These are called luxury apartments in Gurgaon, but it's fairly common to see non functional basic amenities here. One of the elevators has been out of order for months, and we discover to our discomfort, that the other one refuses to stop except to the top floor or the ground floor, just as we have neatly lined up our luggage in front of it. Luckily, we are only on the seventh floor, and the driver has just arrived to help with the luggage. May be they are just trying to keep the residents fit by making them climb up and down the stairs with heavy luggage. It is about 400 km from Gurgaon to Kuchaman, my ancestral and birth place in Rahasthan, and with a six lane highway, I am hoping we can get there in 5 to 6 hours.
The elevator fiasco has caused a bit of delay, but it's still early morning and hopefully the peak traffic time is couple of hours away at least. However, there are other problems on the road. You see, it's a future six lane highway. At present, the construction is going on for the six lanes, so it is actually a four lane, and in some cases a two lane highway. The heavy earth moving equipments are using the lanes meant for cars only, the cars in the card lane are trying to use cash, the trawler in the cash only lane has no small change, the truck in the extreme right lane meant for cars has finally ackowledged his mistake and trying to move to extreme left lane, and couple of guys decided the toll is too much for them and decided to turn back, except they will need to create another lane meant solely for morons. Meanwhile my chacha is telling me how somebody was shot fatally over 27 rs of toll recently.
When we finally clear the toll, my hope of a speady recovery is dashed as chaos reigns supreme on the other side too. The left lane is now being used by the trucks for parking, and all trucks in all lane realizing that are trying to reach it. There is even more construction on the other side, and the right lane is dug up and partly being used for storage of construction material. There are still more u turners looking for moron lane. Some of the truckers have figured out its much cheaper to use kerosene and the resulting fumes are creating a nice Gotham city atmosphere. Batman would have choked to his death here. And driving a fast car here would remain a mission impossible for Tom Cruise.
Through the smog and the smoke, I read the two billboards put up by the toll operator, cautioning the drivers to drive slow. I mean, really?? I can almost swear I watched my nail grow since the morning sitting in this car. The pedometer says 13 km in last one hour. How much slower do you want me to go mr toll operator? My Chacha takes this in his stride - 'its painful now, but the future will be bright' he says. It's not the first time he has hoped so. The few good patches of six lane highway are a good teaser for future, just reminding the travellers what they deserve but cant have now. We eventually get to Kuchaman in little less than 11 hours, with a stop over in Jaipur for lunch, and a good patch of highway from Jaipur onwards. At less than 40km an hour, I am also hoping the future will be bright, at least brighter than now. We will get there some day. Amen.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Thursday, March 1, 2012
We are like that only
3:30 am is an unearthly time to get up but not if you plan to travel long distance by road in India, wish to avoid the traffic and prefer to take freshly made parathas with you. While my chachi makes way to the kitchen, my bleary eyes focus on the television, which had been on all night, as it usually is at my chacha's house, may be he is just afraid of missing out the wholesome entertainment cable tv dishes out or some earth shattering breaking news the nth time.
I watched NDTV desperately trying to damage Arun Kejriwal's credibility in a no holds barred manner for the nth time, and govt. and opposition parties, who have not united to bring a single meaningful legislation for the country in many years, were unanimous in condemning him for mentioning the statistics about how many Indian parliamentarians were convicted felons or has criminal records or fighting criminal cases against them ranging from extortion to murder. Mentally sick, unbecoming of a gentleman, spoiling the decorum of this great country's great institutions and many such things they all said unanimously, not to their fellow parliamentarian criminals, but to Mr. Kejriwal, who had dared to mention this statistic at a public forum.
We are like that only. We can tolerate sending hardened criminals to parliament and watch them hollowing out the country from inside, we even stand and applause their ill gotten wealth, and we hope against hope that their bad karmas will catch up with them sooner or later, but we don't like somebody mentioning inconvenient facts to spoil the reputation of out great parliamentarians. You see, if the facts can't be mentioned, then they dont exist. We can take abject poverty of millions of people in our stride, karma it is after all. 'Why do they have so many children if they can't afford to raise them properly' we murmur to fellow companion before rolling up the car's window against street children. But we take strong objection to any body who makes 'slum dog millionnaire' and shows the reality to rest of the world. It's commercializing somebodys misfortune for personal gains, sullying the reputation of our great country, and in very bad taste.
I change the channel to some other news, But it only gets worse. The chief witnesses of some multi billion dollar scams are getting bumped off systenpmatically, which media prefers to call dying in mysterious circumstance, a girl jumped to her death in a mock fire drill because the police and firemen didnt take even the basic precautions, a girl gets raped in broad daylight in a moving car and the police is blaming her for drinking with the boys while revealing her identity to the media - may be they are hoping she will now commit suicide and the case will be closed. I can feel my blood pressure rising. I switch channel again and this time it's the trio of Govinda, Kader Khan, and Shakti Kapoor doing some silly slapstick comedy. At least, they are sullying their own reputation, and a couple of wasted hours is the most harm they can inflict on me. In fact, I might even laugh in a few of those scenes. That's why I prefer to watch the movies than the news. Now I better hurry up and pack, it's time to hit the road.
I watched NDTV desperately trying to damage Arun Kejriwal's credibility in a no holds barred manner for the nth time, and govt. and opposition parties, who have not united to bring a single meaningful legislation for the country in many years, were unanimous in condemning him for mentioning the statistics about how many Indian parliamentarians were convicted felons or has criminal records or fighting criminal cases against them ranging from extortion to murder. Mentally sick, unbecoming of a gentleman, spoiling the decorum of this great country's great institutions and many such things they all said unanimously, not to their fellow parliamentarian criminals, but to Mr. Kejriwal, who had dared to mention this statistic at a public forum.
We are like that only. We can tolerate sending hardened criminals to parliament and watch them hollowing out the country from inside, we even stand and applause their ill gotten wealth, and we hope against hope that their bad karmas will catch up with them sooner or later, but we don't like somebody mentioning inconvenient facts to spoil the reputation of out great parliamentarians. You see, if the facts can't be mentioned, then they dont exist. We can take abject poverty of millions of people in our stride, karma it is after all. 'Why do they have so many children if they can't afford to raise them properly' we murmur to fellow companion before rolling up the car's window against street children. But we take strong objection to any body who makes 'slum dog millionnaire' and shows the reality to rest of the world. It's commercializing somebodys misfortune for personal gains, sullying the reputation of our great country, and in very bad taste.
I change the channel to some other news, But it only gets worse. The chief witnesses of some multi billion dollar scams are getting bumped off systenpmatically, which media prefers to call dying in mysterious circumstance, a girl jumped to her death in a mock fire drill because the police and firemen didnt take even the basic precautions, a girl gets raped in broad daylight in a moving car and the police is blaming her for drinking with the boys while revealing her identity to the media - may be they are hoping she will now commit suicide and the case will be closed. I can feel my blood pressure rising. I switch channel again and this time it's the trio of Govinda, Kader Khan, and Shakti Kapoor doing some silly slapstick comedy. At least, they are sullying their own reputation, and a couple of wasted hours is the most harm they can inflict on me. In fact, I might even laugh in a few of those scenes. That's why I prefer to watch the movies than the news. Now I better hurry up and pack, it's time to hit the road.
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