Holi Hai

"There are worse things than looking stupid. Sleeping through life is one of them." - Laura Preble

Holi is one of those festivals which you should only celebrate if you have a good gang to do it with. It's messy - there's toxic "herbal" chemical powder .... grease ... banned water balloons, little devils with pichkaris waiting at street corners... bhang... bhujias...

It may be so cliched but this is one festival that allows you to let your hair down and be totally chilled about life. I like it because for once even though you're now this stupid responsible adult planning your taxes - you can actually now be a kid again and do silly things like run around throwing water on people...

Ofcourse, only for one day though - when we in India usher in spring.

Spring is here now - full blown with the temperature to match. Today was a nice day to play holi - India even won in the match against New Zealand and no one plastered my car with colour and water even though I was out in the morning at an hour which can only be best described as "risky". But apparently others felt the same way with the result that most of Gurgaon's Sector Road was empty.

I'm so tired now... Even though I've been sleeping most of the day after I came back - probably the result of all that kesri milk I had to drink.

Ah well, the rest of the week beckons. Time to become an adult again.

Road Rage

But not the kind you would think.

I live in Gurgaon - arguably a nice, up and coming part of India. We have the most amazing skyline at night - that can rival any modern city of the world.

That skyline is marred during the day though. And that's because of the AWFUL road conditions that persist despite countless newspaper articles, magazine articles, civil society protests, politician's lamentations and even news reports.

There are potholes everywhere!! The only road that isn't affected, is the stretch of NH-8 for which commuters have to pay Rs 17 whenever they use it. The rest of Gurgaon is in shambles.

So what is the problem? Does it take rocket science to fix up the roads? Or to even build good roads? Surely our monsoons cannot be so toxic that the road literally melts every time it rains? Why are there so many bad patches? Why is it that my city continuously looks like it has just emerged from a dust storm?

And my question is - what is the solution?

I'll tell you what I've heard. I've heard that private developers pay for the development of the infrastructure maintained by the State. I've heard that a lot of people in Gurgaon do pay their taxes (including me - and I am in charge of administering this as well, so I take this seriously). I've heard that EVERYONE will benefit from having good roads, apart from a few vested interests who profit from the continuous rebuilding of them.

Surely we are a strong and competent enough state that we can prosecute at least some of these non-performers. Don't roads also have a lifespan of some sort?

I don't know. But I do know that the bad driving that I see around me, the careless pedestrians who cross the road without looking, the underaged kids whose parents have deemed fit to have behind the wheel - all this does not speak well for a country that is trying to move up the Human Development Index. We need better enforcement of laws and we need better monitoring of money spent by the state.

Sigh! As you can probably tell, I spent the better part of today driving around Gurgaon. I was so fed up that I even forgot that Om Book Store was having a sale and that I wanted to buy "White Tiger" - our second booker prize winner. That will be my purchase for January 2008 (having bought a Hurakami for December 2009).

Does one lose weight driving in bad road conditions? I certainly hope so!!