Bleak thoughts revised

Couldn’t have chosen a bleaker day – and a  whole day it was – at Gurgaon, Haryana’s answer to the sky-licking buildings Dubai and Abu Dhabi flaunt at you, not to mention the orderly skyrises of Beijing and Shanghai. And Gurgaon I am reminded by the thoughtful is in some ways as orderly as some of the better ones built elsewhere in recent years. Yes. the difference is that flyover and bridges in some alien lands don’t collapse  as frequently. No, sir it is a byproduct of greed. Greedy landowners, greedier builders, conniving bureaucrats and whole lot of such. It is a poor shadow of newcomers and nowhere near Dubai, Macau and some other marvels, no should we demeans ourselves by comparing Gurgaon to other monumental construction of the day. No way, sir, surely isn’t nor has it been. Yes, I have lived in Delhi for decades watched its decline from the time – what a tragic coincidence – when the very last of the Mughal tehzeeb could still be found alive and kicking is some Muslim and any old Delhi Hindu localities, the walled city, though already penetrated by then by the swell of refugees from Pakistan, still hanging on to old customs. Gurgaon was just an upstartish rural outpost beyond Mehrauli. And the Gurgaon home to mainly Jat and some Muslim populace ,thanks to its proximity to the former Imperial capital and later chosen to be a prime city of the newly carved State of Haryana was suddenly transformed into a gold mine. Land grabbers, later builders, made their respective fortunes – colossal these were – and the politician obviously wasn’t far too behind. Thus was born the myth millennium city, more in hope as challengers to Dubai or Beijing. Well it may have been but for the farmer-builder-politician nexus.  High rise buildings, a non-existent local transport system, policemen parking themselves at strategic points, their breathing apparatus, covering the nose and mouth, tightly strapped with a once- white patch, to  avoid  pollutants, their crinkled eyes, noses  searching for  speeding offenders, not so much to regulate  the inter-State traffic, let’s be clear about that, but on the look out for buses and trucks along familiar stretches where the con-game actually begins and the organized methodology applied to illegal trafficking takes over. The sarkari treasury gets some of the loot but most of it likely escapes into the well organised system of sharing. With the trucks often allowed operations on  out—of—bounds “authorized” routes. Not many traces of cash in evidence: the truck/lorry driver shows the scrap of paper to the checking police at the border check point and is shoved on. No money transactions on the spot. Only  slips of  paper are passed on from one traffic check-post to another as you enter, no sharing en route – strictly from point-to-point, well marked, invisibly at the borders. The cops can be deadly serious when it comes things close to their  bones. Money changing hands at designated spots. Then in places like Gurgaon you have the thousands of taxis attached to various IT work centres which must park themselves nearest to their corporate offices. A deeper study of this phenomenon requires the perseverance of a doctorate-seeking researcher. Coordination between the Corporate, its thekedars and individual or cooperatives owning  larger number of cars. Here, on  a lighter note goes an offer with this. Any registered Kashmiri researcher interested in pursuing the course is assured of free accommodation at my place and of course with an odd meal thrown in on special occasions.  Still wondering at the possibilities of the mournful day ahead, or why I am persist with this silly recital. Just hold on. I slipped into my bedroom converted for the day into sitting, dining and reading room, a  tired  electric blower for company to keep my old bones from freezing. Forgot to mention two local papers, one from Delhi, as companions,  for the ordeal of staying home — on a cold, chilly, smoggy day. My mind crowded by silly ideas I decided to move  into the realm of Hindu mythology, into the future that was our past when all the warheads, the interplanetary gadgets, miracles in time and space which were known to  the Hindu Rashtra thousands of years go and these latest gizmos, the nuclear warheads, the jets and the monstrous interplanetary gadgets which Bharat had attained before the rest of the universe had even awakened. Viva Hindu Rashtra was embossed in big golden letters on even big palm leaves or was it the chinar motif that I had seen. For within the next moment with a chinar leaf (?) stuck to it I was  transported into my crowded room, the only audible voice being that of Home Minister Rajnath Singh holding forth on his pet  theme  Kashmir was about to be “transported”into Janat. The Minister, always generous with those flourishes of his large palms was non committal  asked how soon or when Kashmiris might have say in  being ruled by their own (politicians, evidently). The Minister you would be curious to know was explaining why New Delhi had chosen to do away for the moment with the paraphernalia of governance. It would have its writ run.  And New Delhi having been so giving and so very indulgent in matters Kashmir would wait for the upright Central Election Commission to decide on the date for fresh elections to the dismissed Kashmir Assembly. Y’see all games must be played according to rules and the rule book says – forget the Panchayat elections in the State just gone by –there shall be an elected State assembly. And we have Rajnath Singh’s word; Ask the Election Commission. Or, do buy one of those high rises in Haryana or alternatively read the Advt columns of the State papers well because am told the builders are already there. For the rest consult the Rajya Sabha proceedings for day that was Wednesday.

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