11 AM, hitting the security guard at the gate with a revolver butt and leaving him unconscious, Gurgaon Police Commissioner Mohinder Lal said. ” - Source, Hindu, 31st August 2008.
A few days back, armed men had robbed a Gurgaon household on gunpoint.
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Moving to Gurgaon ? One of the first things to encounter is house hunting. Take a live peek into an actual house hunting session in Gurgaon.
This is the part which will be common to all: I pick up some numbers of Property Dealers(are you not familiar with the term?) and start my first call. A gruffy Haryanwi accent greets with something closer to Alloo (potato in Hindi) than Hello. ‘Do you do rentals?’ I ask, in Hindi, ofcourse.
‘Hanji!’
‘I am looking for a three bedroom accomodation.’
‘What do you do ?’ (Apparently this is the most important return question in this dialogue)
‘I am a blogger.’
‘What is that?’
‘I write - like a journalist.’
‘You are a journalist? For which paper? Hindustan Times?
‘Noooo… I am a blogger. Sort of a freelancer.’
‘So you do not work with a company?’
‘No.’
‘So, can you give company lease?’
‘I do not work with a company. So, I cannot give a company lease?’
‘Ok. I will get back to you.’ (This sentence, if preceded by the work-with-company or company-lease question is a polite way to say, ‘take a walk’.)
Finally one encounters a kinder soul, who goes beyond this point.
‘Ok. So you are a freelancer. How many people in the family?’
‘4.’
‘Does your wife work?’
‘No. Housewife.’
‘Two children?’
‘Yes.’
‘Do you eat non-veg?’
“Yes, I do.’
‘I have a house, but the land lord wants only vegetarian tenants.’ (I wonder if the land lords expect a monthly menu sanction before meals can be cooked in the house.)
“Sorry, but I am a non-vegetarian.’
‘Ok. I have another house but they prefer a working couple.!’
‘Well, my wife does not work.’ (She does but not outside for any employer.)
‘Ok. Let me check with the landlord. You seem like a good person. The landlord is very particular about letting his house to the right person.’ (The right person is one who speaks English and looks educated. )
This is the part which was destined just for me 
Finally after a lot of ground work and a couple of grinding weeks, during which I started recognizing property dealers, across the city, there appeared a knight with a shining house. A landlord who agreed to let out his house to a not-working-for-Aricent, no-company-lease option, non-vegetarian with a wife who does not work, a sort of, low on the tenant-value-chain person like me. Let us call this chap, Mr. Verma. A ‘meeting’ was fixed between Mr. Verma and me at the property dealer’s office, a 8×8 non airconditioned shop, populated with a 50 year old in dhoti, who was looking at me from the corner of his eyes, a 20 something Munna (an allrounder employee who stands in for the receptionist, house guide, messenger and office boy) and the 30 something street smart property dealer himself. Mr. Verma asked me, point blank, with a tone more stoic and probing than my last employer in the final round of job interview, ‘So, what do you do ?’ (It is important to notice that this is the moment of truth for you, the prospective tenant. Your life is hanging at this time, especially if you do not work for Aricent, IBM, TCS or Maruti. Every other employment is supremely suspect. )
I bowed my head and gave my most impressive ‘career describing speech’. It is noteworthy to mention that had the same fervour and enthusiasm been followed by me, earlier in my career, as I did in explaining to Mr. Verma, my work, I would have been in Vir Sanghvi’s place, today.
Mr. Verma, gestured to signal that he understood, though I thought it was suspect as his nodding did not rhyme with my important syllables, suitably. Anyway, I had passed the test!
Now, I made the cardinal mistake of attempting to pretend that the prospective tenant also had the right to ask the same question!!!
‘So, what do you do, Mr. Verma ?’
Mr. Verma was not pleased, though he explained that he was in garments mechandising quality control.
What followed was a little stubborn negotiation on the rent - the toss up was between 12000 and 12500. A lot of sweat was lost - as there was no AC in the property dealer office - but I was proud to prevail, in this contest. Little did I know that in the process - and especially since I had asked the ‘What do you do?’ question, despite being a lowly tenant, to the mighty landlord - I had crossed the line.
