Greater Kailash 1 (GK-I) was developed in the 1960s by DLF Limited when Delhi Government allowed private developers to build colonies and is today one of the most affluent neighborhoods in the city, home to well-known politicians, business personality and people associated with Bollywood industry.
Well, these are the first few lines on Wikipedia if you google Greater Kailash.
Let’s look at July 2023, while driving from B block to R block a week back, I saw none of the street lights working.
There is a colony nearby, basically was built for refugees and I was amazed at some special lights driving through that place.
One day a friend from Gurgaon was coming over at 1 AM and was continuously confirming the house number and other details beforehand as she felt she has to enter the gate so need these details and voila she breezed through it as she wasn’t even stopped at the gate and remarked that Gurgaon societies are safer, I laughed it off but internally was quite embarrassed. Being a psychologist, I feel according to Maslow’s need of hierarchy, safety and security needs are basic to all individuals.
This is the scenario in the night. Now let’s look at day time where frequency of day time chain or purse snatching is not uncommon.
But what amazes me is that as we enter R block gate, the sight right at the beginning is not less than a chawl, with a tailor at one end and cobbler on the other end with people gathered around them, not necessarily for work but random chats. Well livelihood is important but some structure and discipline could be added.
So as Wikipedia says, ‘affluent’ yes but refined, we definitely see scope for improvement there.
Collaborative work and discipline between RWA’s, police, MCD, residents, daily wage workers for development are the need of the hour.
by Sukhmeen Kaur Cheema (Counselling Psychologist, R block, 9818329251)
