Around Delhi and Lucknow

I finally got a chance to get out of the house and visit family around the country. My first stop was Delhi, well actually Gugraon. My grandfather from my mom's side aka my nana lives in Gugraon. Now Gurgaon used to be a small village with farms ususally dry because of the lack of rain. The only reason the village was known was for the Maruti Suzuki factory located there. And for the information of those who do not know about the Maruti Suzuki company, it held about 80% of the car market in till the late 90's. 

Now getting back to Gugraon. The place has seen an explosion of multinational companies since the early 2000's and has been growing ever since. Just recently has the government actually put an effort to improve the infrastructure of the town, beginning with the Delhi-Gurgaon highway and now the Delhi Metro connection. The town has seen an influx of people from all over the country looking for work. People ranging from high level executives to everyday labourers. The influx of population also saw an upcoming market for places for social activities. In no time Gugraon saw 4 to 5 shopping malls pop up, all within a range of 2-3 Km of each other. The race is still on to put up more and more malls (although the more recent projects have been put on hold). The largest mall present in Gugraon is the Ambience Mall (called Ambi Mall by the local population). The mall has 5 floors and each floor has a shopping area of 1 Km each. One can find any and every brand available in the world in that one mall. How those malls survive, I still wonder. Every mall literally has the same stores and it has become customary to have a movie theatre along with it. One good thing about all this is that it has provided employement to a huge portion of the population. 

From the nice and bright life of Gurgaon, we now move on to Lucknow. Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh. I tend to call it the political capital of India. If you want to learn how to "play" politics, this is where you get your training! Right now, the Chief Minister of UP (Uttar Pradesh) is Behen Kumari Mayawati (Sister Miss Mayawati). Now this woman has some guts. She rides on the back of the SC/ST laws passed in India and can literally go through anyone in the country. Recently she has been spending a lot of money on Lucknow, not on infrastructure, but just structures. She has even resorted to putting up her own statues. Who in the world does such a thing! All the hoardings in Lucknow are about praises for Mayawati. And there are not private posters/hoardings. These are put up by the government. Publicity or waste or public money? I think that woman has a complex over everyone and lives by the rules of the past rulers of the world, which is: Do whatever you can in your life to grab attention, good or bad, you will be remembered in your future generations. If there is one person I would choose to civilize in the whole world, it would be her. Other than the Mayawati propaganda, the city has not seen much development. Although, I could not go around the town much, what I saw was nothing different from what I saw in 2004. 

So that's my 2 cent for my trip to Delhi/Gurgaon and Lucknow. I will be back with more of "What I think" when I experience such a think which needs to be given a thought about. Till then, enjoy some more work of my photography. Try and guess which is for what city.