Anyway, all seemed to be fine on the surface. Mr. Verma ordered the property dealer to prepare ‘the standard’ agreement.
‘The one you had prepared, earlier.’ The property dealer nodded, in understanding, something which made me take a mental note to go through the agreement, beforehand.
Mr. Verma shook hands and took off with the promise of meeting after 4 days with the agreement as also a commitment from his side to get the damp patch on the drawing room wall, repaired. I was told to get ready to move my stuff.
I was very pleased and even allowed myself the luxury of humming an old Amitabh Bachchan movie song, while I drove back from our rendezvous.
I promptly called Mr. Verma, the day before the scheduled meeting, to confirm the time of the meeting.
He did not pick up the phone. After a few repeated attempts, I called the property dealer. I was informed that Mr. Verma had some additional questions before he will finally decide to let his house.
I was crestfallen. I had told the current landlord goodbye and settled the bijlee ka bill in advance. My packers were in the house, bubble-wrapping my crockery.
Anyway, I submitted to the additional whetting. Some more questions and then Mr. Verma told me that all was good and that I can go ahead. But, he mentioned, that he will not be able to come at the pre-determined time for the meeting. However, there was nothing to worry, he assured me. Nothing to worry? I was not sure what that meant. ‘Could I shift my house, now, Your Highness?’, I wanted to ask him. Instead I blurted politely, ‘So, shall we fix another day for signing the agreement?’
‘Sure, tomorrow, anytime.’ Pat came the reply.
‘Ok. Is 11 AM fine?’
‘No, I am busy in the morning. Let us do it in the evening.’ (So much for ‘anytime’.)
‘Ok. So 4PM?’
‘Ok.’
I brushed aside the temporary glitch as a minor issue and called my packer to inform him that the shifting was postponed by a day. ‘No problem, Sir.’, I was told.
So, the next day, I put on my starched Arrow shirt and drove up to the property dealer’s office, arriving promptly at 4 PM. But when by 4:25, Mr. Verma had not arrived, I was able to convince the property dealer that it was important enough for him to ‘disturb’ his client by calling him and asking him about his whereabouts. Mr. Verma did not pick up his mobile phone on the first 11 attempts! On the 12th, a woman picked up and informed the property dealer that Mr. Verma had left his mobile phone, at home. The property dealer was sure that there was no need to ask further questions and ordered me to wait. I did.
When by 5 PM, Mr. Verma had not descended on us, lowly humans, I asked the property dealer what was going on. He called again and on his 2nd attempt, Mr. Verma picked up the phone and announced that he had already left his house for a small outing with his family and will not be able to make it to the meeting that day. The property dealer was also a bit perturbed as he advised me to give Mr. Verma a call, later along with the advice that I can go ahead and shift my stuff to Mr. Verma’s house and that ‘formalities’ such as meeting the landlord and/or signing the agreement can take place, later. This was indigestible stuff for me so I, selectively, took his former advice, only.
I attempted to call Mr. Verma, the next day and on my 7th unsuccessful attempt, I noticed that my packer was trying to call me too. I hung up, called the packer and informed him of another indefinite delay and then played a bit of a smart alec. Giving it a gap of an hour, I called Mr. Verma from a different number. He picked up and on being asked why he was not picking up my calls, he informed me, in a dead pan voice, that his phone was not working properly. ‘Water has got into my phone so I cannot hear incoming calls nor see numbers, at times.’ (Blame it on Nokia.)
Well, I was in no mood to take any further c _ _ _ from Mr. Verma so I told him point blank. ‘Mr. Verma, there is no binding for you to let out your house to me. If you do not want to or have changed your mind, you can always refuse. It is perfectly allright and understandable. Just that I will request you to take a call on this, now, and inform me, one way or the other.’
‘Absolutely, no problem. I just had some trouble with my phone and I had to go to some relative’s at the last moment. You can make a cash payment to the broker and just move in. We can sign the agreement in a day or two. No problem, at all.’
