Cows on the Road- Morning Commute

Cows on the Road

I took this picture while driving to work today morning. I often meet cows on my morning commute. But earlier I could not take pictures as I had no camera in my phone. Would love to click a picture from the other direction. Then you can see what huge horns the cows have! And of course, they take their own sweet time to make up their minds which way they wish to go. Honk as you might, they are just not swayed. But as I wrote before, on Indian roads, give me cows any day.

Sunset along the Railway Tracks- Gurgaon

Sunset along Railway Tracks, Gurgaon

Construction in Gurgaon

Construction in Gurgaon

I have putting my camera phone to use. This is a construction site in Gurgaon. In spite of the Hard Hat sign there were so many people down there without a hat of any kind.

A few days back we were having a discussion on Indiamike that has some relevance here. Haylo, an Indiamike member who works as a highway engineer made the following remark (emphasis mine) in context of cars being driven on the wrong side of the road-

"I have to say that as a highway engineer who is used to working to the constraints of Chapter 8*, the way that highway maintenance is handled in India, and the potential for resultant chaos and worse totally horrifies me. As for the things I've seen on construction sites, don't get me started, I've closed down sites for far less back home! *shudder*

*Chapter 8 of the UK Traffic Signs Manual, a HUGE set of regulations covering every aspect of safety at roadworks. Put it this way, insomnia is never a problem in my house..!"

When the Car Felt Like a Boat!

Yesterday (14/08/2008) I needed to get out of the office around 4.00 in the evening to attend a meeting elsewhere. There were three of us. A little while ago the skies had opened and the rain was coming down like anything. Standing at the gate of our office, we saw a river on the street (it happens whenever it rains heavily around my office area). The meeting was canceled because the river on the road would lead to massive traffic jams later and we would never be able to make it back to our office again. Not before 10 at night at least!

I went back to my room and did some work. The rain continued. In situations like this you either leave early or leave late, else you just sit in the traffic jam. I usually leave late. But by 5.00 the rain still was pouring and even I started to worry. I thought 5.00 pm was still OK and decided to leave.

I took the car out and 100 meters ahead there was a small jam. I did not think too much about it. But the next door big software consultancy office also decided to let their employees go before time. They have more than 20 buses and they started to come out on the river err ... road. And then the traffic just stopped moving. I was still lucky that every 20 minutes we would crawl a meter (and I am not exaggerating). The traffic towards Delhi was just standing still. And the rain kept hitting the windscreen of my car with such a force! I had to keep the windows closed, switch the engine off (as we were not going anywhere and petrol is expensive) and it felt quite claustrophobic.

One hour later, I was still sitting on the same stretch of the road. Usually when massive rains occur I leave office around 8.00 pm. I called home and told them that it looks like I would reach sometime after 8.00 only, as the traffic is just not moving.

One and a half hour later I crossed the 'big consultancy' office road and across the turn, the river got even bigger. A lot of people where ditching there stationary office cabs and just walked through knee deep water. The factory workers were also wading through the water, sometimes with their bicycles. I took solace from the fact that as none of the other small cars have stopped, my Maruti 800 would also hold! When a group of people or motorcyclists would cross together, I could feel the water hitting the floor of my car, and it gave a sensation that I was sitting in a boat!

Thankfully the rain lessened after a while and I could roll the windows down. After crawling for another 20 meters, a gentleman (a foreigner too, by the look of him) going in the opposite direction in a big SUV asked me, "Excuse me have you seen the blockage, what is it?" I told him, "No I have not seen the blockage, but I have not seen a single car moving even an inch for the past one and a half hours in your direction". He said, "Well, I have been sitting here for an hour myself, at least in your direction the traffic is moving." My reply was, "You call this moving? In one and a half hours I have just moved beyond those huge office blocks." He told me there was even more water ahead in my direction! After a while my side traffic crawled another inch or so and our conversation ended.

He was right about the water, on the stretch ahead there was even more water but thankfully the car didn't stop. Struggling for some more time, I finally managed to take the turn towards my residential area. The traffic was moving normally here.

At 7.30 in the evening, two and a half hours later I had left, I managed to reach home, covering a distance of 8 kilometers! And it was a pity I didn't had my small camera with me yesterday or surely to pass the time, I would have clicked a few pictures and posted it here.

I have to say one thing, Maruti Suzuki makes decent boats err... cars.

And Happy Independence Day!

A Drive from Noida to Gurgaon

It has been a long time since I visited any new place and living in an urban concrete jungle gets on my soul after a while. This weekend we visited my brother-in-law and sister's place. We had a great time with them and their one year old terror, my lovely niece. For a rare change Sesha was driving and my elder nephew was with him in the front seat where they were debating the relative merits of Hindi and Tamil pronunciations! Left to my own devices I as usual started taking photographs, the only change being I was doing it from a moving car.

I was clicking pictures at random, trying to capture whatever caught my fancy at the moment. It was a Sunday and the roads were relatively empty. After capturing many blurred images I suddenly started noticing a pattern.

There were so many people on the sidewalks! I noticed it very clearly maybe because I was looking for things to record on my camera. Otherwise we have taken the same road so many times and they at the best remain a blurr for me.

I wonder how much they make in day, what are their dreams?

The pavement is a home for so many even now!

They seem to be so much at ease even on the dusty roadside. I hope these lovely flowers add some color to their lives too!

Almost every 50 meter or even less, I encountered some kind of an attempt to earn a livelyhood! And all this in our capital city of New Delhi or fast developing region known as the NCR.

