Saturday, July 30, 2016

Gurgaon, Millennium City?

I had seen the trailer on the Tuesday 25th July 2016 but the full movie or rather extended trailer was released on Thursday 28th July 2016. Am I talking about any movie here?

Sadly!! No, I am talking about my beloved adopted city and the Glitzy Millennium City Gurgaon. While the city is full of tall buildings, large and expensive houses and luxury malls the things we lack are the most important.

You still don't get uninterrupted electricity in most of the areas, you can't even get an internet connection in some areas of gurgaon (Some Cyber City, eh?) then there comes the whole matter of infrastructure and Civic Administration. There are no roads to speak in few areas though work is going on but that is too little too late. I was in Gurgaon back in the year 2006-2007 and I came back here in 2015-2016. In those 9 years Gurgaon changed a lot, new areas sprung up, new malls and roads are better now and also public transport does exist here now. So far so good.

So how come such achievements go down the toilet when we have heavy rains just for few hours. Since I have some back to Gurgaon along every main road there is work going on for Deep Sewer and Gurgaon Municipality claimed to have spent around 5 crore rs cleaning the sewers and waterways and such and yet when it rained for an hour on Tuesday few roads were filled with enough water to  bring the traffic to the crawl and after all why not when there was more than a feet of water along the entire strech of the road which hampered movement and stopped few luxury cars in their way.

And then came the extended trailer for this show of mismanagement Thursday 28th July it rained heavily for few hours. I enjoyed the rain from inside my house with my wife on my side and loved the rain which brought relief from the heat and humidity. But all the euphoria vaporized as soon as left for office at around 7 PM. As soon as I left the main gate of my colony I could see the road covered in rain water, well that was normal. I moved ahead and noticed that the entire service lane was covered in more than a foot of water - Failure all the way. I still braved ahead mind you on my bike in 1 foot of water with other vehicles cars and such moving slowly too. Somehow I reached and main road and amazingly even though it was slightly on higher ground it was also covered in same level of water as the service lane again wonderful drainage system .. Failure, Failure and Failure all the way.

Sample some news links:

http://www.msn.com/en-in/news/newsindia/don%E2%80%99t-come-to-gurgaon-cops-say-after-snarls-waterlogging-schools-shut/ar-BBv0Hak?li=AAggbRN&ocid=spartandhp
http://www.india.com/news/india/gurgaon-comes-to-a-standstill-after-heavy-traffic-jam-manohar-lal-khattar-blames-arvind-kejriwal-1367543/
http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/hundreds-stuck-due-to-watterlogging-in-gurgaon-2941320/
http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/hundreds-stuck-due-to-watterlogging-in-gurgaon-2941320/

My office is merely around 2 kms from my house and yet through the crippling traffic it took me more than hour to travel the distance and that too on the bike, if you were in a car, you would no doubt be in the jam for few more hours for the same distance. Through almost all the way the entire road was submered in the dirty water with garbage mixed for the good measure. Vehicles were stuck all through the road and you could see people walk in the middle with their shoes in their hands.

Dismal scenes of people and vehicles stuck back to back could be seen on every road, there were even reports of people swimming in the water which was logged on the highway - HIGHWAY!!! Way to go Millennium City. Politicians are busy being politicians and changing name of this city but they should be much more concerned about the city itself and focus on basic facilities before going for other projects.

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Being Farzi... A Farzi Experience

I had read a lot about the Farzi Cafe so when I saw the restaurant/cafe in Cyber Hub, Gurgaon I wanted to go right in unfortunately I had already ate at that time so I just planned on going in next time.

The next time came on Sunday 10th April 2016, I just drifted towards Cyber Hub I went in to check Smash first and after spending some time in the gaming hub I stepped outside. I suddenly realized that it was a good time to go Farzi.

I walked in Cyber Hub checking all the places to eat, there it was Farzi Cafe in all it's glory. I walked in and immediately met with the friendly staff. My server was Anup and he was a joy. I took in the ambience and it was lovely work done through the entire cafe as it was done in wood. Entire cafe had an old world charm and the best thing there wasn't a TV in sight.

I was presented with the menu and as I don't drink, I did away with the drinks menu and focused solely on my tummy so only the food menu. The menu was vast so I needed few moments to find out the order. The staff was awesome.