Make a cash payment to the broker?! And Mr. Verma will not be present to sign a receipt or an agreement ? I was not convinced so I requested, ‘Can we sign the agreement, first, please. I am prepared to wait, a little while longer.’
‘Sure. No problem.’
After a few ‘no problems’ and a good five minutes checking his schedule, he finally decided on 4′o Clock, the next day.
The next day came and so did 4′o Clock.
My great luck that Mr. Verma arrived - albeit, only 20 minutes late. I almost felt like doing a salaam befitting a Mughal Emperor - remember Jhodha or Mughal-e-aa-zam?
The property dealer also looked relieved and pleased. Apparently even he was not accustomed to such a whimsical landlord. The agreement, as per Mr. Verma’s directions and prepared by the property dealer was placed before Mr. Verma.
In an attempt to get on with things, I asked, ‘In whose name do you want the cheque?’
An authoritative and wise left hand, protruding from Mr. Verma’s Janpath bought blue-checked shirt, gestured me to stop my childish utterances.
‘Let me go through the agreement.’
I did not dare mention that this was his agreement.
After a somberly 2 minutes, Mr. Verma started to express his displeasure at the property dealer by pointing out mistakes and contradictions in the agreement. This went on for a good 10 minutes after which it was announced by Mr. Verma that he will have a fresh agreement drafted and sent across to the property dealer by the next day. This is the point at which I sensed the property dealer moving over to my side. He asked Mr. Verma, as to whether he would deem it beneath him to make the changes, as required by him, to the agreement, then and there, and the same will be altered and re-printed. Irrefutable logic which even Mr. Verma of watery-phone reputation found difficult to refute.
He got up and disappeared. Appearing after 2 minutes, he produced a laptop and proceeded to work on it for the next 20 minutes. Finally, lady luck smiled on me and Mr. Verma decided that he had made a ‘perfect’ agreement from his original agreement draft and he offered me to take a look at his piece of work.
It took me 2 minutes to realise that Mr. Verma had spent the last 20 minutes altering another perfectly balanced rental agreement, of which he already had a soft copy on his rickety IBM laptop, into something so one-sided that even the American negotiators with Japan after the Second World War, would be put to shame.
I fought the palpating urge to point out to Mr. Verma, which breed of canine family, I thought, he belonged to. I suspect that there was another basic instinct, quick breeding in me at that time. A feeling which lawyers, in attempting to defend their clients, in the most hopeless of cases, describe as ‘temporary insanity leading to culpable homicide’.
However, the human body is an amazing machine. I suppressed those emotional uprisings in my mind and patiently and politely, pointed out to Mr. Verma, just two of the most blatantly one sided terms that he had worded, in my company, suggesting, alongside, some minor modifications which would make them a little more balanced.
‘Ofcourse.’ Came the reply from our ever so polite and understanding, Mr. Verma.
He continued with a, ‘Let us meet tomorrow to discuss these, again.’ and stomped out. I suppose Sidney Sheldon had Mr. Verma in mind when he wrote his fiction masterpiece called ‘If Tomorrow Comes’.
There was a time in life, when I thought I had people figured out. This, I am afraid, is a different time.
- If have an anecdote that you would like to share, please use the comments section to send it to us. You may choose to get credit for it or stay anonymous, as per your wish.
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Tags: Anecdotes · City
From an airconditioned bedroom window with a view, it may be a shade difficult to see the pictures, we try to show you, here, of the old city of Gurgaon.
The idea, here, at Gurgaon.com, is to try and project a true picture of Gurgaon. For Gurgaon is just not glass facade skyscrapers and gated apartment complexes. This is Gurgaon too!
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Tags: City
“Says Pramod Bhasin, President and CEO, Genpact, which is headquartered in Gurgaon, near Delhi: “Law and order is the biggest factor impacting the business sentiment in the national capital region (NCR). The safety of women, in particular, is an issue.” Something for the authorities to chew on.” - Source, Business Today, 21 August 2008.
