SHUTTERED: First, sales were low. Then, an armed robbery. Domino's has had enough.

Domino's Pizza is located in one of those featureless, boxy concrete blocks that characterise small-town India. Main street too is typical: rutted and garbage-strewn, with slushy edges in place of sidewalks. Still, when Domino's opened shop in Ghaziabad in 2001, it seemed to make sense. The heart of Delhi is just a 40-minute drive from this Uttar Pradesh town, closer than an hour that it takes from rival Gurgaon in Haryana. Droves of middle-class housing towers had sprung up on the border, and in the last two decades, a host of industries and white-goods dealerships had ridden in on the great consumer boom. Ghaziabad, a quintessential backwaters town, seemed ready to hitch a ride on flourishing Delhi's coat-tails into the suburban boom time.

Prosperity is a nice dream. But sometimes a town just isn't ready for it-as Domino's soon found out. Business was always slow, and like so many other businesses in small-town India, Domino's too learned that the power of local officials begets a sprawling freebie culture. ''Our store was obviously not doing well,'' admits Ashwini Arora, chief of operations. The last straw came one chill winter's evening on January 14, 2000 when two armed men burst in, gagged the guard, and helped themselves to Rs 31,000 and yes, some pizza. The police only registered a case of theft, which carries a far milder sentence than armed robbery.

Across town, the terrified manager of a shoe outlet will tell you how business has become a joke. First, robbers walked away with shoes saying they needed to outrun the police. Now, policemen come in seeking hefty discounts, smirking as they explain how modern shoes like these will help them catch criminals. There is an endemic law enforcer-gangster collusion in this town-one of the prime reasons that businesses never seem to stick around. At the Chimney restaurant, they will tell you how cops and goons (they come together sometimes) brandish weapons on entry, demand-and get-free food. Add day-long power cuts, dug-up roads, poor educational and recreational facilities and of course, and an oppressive sales tax structure (For instance, in the iron and steel industry, 4 per cent sales tax is charged on the selling price; in Haryana it is only 1 per cent and in Punjab 2 per cent; agro-based industries pay 2-4 per cent tax in Ghaziabad, whereas Delhi has no such tax) and you know why the dream died.

Despite commercial land rates hovering around Rs 1,500-2,500 per sq. yard (in Haryana's Gurgaon, it is between Rs 10,000-13,000 per sq. yard) and the proximity to Delhi, this town-city of about 3 million resembles a lost world where the modern age somehow coexists with a badlands-tehsil culture. Almost all enterprise-engineering, consumer goods, steel, retail-registers marginal, even negative, growth.

Even the middle-class that thought it would stay here cheaply on the doorstep of Delhi, desperately wants out. Take the crestfallen residents of Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) flats who are today venting their ire before 'high-handed' officials at the GDA office. ''They (GDA men) are cheats. Stagnant water stands in our basements, there is no earthquake insurance, there are no fire-fighting measures,'' says an angry Dinesh Chandra, a retired resident. ''And now after two years of our moving in, these b******* are demanding additional money with the threat that if it is not paid in time, a further 21 per cent interest will be charged on the escalated amount!''

Most GDA and other co-operative group housing society dwellers are middle-income professionals who've relocated to Ghaziabad from Delhi. It was after liberalisation in 1991 that they bought flats here with hopes of capital appreciation and infrastructure development. It all seems like a bad dream now.

