Anagha Speaks

Walkers and lots of walking space! On our last night in Stockholm, the students and faculty of the Royal University of Arts, treated us to a special Swedish music and dinner at a Rowing Club. After the day long conference at the school, we were taken for an hour long boat ride, to watch the islands of Stockholm. We, about 50 of us, disembarked near the Rowing Club, a very quaint and wood log cabin, right on the water. All around us, the Stockholmers were enjoying the summer evening, some fishing, some boating. It was wonderful to see the leisure and an attractive appeal of the ‘rural’ right in the centre of Stockholm. Walking in Twilight @ 10:30 pm After 2-3 hours of fun and revelry, we were urged by all our Stockholm friends to take a walk along the water front, to reach our hotel. Most of them accompanied us too. For Puneites, a ‘short’ walk would mean 15-20 minutes, right? Well, the short walk turned out to be good 40 minutes to our hotel. But I was not complaining, as the...

Last week, I had a chance to visit and stay in Gurgaon, a new face of suburbia in India. I was appalled at the chaos that is Gurgoan. I had heard about the glitz and glamour of the city. The NH8 that connects Gurgaon to Delhi is lined with tall glass facade buildings, showing prominent corporate brands on their faces. The NH8 itself is a multiple lane freeway, where cars speed to and fro between Delhi and Gurgaon, carrying in them elite business class of India, churning wealth and pouring money into the country's economy. While this is happening at one end, where the private sector is complacent in its own wealth, the roads and the urban infrastructure is terrible. The minute you step out of your own glass building and stand on the road, you see a high speed vehicle access but no place to walk! Footpaths are not only non existent, its extremely unsafe to walk along the road sides at dusk. The dusty landscape of this region spills on to the new roads, so the road sides are sand fill...