Gurgaon, in particular, seems to be suffering from this, it seems. Though there has been initiative from Gurgaon police - in terms of making it more friendly and open to complaints as also setting up an inbound call/message system/centre as also re-inforcing its force.
Hindustan Times reports on 18th August 2008, ” The Haryana government has sanctioned an additional force of 2,000 personnel, 23 vehicles, including PCR vans, and six more police stations for Gurgaon. More seats are also being created for more ACP-level police officers in the city.
Gurgaon Police Commissioner Mohinder Lal said the additional force was likely to reach Gurgaon in about one month.
“We have got a sanction of over 2,000 additional police personnel that include seven ACPs, 35 inspectors, 100 sub inspectors, 175 assistant sub inspectors, 350 head constables and 1,400 constables,” Lal said. “
It appears that it has been well realised that Gurgaon has a law enforcement capability deficit. This has been manifested by way of unabated pub violence, robberies & dacoities in homes. It appears that attempts are being made to re-inforce the law enforcement mechanism by way of additional forces and technology - there has been talk of street cameras in different parts of Gurgaon.
As concerned citizens, we are hoping all these steps come in quick and good.
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Tags: City
Residents of Sector 21 and other sectors and office bearers of RWAs ‘gheraoed’ the Police Commissioner’s office on Monday, asking for urgent action in the case of a daring armed dacoity in Sector 21. For the last 2-3 nights, residents in the area can hear the police patrol van’s sirens. We will keep the readers posted on how long this continues for. I wonder, though, why roadblocks and patrolling starts immediately after a hue and cry following an incident and further, why it disappears, a few days, afterwards. Let us hope that it charts a different path, this time.
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Tags: City
French journalist Ophélie Colas des Francs wants to know some things about Gurgaon. I have tried to answer as accurately as possible. If someone wants to share his/her views, you are welcome.
Why Gurgaon roads are so bad?
Ophélie, Gurgaon was a small town on the outskirts of Delhi, till it was hit by the twin factors of the outsourcing boom of the early 2000s and the pressing need of Delhi-ites for more room / housing. A whole lot of private entrepreneurship and leadership took it from a sleepy suburban town to a bustling real estate centre, within a few years. However, the speed at which this developed, left public services far behind. An additional half a million people have migrated to Gurgaon in the last 10 odd years. However, private funding has not been followed with a balanced public(read local administrative) funding / support. While the civic set up is playing catchup, roads have gone from bad to worse and water & electricity is scarcer. This is the monsoon period in Gurgaon and this has led to the situation becoming even worse.
What are the consequences for inhabitants and companies?
Well, barring a newly built multi-lane toll road, connecting Gurgaon to Delhi, which is privately built and maintained, almost all roads are in a bad state. Some of them are left with no tar or foundations! Residents and businesses, both suffer. There are daily traffic jams, vehicle breakdowns and cost and time of commuting is vastly more than what it should be. There are state-of-the-art call centres on roads which could be called tough dirt-biking stretches. However people and companies (or entrepreneurs) are resilient and work around these handicaps.
Why the HUDA doesn’t invest to improve the substructures?
Frankly, I do not have an answer to it. :(
Will Gurgaon be ready for the Commonwealth games?
Ophélie, the Commonwealth games are being held in Delhi, of which Gurgaon is a satellite town. Therefore, Gurgaon will mainly be playing a supporting role by way of being a host to the visitors, etc. A number of good quality and star hotels have come up in Gurgaon to cater to some of those needs. Gurgaon is getting a Metro (suburban mass transport transit system) connection to Delhi - which should help in commuting by taking the load off the roads.
There are more and more malls in the town. But do the people have enought money to go shopping?
lol. Yes, they do. Gurgaon is the urban edge of India, with per capita incomes a few multiples of the national average. The smallest and cheapest two bedroom flat in Gurgaon sells for an amount equal to or more than US Dollars $100,000 (Euro 68,000) and most houses go for US $250,000 (Euro 170,000). Plus there will be thousands of million dollar or upwardly priced houses in Gurgaon. Not to mention that most of these houses are purchased by paying for them in full (as compared to with mortgages). So, you can estimate their purchasing power.
