tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6525941533090230358.post299237657955069733..comments2024-02-19T21:59:51.838-08:00Comments on c o n v e r s a t i o n s: FREEWAYFOLLIESn i i t i consultinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13077545080866819733noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6525941533090230358.post-74439478757822018682012-10-18T08:51:35.105-07:002012-10-18T08:51:35.105-07:00Rock, thanks for your insightful comment.
You sai...Rock, thanks for your insightful comment. <br />You said it - "the choice was made for the people & not by the people" and that's the basic difference between old & new (west & east of NH-8) Gurgaon. Old Gurgaon to my mind is doing fine. Sure it needs some organising and some of new Gurgaon's sophistication will wear off on the old part sooner or later and we can have leisure walks and cycling girls in hot pants (!? : D) but it's the new Gurgaon which is an urban mayhem. Our cities are complex and heterogeneous (read messy and fine by me to some extent) but the new Gurgaon is nothing but a city of walls ... again not by choice but by default (privately developed parcels coupled with city wide governance negligence). Don't think you would like to call it a young character, would you? <br />I agree, new Gurgaon is cosmopolitan, ambitious and nouveau-riche but does that mean that we should be denied a safe, friendly, delightful city just because its populace has economic freedom? Yes, its speedy unprecedented growth is its defining force and may be it will never be an inclusive city to accommodate all economic backgrounds alike and will always behave as an up market chic urban district but yet it feels the absence of a city life, it regrets the absence of accessible, safe, friendly public realm - for all to relate and react, to bind together as citizens, to build a sense of belonging. <br />Don't think new Gurgaon is beyond repair, we have not resigned to our fate yet. There is hope and I see it everyday in people like you and me and many many more likes of us who do their bits to make it a better place for all.Rwitee Mandalnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6525941533090230358.post-68557682828514612522012-10-17T23:57:51.754-07:002012-10-17T23:57:51.754-07:00Rock: Gurgaon is no-way Manhattan-like or Shanghai...Rock: Gurgaon is no-way Manhattan-like or Shanghai-like.... The only similarity Gurgaon shares with the two is that it has high-rises (which again are much lower that the high-rises in Manhattan/ Shanghai). Now why I say that also has a reason...... It is the life on the streets in Manhattan/ Shanghai which is very much contrasting to that in Gurgaon..... There is mix-use there.... ground floors have public functions that also generate activity on the street.... upper floors have offices...! Hence Manhattan can;t be truly called a concrete jungle..... whereas Gurgaon is definitely one and these freeways are just another step closer to becoming a better concrete jungle. Yes, the people living in Gurgaon are younger, their aspirations are to live in places that are Manhattan-like, lead a life of a sophisticated professional. But that no way means that these people like to live in a city like Gurgaon where after 7 in the evening, once it gets dark, you cant even really walk down to buy milk and bread, where you can only drive to the nearest market because it is not at a walking distance and also it is unsafe to walk. I am sure when young people like us aspire for Manhattan, they even aspire for Central Park which is actually the main charm if Manhattan! Gurgaon doesn't have a Central Park and that is why it will never become Manhattan-like which is all the more impossible to happen once these freeways are built.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05933181116813641815noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6525941533090230358.post-39522905445311528212012-10-17T14:06:08.865-07:002012-10-17T14:06:08.865-07:00Rwitee: The technical arguments (Demand & Supp...Rwitee: The technical arguments (Demand & Supply / change in land-use pattern / energy consumption etc) mentioned by you are a little sketchy for my uninitiated mind and would need more details for me to comment, however, I would come straight to what I believe is the genesis of this rather well-written post ... Aesthetics & community life ... reminds me of an interesting movie I saw, Two Weeks Notice (Hugh Grant, Sandra Bullock) about a corporate lawyer fighting against pulling down a community center to build a shopping mall (Sic ! Cliched !) ... Though personally I am all for the old-fashioned walk in the park, a nice club to spend the evenings, a market with a character full of street shops & junkets, pavements full of beautiful girls cycling in hot pants (!) etc, but over the years I have come to believe that each city / town / colony has its own character which is defined by the purpose it wishes to serve and very importantly takes the character of the people it serves … Concrete Jungle is also a character (!) … therefore, for one Gurgaon is a “new-age” city which serves a very specific “Manhattan-like / Shanghai-like” purpose, which is of economic vibrancy and not cultured-living, the choice was made for the people & not by the people and that underlines the argument that economics & speed of delivery underlies the choices and not charm & character … Second, the individuals residing in Gurgaon have 3 things in common … One, a large part of them are migrants from what are classified as tier-2&3 cities and therefore consist mostly of the economically ambitious section of that town … Two, the exposure of individuals residing in Gurgaon to “Manhattan / Shanghai” is far greater than anywhere else in the country and therefore the desire to ape the western symbols of success rather than their communities which are hardly ever visited … three, the average age is much lower than other parts of the country and therefore preponderance for material pursuits over ‘spiritual’ ones … Due to these factors, I do believe that Gurgaon (especially “west” of NH-8) is “beyond repair” for people like you & me, for it serves a very different purpose and serves a very different set of people and truly I believe that is how it should be (including an intra-suburban freeway). Tyson’s Corner (a small suburb of Washington DC about 1/3 the size of Gurgaon meant purely as a shopper’s delight & as a corporate centre) is a jam of freeways, shopping centers, corporate offices in total contrast to laid back political by-lanes of Washington DC with wide roads and a different character to each building, that is what adds to its diversity and is the character of the young ! What we could possibly ‘save’ is east of NH-8 however that is another story … Rockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09156854936493847647noreply@blogger.com