India, May 4 -- In Gurugram, the shine wears off quickly. Over the past few weeks of reporting, I kept encountering the same issue across neighbourhoods: open drains and uncovered manholes left unattended until a VIP visit forces action. The pattern is consistent enough that residents now anticipate repairs based on official schedules rather than complaints. The complaints are neither new nor isolated. In DLF Phase 4, residents flagged multiple open manholes on internal roads, some left exposed for days. They told me they had raised the issue several times, but little changed. The danger is not abstract. At night, these openings are barely visible, and for pedestrians and delivery workers, one wrong step can mean serious injury. In another part of the city, I witnessed a sudden burst of efficiency ahead of a scheduled high-level visit. The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram replaced 174 drain covers in a single day. Officials described it as a swift response. Residents, however, said the same drains had been lying open for weeks and were fixed only when inspections were expected. Walking through these areas, the contrast is stark. A freshly repaired stretch of road sits next to another where broken slabs and open drains remain. What stood out to me personally was how civic authorities sometimes cover a manhole after receiving pictures from media persons, since getting an official quote is often necessary for a news copy. Yet, the same authorities do not repair another manhole barely 200 metres away from the one photographed. There are rarely warning signs around such hazards. Last month, an accident involving a professor who fell into a pit dug by GMDA circulated widely online. CCTV footage shows the car was at high speed, but the pit had existed there for years. Despite miles of sand lying at the site, it remained unattended. It was levelled and cleared the same night as the accident, which occurred two days before the chief minister's visit to Gurugram. The timing raises questions that remain unanswered. People have begun to notice this pattern. Civic activity increases before visits by senior officials and slows soon after. Several residents told me they now expect clean-ups based on official movement rather than complaints. As one resident put it, the city "responds to visibility, not vulnerability". These are not large infrastructure failures. Covering a drain or securing a manhole is basic maintenance. Yet even these tasks appear dependent on urgency created from the top. During the rains, open drains become harder to spot, and for motorists on poorly lit roads, they can cause accidents within seconds, locals flagged. There is also a deeper mismatch. Gurugram presents itself as a global business hub, but its civic systems struggle with everyday upkeep. The capacity to act exists, as the 24-hour repair drive showed. What is missing is consistency. Reporting on this feels like returning to the same spot, only to find little has changed. Complaints are recorded, short-term fixes follow, and the issue fades until the next trigger. For residents, the question remains simple: why should basic safety depend on a VIP visit? Until there is a clear answer, Gurugram continues to exist in two parallel realities, one prepared for display and another that residents navigate at their own risk....