Gurugram turns ‘Jalgram’ every monsoon

Sumedha Sharma

What’s in a name? Plenty, if you ask residents of the Millennium City of Haryana. The city, which even after eight years is in a transitional phase from Gurgaon to Gurugram, is now grappling with deprecating monikers like “Kudagram”, “Jalgram” or “Daarugram”.

The nomenclature of the city by netizens and Gurugramars underscores the plight of the cosmopolitan city — once adorned with adjectives like “Singapore of Haryana”, “cyber city”, “auto hub” and “face of rising Haryana”.

Residents also dub it ‘Kudagram’ and ‘Daarugram’

The city, which even after eight years is in a transitional phase from Gurgaon to Gurugram, is now grappling with offensive monikers like ‘Kudagram’ and ‘Daarugram’

In what has raised eyebrows, a large number of city activists have got together and written to the government to officially declare Gurugram “Kudagram”, all thanks to the sanitation crisis rampant here.

For the first time ever, any city in North India has witnessed solid waste exigency of this scale. With mounds of garbage piled up at every nook and corner and a collapsed sanitation infrastructure, it truly justifies the name, say residents.

Situated close to the Aravallis, a hill taller than many natural hillocks here is considered the defining symbol of “Kudagram”. Popularly known as Bandhwari hill, it is a landfill site with a mountain of untreated waste of around 15 lakh metric tonnes. Till a few years ago, the roundabout near it was called “Kuda Chowk”, or garbage intersection, and the government, joining the moniker parade, named it “Khushbu Chowk”. The intersection is one of the stinkiest places in the city. Everyday, 2,200 tonnes of garbage is added to it, and with no waste management plan in place, the jewel of Haryana is now a garbage bowl.

“Not just Bandhwari, there is a mini-garbage hill every few metres. We have asked the government to officially name us ‘Kudagram’ as it can’t resolve the issue. The name defies the essence of the city. Every morning, every single Gurugramar, working in a premier MNC and living in a house worth crores, worries whether garbage will be lifted from outside his home. Many fear if they will again witness the mounds of garbage dumped outside their houses, or will, by any miracle, the authorities have cleared the horticulture and other waste decaying for months,” said Vaishali Rana Chandra, a city-based environmentalist and waste management activist.

Known as Gurgaon for over a century, the city’s name was changed in April 2016 when the then BJP government, led by former CM Manohar Lal Khattar, announced that it was high time the “distorted name” Gurugram returned to its Mahabharata name Gurugram, meaning “teacher’s village”. The name was derived from its connection with Guru Dronacharya, the royal tutor of the Pandavas.

Khattar said it was the best way to celebrate the city’s historic relevance. The name-change led to major debates and uproar, with many people opposing it as a dent on the city’s international branding. This was probably the first time that the city trended on social media and realised the “power of name”.

It was July that year that flashfloods hit the city for the first time and it faced a traffic jam for 16 hours, with people stuck on roads without food, water and even vehicles running out of fuel.

With the then Twitter, now X, becoming popular, netizens coined “Gurujam” and since then, there has been no looking back. The moniker remains relevant and gives way to “Jalgram” as we face flashfloods and waterlogging each year. This year, Gurugram converted into “Jalgram” on June 28, with streets, housing societies and main roads getting flooded, sending residents into a frenzy.

“I have never heard any city have so many monikers, that too for civic failures. ‘Jalgram’ best describes Gurugram every monsoon. When it rains, all you can see is more and more water. The BJP not just changed the city’s name, but also its fate. Known for Fortune 500 companies today, it’s the waterlogging and garbage what defines the city,” says Congress veteran leader Raj Babbar, who recently contested the Lok Sabha elections from here.

Amidst the notorious monikers are “Daarugram”, which has mixed usage — it celebrates the cheapest liquor in the NCR, five-star vends and the most happening “bring your own booze” (BYOB) while mocking rampant public drinking and the setting up of liquor vends in residential areas and near schools.