For starter I chose Bombay Bhel 2.0, I was promptly informed that since I was alone Bhel would be a little heavy but since I myself am heavy I pointed the same to Anup and thus having only ordered starter for the time being I started reading a book on my mobile.

I was momentarily disturbed not for my order but a treat on the house, my very first gastronomical treat a sweet dish treated with Liquid Nitrogen I was asked to just chug the treat like a shot it was like an egg with red colour on it. I did as I was told and voilà it melted in my mouth.

Next came my order Farzi interpretation of Bhel Puri called Bombay Bhel 2.0 and it was a mountain of flavours. I loved it and also it was also treated with Liquid Nitrogen as a powder was sprinkled on the bhels. It was lovely, it was tasty, it was flavourful and it was heavy.

But I had a little space in my stomach actually a lot so I also ordered a Mains course. After lot of deliberation also because I am vegetarian I chose Good Old Paneer Tikka. but before I could have my Tikka there was again a gastronomical wonder Hajmola on a stick, it was lovely it was tasty and it was there o make me ready for my dinner.

There came my Paneer Tikka with a Laccha Parantha and there was a gravy as well lot of gravy actually and I was done away with just one Parantha, I was offered more bread too but I was done for, because I don't waste food I finished at least the Tikka and left a lot of gravy.

It was the time for the check and I was full but before I could get my check I got another treat a mouth freshener a Pan Gujia where Gujia was made of Cotton Candy i.e. Budhiya ke Baal and there was Pan Mouth Fresher in it so naturally it was a nice finish to an awesome experience. But that's not all.

The bill was presented in a Farzi Typewriter. In all I would love to visit Farzi Cafe again because #BeingFarzi is fun.

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Dilemma

Dilemma
dɪˈlɛmə,dʌɪ-/
noun

noun: dilemma; plural noun: dilemmas


Situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more alternatives, especially ones that are equally undesirable.
"he wants to make money, but he also disapproves of it: Den's dilemma in a nutshell"
 

So, now that the definition is out of the way, let me tell you what's my dilemma. As a occasional blogger I have few blogs and one of those is a short story blog called Story Teller now as you already know inspiration can hit us any place and at any time.The problem which I am facing is that I get the story ideas all the time but then again if I post them or write them right away then what if that theme comes up for some contest then what else would I do? 

So, although I keep a small description of the idea in my phone the posts are still far from the blog because I don't want to commit the idea to the blog making it used and I can always reuse and increase the scope for my personal use the post and idea would no longer be of any use for using in any contest as most of them need a fresh post. Well in the mean time after a very long time I posted two new stories on my blog and also two new blog posts on this blog here after all I thought that the stories may be limited but my thoughts are definitely not limited.

After all the blog is called Vikas Khair's Diary, the blog name changed to "The Sixth Sense" to increase the scope but the domain remained the same. So what I will try to do is keep my diary kinda updated with the going on but of course neither it's a proper diary and nor have I considered it such. So the thoughts would be there but no normal diary stuff like I did this and I did that. Well that's enough rambling for  a day and if I use all my words in one post what else would I write on the next day and the one after that. So take care you all and wish you all again a Very Happy New Year 2016.

Saturday, January 2, 2016

Happy New Year 2016

Hello Friends and fellow bloggers right off the bat - A Very Happy New Year 2016 to you and your families. May the next year be way better for you than the year gone by. If the year 2015 was great for you I wish you even more success in the year 2016.

For me personally the last year has been a mixed bag well that's the story for every year so not much of a surprise. But many good things happened too:

1. My Short Stories Blog Story Teller was selected as Top 15 short stories blogs in India for the year 2015, so that was nice.

2. Everybody in my family is fine and in good health so that's a positive as well.

3. I got a new job and moved to a new city. I am now in Gurgaon from Bhopal.

4. My Photography got some traction and I covered many events for Aura Mall in Bhopal.

5. Three years in a row I have been able to achieve my Book Reading challenge with GoodReads. 

6. As the year ended the family is kinda back on track so hopefully things would be better in the new year. 

The Not so good things:

1. Lost my job in Bhopal.

2. Had a theft in my home.

3. Got some nasty bit of fever which kept me down for a week during which the above mentioned theft happened.

4. Marital issues.

As usual we just need to keep our chin up and meet all the challenges head on. Wish you all a very happy new year once again and May the new year 2016 be the year where you achieve your goals and be happy.