For the last few months, I’ve been staying in Delhi and working in Gurgaon. What I’ve seen and felt is a strange mix of hypocrisy and mediocrity.
India is a land of diversity—mixed, divided, yet vibrant. But in its cities, the divide feels much sharper. On one side, there are the poor, pushed further into poverty. On the other, the rich, living in their own bubble, not caring much about the struggles outside. Each class has its own problems, but the gap between them is painfully visible.
What makes it worse is the failure of administration. The social ecosystem has not been maintained with justice. Everyone pays taxes in different forms, yet the condition of the cities tells another story.
Step into a gully, a remote lane, or the backside of any city, and you’ll see the truth—pathetic living conditions, broken infrastructure, no sense of hygiene or sanitation. At night, many people sleep in rickshaws, on footpaths, or under flyovers. Nobody cares. Nobody shows this reality.
Bollywood sells dreams. Sometimes it shows bits of real life, but mostly it projects the world of the rich. The everyday struggles of the common man remain hidden.
Floods, earthquakes, communal tensions, political propaganda—all these keep hitting the people. But beyond all that, it is the living conditions and collapsing economy that silently crush lives. And the worst part? The ones who suffer most are the ones who don’t have a voice.
This is my experience. This is the reality of our cities.
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