Hate me for not riding a bus!

After the start of Odd-Even season-2, I must admit that I have not taken a single bus ride in last 10 days.  Please don’t blame me for this blasphemous act.  One can hate me for not riding a bus.

At least for seven days, I will drive my car, with two Sundays coming in between.  

My office also understands that Odd-Even is an issue and it shall pass. So coming late is taken with a frown.

What worries me like millions of office-goers is unbearable heat.

April is usually hot in Delhi but this year temperature is hovering around 40 degrees plus for most of the week.

What option, I have but to take a taxi, metro, auto or buses.

Off course, buses will be my last option to choose from as travelling in buses is not at all comfortable. I admit I have not taken a single bus ride.  Not because I have become an elite?

Truth is, reaching bus stand is cumbersome.

In the summers, you can’t walk one and a half kilometre in scorching 40-degree temperature.

It is unbearable and risky. I will not advise anybody to walk in this kind of heat.

Connecting to bus stand and metro from working place was and is an issue. Delhi government can’t ignore this for long.

I want to commute in the bus and I mean it. I want comfortable buses. I want premium, AC buses.  For those working in the government office, corporate, Delhi needs to provide them with an alternate way of transportation or they will go for the second-hand car. 

People like me fall in this category.

Delhi government has not thought about how office goers will commute.

Shuttle service could  be a big plus to connect working places like Nehru Place, CP, NOIDA, Okhla, Gurgaon and other hubs. Shuttle APPs are a big hit, of late.

We know for sure that traffic congestions have not reduced, this time, a study by School of Planning and Architecture (SPA) has found that compared to the first round of Odd-Even, number of cars are higher this time.

The number of autos, taxis are higher on roads  with yellow number plates are a common sight.

 AAP ruled Delhi has been able to hog limelight but it has not been able to mitigate the issue of pollution.

I am not sure if car sharing has increased in Delhi among the community.

I booked my taxi under car pooling scheme for three-four days but there was no co-passenger from Modi Mill to Vasundhara Enclave.

Drivers admitted that 80% of the time, people do not prefer car sharing. People of Delhi are clever and they prefer to convert petrol into CNG car.

Central Pollution Control Board in its report submitted that Odd-Even hasn’t had any impact on air quality.

Delhi government and the Centre must devise a long-term plan to enhance and improve mass transport system as Odd-Even has proved to be insufficient to solve Delhi’s massive traffic issue. 

Gurgaon and Gurugram always coexisted

Metaphorically, nothing has changed, nothing will change but for chatterati, who find Gurugram “unacceptable”.

Gurgaon has been an aspiring city for the aspirational people.  The present generation, who are well in their 20s and late 30s, perceive Gurgaon as a future city.

Not long ago, a motley group of villages, dominated by Jat and Gujjars, used to take pride in roaming on the roads with buffalo and their cows! 

It will not be an overstatement that it took hard work of thousands of Non-Haryanvis, who brought a semblance of civilisation. How come somebody like Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar pushes a millennium city 5000 years back? Gurgaon to Gurugram!  Overnight, Gurgaon becomes Gurugram. 

How come somebody like Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar pushes a millennium city 5000 years back? Gurgaon to Gurugram!  Overnight, Gurgaon becomes Gurugram. 

Gurgaon to Gurugram!  A village, where the legendary guru Dronachaya used to teach martial arts to the pandava and the Kauravas. 

There also existed poor "Eklavya", who could not afford a royal teacher and lost his thumb finger in Guru Dakshina for surreptitiously  learning the arts of archery from Guru Drone. Eklavya must be from this very Gurugram area only.

Metaphorically, nothing has changed, nothing will change but for chatterati, who find it “unacceptable”.

Gurgaon or Gurugram is almost same but what is being questioned here is the motive behind this name change. Was there a hue and cry for the name change?

Was there any dharna or demonstration to change the name in last one year? 

Gurgaon saw phenomenal growth when Om Prakash Chautala was the chief minister. Companies like DLF made fortunes.

Big companies purchased land from gullible farmers at a throwaway price and the government sitting in Chandigarh brought Change of Land Use (CLU).  What exchanged in between was dirty black money. 

Big sharks parked their unaccounted, ill-gotten money. During Bhupinder Singh Hooda government, it was done with much perfection.

The glittering Gurgaon is the by-product of unprecedented growth of real estate in, as recent as, last fifteen years. 

Aptly modelled on Bangalore and Hyderabad IT revolution, Gurgaon gives a feel of a cosmopolitan city. More so for the people who settled there and made Gurgaon what is this today.

 Equipped with swanky malls, all well-known eateries, all IT brands present there, Gurgaon was an aspiring city for aspiring families. 

But if one sees what is behind the facade, one would realise that the more Gurgaon wanted to change, it remained the same.

Gurgaon became an advanced city for go-getters, who earned in millions, who partied in 5 star and 7 star hotels.

For people, who were the original inhabitants, things did not change much. Process of urbanisation engulfed the beauty of this area.

The quick money came and went. Those who invested money wisely, survived, those who remain invested, prospered. 

Otherwise, one will find stories of farmers, who sold their lands and spent their money on SUVs and ultimately lost everything.

Are we talking on behalf of those Jat and Gujjars or media and opposition are just bothered about the Richie rich?

We know, what happened in Haryana during Jat reservation stir. The model of development came to a screeching halt. Division between haves and have not become more pronounced.

Khattar Govt recently held investors summit in Gurgaon, in the backdrop of violent jet agitation, he could manage to fetch MOU worth Rs 6 lakh crores.

Gurgaon proved to be saving grace for the BJP government while the new kid on the block, Rohtak failed Haryana.

With the rate, urbanisation is taking place in the NCR; Khattar government must focus on making Gurgaon safe, local transport people friendly, and police more polite. Gurgaon and Gurugram have always existed and it will.

To justify the historical mandate, Khattar government should focus on real issued like the generation of jobs, bringing social cohesiveness among thirty six caste)

How much Kejriwal knows about Punjab, Punjabiyat and its farmers?

Riding on the prediction of C-voter and Huffington post surveys, (surveys are paid) Delhi chief minister , Arvind Kejriwal is dreaming the impossible; to become chief minister of Punjab.

Becoming chief minister of Punjab, for a non Punjabi politician, would be an impossible act, if achieved.

 Delhi poll experience shows that Kejriwal is a quick learner and he is improving with every season.

He leaves no opportunity to garner maximum publicity from even routine civic issues.  For traditional politicians, he is a headache.

Armed with an agile team of PR specialists and twitter armies, Kejriwal is capable of creating storm in a tea cup even now and then. That’s the reason why traditional politicians shy away from having direct confrontation with the maverick politician.

AAM Adami party is working overtime to improve upon the mistakes they committed during 2014 polls.

After having won four Lok Sabha seat in Punjab in 2014, AAP sensing  a great opportunity in Punjab. And there is nothing wrong in this.  

Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal traditionally ruled Punjab since the formation of state.

AAP gives people an opportunity to choose their representatives of their own choice.

But before People of Punjab do so, there is real taste of nerves for Arvind Kejriwal.

How much he knows about Punjab?

How much he knows about Sikhism?

How much he knows about Punjab agriculture?

How much he knows about intricate issues like SYL, river water issues?

Honestly, he might not be knowing a great deal about Punjab.

Arvind kejriwal has hired media managers, motivators,  speakers, former journalists,  turncoats to change the narratives in Punjab. He might succeed or he might fail.

But people would ask him, what he has done for Delhi. 

How much he has done to fulfil the promises that he made to the voters of Delhi capital.