Life in Gurgaon...

One day I was sitting in my office doing the usual work and I got to know from my manager that I have to leave for Gurgaon in the evening. I was delighted to hear that since from the past 1.5 years I was trying my best to move out of my hometown and see the outside world. The same day I packed my bags and left for Gurgaon. I was accompanied by a friend of mine. We reached Gurgaon at 4 AM in the morning, it was midnight and I couldn't see much of it. We reached the company guest house and had a nap of around 2 hours. I woke up and went straight go my new office in Gurgaon. On the way, I saw huge structures built of concrete and the magnitude of construction in Gurgaon, I had never seen throughout my life. There were monstrous buildings facing each other and the design and architecture was simply superb. My office was in the middle of the cyber city where all the big corporate offices like Microsoft, Oracle were there.

The work started as usual. There was immense pressure on me to perform and I was delighted that I actually delivered to it the best possible way I could. 70% of the day I spent in office as there was nothing much to do at the Guest House since it was located in a deserted place in the outskirts of the city. I usually went home over the weekends and the one’s I dint go I stayed at the guest house and usually got bored. A month passed by and I was asked to leave the Guest house and find an accommodation for myself. The real struggle had started then. I called up my friends and they came to my rescue. I was able to find a good Paying Guest accommodation in a single day and the same day I shifted to that place.

The PG was located in a posh residential area of Gurgaon. The life in the PG was interesting and I had one of the best times in my life staying in the PG. It was a triple sharing room and I was the first one to fill it. The room was nice and spacious with all the facilities and had a big beautiful bathroom. I had heard that this PG used to be a girl’s PG and the bathroom actually reflected that because the interiors were all pink coloured.

A day or two passed by and I started wondering who the other people in the PG were. The PG had a common dining area so one day I met a guy who was having his breakfast. We interacted with each other, he seemed nice and we sort of clicked in the initial meeting. He had returned from UK and was working in a law firm. As expected, he was a lawyer so I had no match while speaking to him. I left for home that weekend and when I came back I saw my room filled with two new roomies. One of them was a student and the other guy was a working professional.

The next 2 months were the best time I spent in Gurgaon. One of my room mates knew the places in Gurgaon and nearby very well. We used to go to movies and diner quite often. There was a dhaba on the Gurgaon high way which he took us to, the food there was nice especially the non veg stuff. After a week or two, another guy joined the PG; he was also a working professional. Initially he looked a bit standoffish and was occupied with himself but after a day or two he also joined the group. He was a brilliant musician and used to play excellent guitar. We got used to his tunes on the dining table and sometimes even at the dhaba. We used to spend our weekends watching movies on TV and sometimes in the huge Gurgaon malls. The ice-cream parlour at Nirula’s was also our usual favourite destination for deserts after diner. One day after having diner in PG, we went to the ice-cream parlour to have our favourite Manhattan Mania cone. Just then, we decided and went to Faridabad on a long drive. The journey was nice and dark with hilly turns on the way. There were a couple of places we visited in Faridabad like Suraj kund and a lake but it was the drive which we enjoyed the most. We returned back at 1AM and were very tired. The next week was the Holy day and luckily none of us went home on holy. I generally don’t celebrate much of holy and prefer to stay home. But this holy was different, it was very different. The morning was the usual lazy stuff. We woke up at 11, had our breakfast and went outside. The scene outside was very deserted. We couldn't see anyone celebrating outside. Nonetheless, we had bought some colours and started to walk around the locality hoping to see someone playing holy and thinking if we could also join the fun. But what you expect of Gurgaon it behaves totally opposite. We could see people with coloured faces in their four wheelers but no-one on the road. We then came back to our PG. Just then there was some construction going on in front of our PG and there was a small pool which had muddy water in it. One of us thought of a prank and drowned the lawyer into the pool; the scene was so funny that even the neighbours enjoyed it. After a minute or two, all four of us were inside the pool along with the servant of the PG. There were colours and pranks all over the place. I had never imagined that holy could be so enjoyable. We were so tired after playing holy that we then slept for the whole day.

I was enjoying my life in Gurgaon. I liked staying there and didn't really miss my home town much. But all this enjoyment was short lived. One of my roommates had gone to Mumbai for 10 days and when he came back we came to know that he had to permanently shift to Mumbai in a week’s time. The next day we got the news that the owner of the PG was closing down and we were given 15 days notice period to move out. We just had a few days left to enjoy and have fun together. We took the most of it and enjoyed the last few days of our stay in the PG. My roommate shifted over to Mumbai and all of us started looking for a new PG preferably tried if we could stay together again but that seemed to be a remote possibility. After a week passed by, everyone left the PG and shifted over to new places. But we guys couldn't be together any more. I shifted over with my other roommate to a new PG. The Guitarist and the lawyer moved to separate PGs.

The new PG was not the same as the original one. I missed the fun we used to have earlier. We guys tried and meet and go out together but that happened just once in 15 days. Then came May which was my last month in Gurgaon. It was this time that I really wanted to go back to my hometown mainly because of the bad food that I used to get in my new pg and also that the new pg experience was not that enjoyable. In no time, May end came and I was given a nice farewell from my team mates in office. I also met my lawyer friend the last day and we went for diner to a nice restaurant. I was very excited and very happy to go back. I happily reached home but strangely I actually missed my life in Gurgaon for a week or so.
The 5 month stay in Gurgaon will surely stay in my life as a memorable one not only because of the professional experience but also because of the good people I met there and the good time I had there.