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Tags: City
August 20th, 2008 · 1 Comment
Well, here we are in the middle of the week and India is trying to save the second one day international. I pick up the newspaper and read that a school boy in Gurgaon was found with a pistol in his school bag. A few days earlier, a youth allegedly accidentally shot a trucker at a petrol pump.
GunGaon (or Gurgaon) has been a witness to scores of gun abuses in the last few months. A few months back a school kid had taken a gun to the school and used it to shoot another school kid, dead. If this continues schools will soon start selling body armour along with books to new students. |)
What kind of anger is pent up in young people (even school kids) that we are witnessing all this? One cannot help but start equating with gun violence in US schools. But the factors that go into violence in that country are much more different - different social fabric, parental attitude, etc. When we witness similar behaviour in India - shall we say, especially Gurgaon, since Gurgaon, unfortunately seems to be the ‘pioneer’ of this trend in India - there is a very serious need to introspect - for parents, law enforecement bodies and school managers.
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Tags: City
August 18th, 2008 · 1 Comment
Dacoits, armed with guns and knives, stormed a Gurgaon house on Saturday night / wee hours of Sunday morning and decamped with jewellery and cash. The residents were tied up at gunpoint and huddled in one room. The residents of Sector 21, Gurgaon - where this incident occurred - are shocked and fearful after this incident. As a result, people spent a fearful Sunday and finally gathered in the evening to address the looming problem of security in their area. A meeting was called in the community park of Sector 21, which was also addressed by RWA post holders from other sectors as well as from Sector 21 and members of JAFRA, the association of RWAs in Gurgaon. Thefts have been quite common in the city, now, but this kind of a daring incident of armed assault and robbery has taken a new low. There was a feeling of helplessness in the meeting which finally took a turn towards a consensus to gather at the Police Commissioner’s office, the next day, to lodge a strong protest. In addition, the RWA and panicked citizens have started taking small measures to try and thwart further incidents. Plans of erecting gates and barbed wires within the sector are being made. This is a typical case of actions towards self sufficiency of security, in the absence of actual security or a perception of being policed.
It is easy to ask a question like, ‘Is this the millenium city we are hoping for ? When citizens feel helpless so as to have to resort to private security measures. ‘ For months, now, Gurgaon.com has been raising the question of creating deterrents against crime in the city. For, deterrence is the only tangible manner in which any law enforcement body can curb crime. We have seen incident after incident of pub violence, in the city, which, apparently, does not result in any tangible policing actions. Thefts have given way to armed robbery in a bank branch, a few weeks, back and now residential houses do not seem safe, either, from armed assaults.
We are hoping, some quick action gets taken in this case. Many, have the impression that this is hoping for too much. I will keep my fingers crossed.
…follow up
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Tags: City
On 12th Aug 08, we had written about traffic jams in Gurgaon due to the pathetic state of the roads. The 15th August 2008 edition of Times of India reports that the state is no different in Delhi where the police is complaining that bad roads are causing traffic jams, “The traffic police have written to MCD, NDMC, PWD, DMRC and NHAI, detailing over 135 stretches where the poor state of roads is causing jams. “
It is interesting to note that while on one hand, auto-manufacturers are vying with each other to bring new cars into the market, roads are in a really bad state. As of today, a miniscule percentage of Indians own cars and this figure is growing rapidly. If, with the current state of roads, we are unable to take care of our current volume of cars, what will happen in 3-5 years from now?
Well, development does not have to be only in building internet bandwidth and skyscrapers and shopping malls. There needs focus on the basic infrastructure requirement, too. Today, due to broken crater studded roads, it takes 15 minutes to cover a stretch between Maruti’s main gate and Kataria chowk, a distance which is about 2-3 KM. So, even if your city is spread over a cross-diameter distance of 15-20 KM, it is worse off with the current state of road connectivity.
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