Check out 16 Return-To-Work Programs In India For Ambitious Women Like You!
Gurgaon is a process, not a destination. You have to live her, to feel her.
What Dilli is to Dilli Sultanate; Gurgaon is to American Corp. If Lutyens is Amaltas; our Jatland is Kikar. Humble Nehru Park became TDL Biodiversity Park. Fashion street Sarojini Nagar has a new name here; Arjun Marg. From one Ghungroo’s in New Delhi to the innumerable dance floors in Gurgaon, baby we have come a long way!
When I tell people the reason behind my moving to Gurgaon, they cross their brows or show that cleavage between the brows. Simple. I wanted to be close to my gynaecologist. The same tender hands which guided me with my first child had moved to Gurgaon and I needed her again for the other bundle of love living within me. Lock stock and barrel; probably for the first time I called the shots. We moved too! And my man, all fired up (pun intended) and ready to go. And his car? A mobile ashtray, dog-eared library, tangled mobile accessories and the endless story of clutch-brake-accelerator… Ouch!
8 years and on, home is where the hearth is; and Gurgaon is where my heart and hearth are. My crown lost many jewels and changed her shade to grey, my tens in the age unit changed from 3 to 4, my car leapfrogged over the craters of the Gurgaon roads, my son drove me into the depths of the rural limits of Gurgaon, my phone crashed with a zillion ‘home delivery’ numbers, most weekends dissipated at birthday parties, my night light never twinkled in the glitterati of the ‘ladies night’; yet, this is where I belong and forever to stay. Gurgaon is where I have found my tribe – be the way you are, don’t change for the sake of it. From Kashmir to New Delhi and now Gurgaon, I am enacting Act 3 on the stage of my life-play.
My Uncle moved to Gurgaon a year ago, but he is still curiously reading the life of the “idiosyncratic” Gurgaonites. Once he asked me, “Have you bothered to know why doesn’t the grocer stock milk packets of 1 kg?…whereas he will have plenty half kg packets.” I politely said no; least of the things that would be enlisted in a soccer mom’s mind. And I wondered if he has truly retired from the South block business and the wide-road Sarkari colony.
He replied, “Well, the grocer said that because everyone here is for a short stint of professional life, they do not invest in bigger utensils and spaces. They are happy with small vessels, enough to hold half kg milk…” Agghh!! Content. Not sure if that is the correct virtue for Gurgaon, but I have certainly encountered many evolved souls, enriched lives and naturist brigades. Every campaign has a champion. Every issue has a spokesperson. Every debate has ears. And every like-minded tribe has a group. Gurgaon has the strongest virtual community of women. Are these enthusiast brewing from the international exposures or the lack of it, I am not aware; but Gurgaon is a buzzing conundrum of experiments, progressiveness and exposures.
Each condominium has a club and every club has a rate list. Season after season, each club brandishes carnivals and the quintessential Jaipuri block print. And we all flock to queue up for the rebates. Gurgaon loves to shop; albeit our preferences have moved from the now ill-famed MG road to the hand-picked exhibitions. Monochromatic is forever. And linen is chic. For other blooms, please drive to the closest plant nurseries. Plenty around here. Think of any extra-curricular class which your club doesn’t offer or club’s neighbour doesn’t offer.
The answer is none.
Today morning as I drove back from the ashram crossing through the farm fields of Gurgaon, I sense a calmed me and a sorted me. In the multi-ethnicity of Gurgaon, I have found my bubble of happiness.
Gurgaon is a process, not a destination. You have to live her, to feel her. While Delhi has the Capital; Gurgaon has the Guru’s grammar. Technically sound and there.
Image via Unsplash
Entangled in balls of yarn; origins unknown...With a blunt pencil, the quintessential machine and the cacophony; hope to knit a flying carpet and steer the magic carpet around… Yours truly, Slave Of Words read more...
This post has published with none or minimal editorial intervention. Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, individual posts do not necessarily represent the platform's views and opinions at all times.
Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!
UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
Please enter your email address