Life In A Millennium City

Swanky office buildings, glitzy shopping malls, gated communities, expensive cars and pockets of affluence- Gurgaon have it all. What it doesn’t have is regular supply of electricity and drinking water- two modern era amenities required for sustaining human life........they are in such a mess that it would not be wrong to rename Gurgaon as “Hell of Concrete” instead of “Millennium city”.

Incidents of yesterday night have left a very bad taste in my mouth for the authorities within the Electricity Department and DLF. I don’t think that they have any right to continue in their jobs if they can’t deliver.

It all began with the erratic electric supply in our block since Tuesday morning. And, this would mean that our UPS battery conked off by 11.30 pm. With temperature hovering in excess of 40 degrees, rooms had turned into a heat chamber; my papa’s patience ran out around 2 pm. He picked up his car and drove straight to Electricity Office followed by DLF’s. Upon being told that the supply has been restored, he came back home to found me sitting on my mom’s lap outside our house with my dadee giving us company. Sight of his 6 month old sweating heavily blew my papa’s top; but anger was not his priority. It was then he came up with the idea of using his car air-conditioner to comfort me. It worked and I went to sleep in no time.

He, then drove to DLF office again with me sleeping comfortably in my mom’s lap. At their office, he told my mom to lock the car from inside and went upstairs to meet the officials on duty. Before he could start his conversation, a man came running shouting for help; his house in the adjacent F-block was on fire. Nobody in that office had any clue about the next course of action. My papa told them to first disconnect the power supply of that particular block and then he called the fire tenders.

The priority had shifted by then! So, he drove the car in the direction of the house under fire. Upon reaching there, we found that side entrance of the house was under fire. Apparently the fire had started from the power board and a short circuit induced by high voltage power supply was the reason. Thankfully, fire was soon brought under control before it could do any serious damage.

In the meantime, DLF people had rectified the problem in our block and electricity supply was restored by 4.40 am. My dadee called up my papa and confirmed this to him. And with that my papa’s 3 hour ordeal came to an end......

But I am really hurt at the level of apathy shown by the administration and DLF towards the plight of people in this city. I am sure those guys have a heart of stone to be able to inflict such problems on common people.

In the end, I have a humble request to every one- can anyone bring that person before me who first called Gurgaon a Millennium city! I would only ask him/her- If this is what makes a city- A Millennium city?