Mall in Gurgaon, Inside-Outsite or How Far a Hundered Rupee Note will Go II

Yesterday, I headed toward Sahara Mall to pick my laptop that I had given for repair ages ago. When I drive alone, I always listed to FM. It is full of Valentine’s Day stuff these days. Some poor soul from somewhere called the RJ and said he would be alone on V Day, as he has no one special in his life at this point of time. The RJ was all gyan. Go to a nice place, and pamper yourself, etc.


Next, at Sahara Mall, they had this stupid apple tree and some such stuff going and a TV crew covering it. I have no problem if they make hoopla about the Valentine’s Day.

I wonder, did the TV crew notice the pavement outside the mall? This is how it looks, pretty heart wrenching, to me. I am inside the glass enclosure and I see all gloss. But as soon as I come out, I also see a lot of grime. And that puts a dampener on my thoughts and the spending spree.

A few of you may remember my first experience with a 100 rupee note that in most cases cannot buy a large shampoo bottle. It probably cannot buy a branded lipstick too these days? But it can buy food for ten people on a roadside food stall.

So, this time around I saw a family of three, mother, daughter and son. They are garbage pickers and they looked extremely weary. The girl, who must have been 12 to 14 year old, was sitting on the seat of their garbage rickshaw. Her brother was sitting on the heap of the plastic and must have been 5 to 7 year old. The mother’s face was lined and full of worry, it is very difficult to put an age to it.

I asked the girl in Hindi, if I can buy food for her? She was speechless but her mother nodded her head. I said I would buy it for the other kid and her too. We again went to a roadside stall and we waited for the food to be ready. The mother told me, she would like to carry away the food and this was the first time she clearly opened her mouth. She could barely speak Hindi with a thick Bengali accent. In fact, the word 'polythene' was the only clue I had as to what she was trying to say. All the while when we were waiting, they had a look of disbelief on their face. I moved on after handing them their food. I did not have the heart to ask them for a picture.

A little ahead, these two kids started begging for money. I told them I would buy food. I don’t know if they did not understand or what, they said no. I started to move ahead. Then they called me back and very timidly asked if I would buy a Pepsi for them! I bought one bottle between the two. I don’t know why they asked for Pepsi. Two other girls asked for a packet of chips. May be, they are part of organized begging and were not hungry. They have left me with a nagging doubt but I do not have the heart to judge two such small kids. And which kid does not want a Pepsi or chips? My total bill till now was rupees 75, 45 rupees for a meal for three, 20 for a bottle of Coke and 10 for a packet of chips.

Side story 1: A young lad at the stall from where I bought the Coke (they had no Pepsi) said Aap kahan inke chakkar mein aa gaye (why are you bothering with them?) I mumbled a reply that I do not want to give money, as I am not sure if it would remain with them.

Side story 2: As I interact with kids and others on the pavement, it attracts a lot of attention. After buying the packet of chips, as I was moving on, a driver (witness to all this) sitting on the railings in front of the DT mall spitted aimlessly and it landed quite near me. For the first time in my life, I heard someone apologizing after it. He shouted after me, “Sorry madam!”

I went inside the Metropolitan mall later. I went into Tommy Hilfiger and Marks & Spencer outlets (more out of curioisty than a genuine desire to buy and a first of sorts), looking for a long coat in the winter sale. At the Hilfiger shop, I told the sales staff, they had by mistake put an extra zero in the price tag of the coat. The guy laughed a lot. That damn coat was priced originally at 12,000 (you read it right) rupees! M&S had a similar price. I bet they pay less than this amount as monthly salary to the doorman they employ.

So, coming back to the Valentine’s Day, do go out and do spend a lot and have a nice time by yourself or with your special friend. But if possible, spend 75 rupees on the people outside the mall.

I have made a mental note to buy stuff first for people who are trying to sell something or make a living in any way and not simply begging. But for kids, I will buy a Pepsi or Coke any day.

And before I sign off, read this interesting article from Gonomad, by Mark Helyar on his experience with street kids in India.

Malls Malls Everywhere Not a Library to be Seen!

The Sahara Mall in Gurgaon

The Mall Culture is comparatively new in India. When I was in college there were no malls in most of the cities. Today, the big ones boast of one too many. On a 2 km stretch of a road in Gurgaon (quite close to New Delhi) you can count four malls. One of them, the Sahara Mall is pictured above. There is the Metropolitan Mall (with a multiplex movie theater called PVR), the City Center Mall (that has a multiplex called DT) right across the Metropolitan and a place called Arcus. The funny part is there is no passenger subway or over bridge between the Metropolitan and the City Center malls and pedestrians always have fight with the motorized vehicles to cross the road.

A Bangle Shop in a Mall

Initially, these malls held some attraction for me. I used to enjoy the visits. They are colorful and a good distraction but now it seems that was at least a century ago!

Mangal Pandey: The Rising- Recently Released Movie

I still like going to the movie sometimes in these malls but on a weekend they get so horribly crowded that all the fun it taken away from the visit. On the weekdays, one has to always weigh the option having fun/sleeping late with feeling sleepy throughout the day in the office.

All Gloss

But otherwise, I have completely lost interest in these places. Why? I find the stuff sold there so overpriced and the hype generated around them huge (I realized this and much more through an excellent book called No Logo by Naomi Klein).

When I realized that more than half the product price inflation comes from advertising and not production costs (Kareena Kapoors and Shahruk Khans and Michael Jordans of the world get million bucks deal and you and I pay for it) I decided to move my shopping to less glamorous places. I also find the glossy images very boring after a while particularly in conjunction with the girt and grime of my daily life.

Still, malls are here to stay in India. In the same Gurgaon, you cannot find a decent playground or public library. But I guess it is a matter of demand and supply.