India diary: You know you are in Gurgaon when the crowd never seems to grow old!

Finally arriving in India for a brief sojourn, I was half-excited, half-skeptical. Being a graduate student warrants its own set of curious acquaintances in India. And the testy Monsoon weather so far left me scratching my head as to my decision to brave the summer heat again after being in Arizona for a full year. But then, I was going to see my family after a prolonged gap, and meet friends from IIT who were scattered in MNC boroughs of sovereign India. I will try and write when I can, about my experience so far and the changes/constants I have seen.

First things first, haters can complain all they want, but the IGI T3 is head-and-shoulders above some of the busiest airports I have seen, both in terms of scale and management. Ironically, while I was still marveling at the rare organizational success of GoI, a stray dog ran across the road and put me firmly in place with the realities of India. Watching a dog not on leash after 11 months can surprise you as much as an English victory in a penalty shootout! Umpteen flyovers and an efficient suburban metro system aside, Delhi is still plagued by an infusion of more and more vehicles everyday.  The scale of pollution can be judged by the fact that the city is enveloped by a constant haze of dust, leaving the sun a faint yellow ball a la a science fiction movie. What was a saving grace once again was the rather hassle-free travel once you get to the arterial roads. 1 jam in 2 days was not bad, compared to my visits 6 years ago, when getting to Central Delhi from Noida or South-Ex used to be a horrendous travel. The CWG games may have been a mess, but the infrastructural benefits are for all to see.

Gurgaon is Gurgaon, a never-ending sea of employed young men and women interspersed with out-of-place policemen and cycle rickshaws. My overnight stay at my best friend's apartment reminded me of the luxuries available to the paying crowd in the metropolis, even as large swathes of the country face power outages and simmering heat. However, Delhi could do better when it comes to their autowallahs. Myself being a rather spoilt user of these, especially after living in Mumbai where they were both a matter of scorn (inside the  IIT campus), and an object of convenience (outside the campus), I was left thinking about the perils of arguing with an autowallah regarding the merits of using his meter, which in most cases is left there like an unwanted appendage. Considering that I'll be back in the same setup in 16 days, I might just get the opportunity. 

Stay tuned for more....

PS: Can 'Shirt da button' be the new 'Pani da rang'? Well Ayushmaan Khurana is definitely more 'hero-like' compared to Reitesh and Tusshar in my humble opinion.