lack of official interest allied to bureaucratic delays threatened to derail his plans but this gurugrammer is made of sterner stuff nonetheless the museum offers reasons for optimism and a chance for residents to embrace a local landmark as enthusiastically as they have embraced the aravali biodiversity park a model for ecological regeneration worth emulating work got under way in january 2018 but 15 months on administrative apathy on the part of contractors and the elections bringing the machinery of governance to a halt have conspired against an early opening this journey full of false beginnings seems to sum up this city to a t gurugram as much as it continues to be work in progress is also a story of what could have been where startups take wing despite infrastructural bottlenecks and maybe thats why gurugram suffers in comparison with its northern neighbour judged mostly by what it doesnt have than what it does then again heres a city that has evolved in fits and starts some buildings coming up as fast as a skyscrapers in guangzhou china the progress of others evoking the soporific pace of preliberalisation days for all the boozy indulgences of pubs and funky offerings of restaurants a museum that engages and enlightens a rarity in india is a thing of wonder yet it must be borne in mind that the millennium city remains an outlier among indian metros an urban experiment unlike any other it seems then as if it will be a while before aryas labour of love sees the light of day arya first intimated the government of his plans in 2015 after which it took two years to sign a memorandum of understanding that the museo camera has come up in the heart of new gurugram at all is entirely down to aryas determination and his hawkeyed supervision at the building site where he has camped every day so how about celebrating gurugram for what it is where a galleria is no less than a connaught place the museum is almost ready and we have given it for retrofitting more critically it has shown it doesnt have the will to fight pollution a city whose residents have shown initiative endeavour and pluck to make it just that bit more livable seeing their government has by and large abandoned its responsibilities gurugram takes little and makes the most out of it the project had run into delays due to the revision in the estimates and the delay by the contractor the indefatigable arya had made it his mission to give gurugram a museum befitting of its millennium city signature and yes where a man can dream of creating a worldclass museum and while those who have set up base in gurugram migrants from all over country are for most part aspirational 20 and 30somethings eager to make a mark the city is best personified by people like arya whose pioneering spirit opened doors to its growth not too long back