TREADMILL

Calling Popeye Parties, food, hangovers? are you becoming a chronic gym-skipper? Don't. Even if you can't get yourself over to the gym every morning, you can still stay in shape. Only if you do a set of five exercises that I like to call the basic building blocks. But before that, here's a bit of sermonising. To most people, pumping iron means focusing on muscles that matter the least. Like biceps and triceps. Firdaus, a trainer at my first gym in Mumbai, used to call those ''vanity muscles'' that you can ignore if you train bigger groups of muscles. As he'd watch some rookie puff and pant over hefty barbell curls, Firdaus would chuckle and say: ''Do you want to look like Popeye-huge arm muscles but little else?'' This episode of Treadmill lists a set of five exercises that can make your workout worthwhile even if you can make it to the gym only three days a week. The exercises I'm about to list work your chest, back and shoulders-the three muscle groups that matter most. Oh! And most chest exercises also target the triceps and most back exercises the biceps. So don't worry, you're not going to have thin arms! Here goes the five-point workout. Press-cum-bent arm pullover: These work your chest muscles. The bent arm pullover gets modified with a press from the chest after you complete the pullover action. Pulldowns: These work your back muscles. Get a wide enough grip on an overhead horizontal bar with palms facing outward and pull yourself up. Don't be disappointed if you can't do a single one at first. Keep trying. Dumb-Bell press: For your shoulders. Sit on a bench. Hold a dumb-bell in each hand, palms facing outward. Bring them up shoulder height with your upper arms parallel to the floor. Push straight up and then back again. Four 10-rep sets should do the trick. Lateral raises: Also for the shoulders. Grab two dumbbells and hold them to your sides. Remain standing, but lean forward at the waist. Extend your arms laterally from the starting position. Hold. Then bring them back to your sides. That's one rep. Do four sets of 10. Cable crossover: This one works if your gym has a cable machine. Stand in the centre of the cable thingamajig and hold a handle in each hand with your arms outstretched. With arms slightly bent, draw them straight to the front, parallel to the floor and perpendicular to your body. Works the chest muscles, right? That's one rep. Do four 10-rep sets. Notice something? I've left out the legs. For those, you've got to wait a fortnight. Adios. Muscles Mani

The Dilemma Of A Badland

You get a hint of Ghaziabad's dilemma when you drive north east out of Delhi on NH 24. On the right of the four-lane highway lies Noida, Uttar Pradesh's pet project. With it's eight-lane expressway, defence enclaves, condos, export promotion zone, parks, and gold clubs, Noida is a classic example of a sub city that worked. Now look to your left. The shells of complete but unoccupied office and housing towers emerge from the acrid smoke of burning cowdung. This is Ghaziabad, which aches for a slice of the investments that adjoining Noida enjoys, and yearns for a return to the days when it was the most sought-after opportunity in Uttar Pradesh.

''Well, that was nearly 15 years ago, prior to liberalisation, when land subsidy, capital, and other incentives drove businesses to Ghaziabad,'' says a rueful Debashish Panda, the town's district magistrate. Hope, and visitors, now seem to have deserted Ghaziabad. Kolkata's Kenilworth Hotel came here in the 1980s hoping to cash in on its promise. Three years ago, it closed down. Occupancy at the 120-room Mela Plaza hotel, set up by Delhi's five-star Surya Crown Plaza, rarely touches 20 per cent; it lost Rs 3 crore last fiscal.

No one seems to have faith in Ghaziabad, not even the townsfolk, who prefer to do their buying from Delhi or neighbouring Noida. Not surprising, since normal instruments of business often don't work here. Try issuing a cheque for instance at the local Compaq dealer. He might take it, but don't expect delivery until it clears. Computer dealers narrate stories where deliveries worth Rs 3 to Rs 4 lakh were made and the cheques simply turned out to be forgeries.

Crime has set off what now seems to be an unending spiral of gloom. ''Nearly 75 per cent of the industries are closed,'' says S.C. Sharma, Deputy Superintendent of Police. ''This creates additional unemployment, the real fodder for crime.'' Many criminals get gainful employment during the polls and jump right back when the elections are over. Last year alone, there were two extortions, four dacoities, 95 kidnappings, 103 robberies, and 224 murders. And this is a plunge from the preceding year! The figures are deceptive, locals say, because most cases go unreported or misreported. The unemployed, the daring-they all take to the gun.

Crime today seems to be the main growth industry in Ghaziabad. Its badlands status attracts criminals far more easily than its position as an economic opportunity ever did with business. Prashant Kumar, SSP, Ghaziabad-whose visibly non-secular office greets you with a saffron Hame Hindu Hone Ka Garv Hai (We are proud to be Hindus) sticker-blames the media for his town's reputation. And there's no manpower. As an example he points to the 70 cops manning the Loni police station, which must protect more than six lakh residents. ''The Ghaziabad police are not physically and technologically armed like the Delhi police; fighting crime is detrimental (to them),'' says Ravi Malik, Executive Secretary of the the All India Manufacturer's Organisation, Uttar Pradesh State Board.

Sure, Ghaziabad borders Delhi, but it's even closer-to UP's chaotic inner lands. Delhi's capitalist urges and insufficient space, have always prodded Ghaziabad to urbanise, but the fact is UP won't let go. Yet, some still see hope in the great consumer dream. ''We will reopen shortly,'' says Domino's Arora. Determination. It's the only recipe for success.