Planned progress

One morning, I told the foreman-cum-contractor, sahib bahadur, who has been building my son8217;s house in Gurgaon, Haryana: 8220;Four ste...

One morning, I told the foreman-cum-contractor, sahib bahadur, who has been building my son8217;s house in Gurgaon, Haryana: 8220;Four steps to the lawn. You have failed to provide us with this. So what use is the lawn to me? I can8217;t go and sit on it.8221;

The man had provided the steps in the original naqsha plan and the naqsha had been duly approved by the engineer sahib bahadur. Now, it seems, the engineer sahib bahadur insists that the steps were not there when he had approved the naqsha.

What then, I wanted to know. Well, without the engineer sahib bahadur8217;s approval, the foreman sahib bahadur can proceed no further. So? Nothing to worry about. The foreman sahib bahadur will go to the engineer sahib bahadur with a dali, containing this and that including, I suspect, some crisp currency notes. The engineer sahib bahadur will first refuse the dali but then accept it as a special favour to the foreman sahib bahadur.

And then? The foreman sahib bahadur will prepare a new naqsha, exactly like the original one, and all will be well with the world. My son8217;s house will be completed and I will get my four steps to the lawn.

Is this the way things are done in Gurgaon, I ask the foreman sahib bahadur. He shrugs his shoulders. Pressed a bit, he comes out. But for the dali, Gurgaon would not have become what it is today. All these tall buildings touching the sky would not have come up at all and Gurgaon would have remained what it used to be 8212; a pichhra hua ilaqa backward region.

In those very times, there used to be a king in England called Henry VIII he had eight wives or Edward VIII he had abdicated his throne for the sake of the woman he loved. In those very times, one of my countless uncles became a gumashta storekeeper in the British army in Peshawar. That immensely increased his price in the marriage market. What is his tankha salary, a prospective mother-in-law asked his mother. Twenty rupees a month, replied the latter proudly. 8220;Ooper ki admi upper income?8221; asked the eager would-be mother-in-law. 8220;No antend to that,8221; said the proud mother. 8220;He buys meat, vegetables and fruit for the entire army in Peshawar.8221;

The landscape in India has changed immensely. Several Gurgaons have emerged. And countless gumashtas and contractors are roaming about the country in the company of their New Age patron saints and sages.

Story continues below this ad

But where does this leave me and the four steps to the lawn?