Delhiwale: Millennium heights

Monsoon in Gurugram brings flooding fears, prompting a look at the city's unique pedestrian bridges, blending utility with character and community life.

Monsoon is poetic in theory, but tiresome in practicality, especially in the Millennium City of Gurugram. Even a brief spell of heavy showers raises rational fears about sudden flooding of roads and houses—which did happen during the recent spate of showers in the past week (“You cannot fold a flood, and put it in a drawer”—muses poet Emily Dickinson!). Whatever, in such eventualities, a hapless citizen’s instinct is to resort to a higher altitude. This gives an excuse to again bring up the subject of Gurugram’s elevated heights. The city is crammed with high-rises. But it also has interesting elevations of other kinds. Here’s a quick survey of some of the city’s unusual pedestrian bridges; each is pickled in its unique character. Also included: an elevation of a more natural type. These snippets have been drawn from earlier visits, and though more bridges were present in the original draft, they had to be removed due to space constraint. That said, this short list must prompt the flâneur in you to find more of such infrastructure utilities that, at first, seem suited only for their primary purpose, but have actually something more into their character.

Even a brief spell of heavy showers raises rational fears about sudden flooding of roads and houses. (HT)

Self-help suspension

Suspended over a busy highway near the IFFCO Chowk crossing, the pedestrian bridge or foot overbridge—or FOB, in popular parlance—has proven very convenient. It is, however, a tad eccentric. The signage hanging from the ceiling not only give directions to nearby destinations; some also give directions on how to live one’s life. Reading these is almost like as if you were flipping through a self-help paperback. Check this: “Time is always moving. The important thing is to learn from the past and then look towards the future.”

Community elevation

All day long, the Rajiv Colony FOB pulsates with footsteps of the local populace, walking from one side to the other. At certain times, the bridge gets crowded with so many locals going to-and-fro that it resembles a community ground. One winter afternoon, a venerable gent dressed in a traditional dhoti and an elaborate turban was sighted with a hookah. He was walking and smoking simultaneously, as if the bridge were his backyard.

Top of the village

Gurugram’s Ghata village has its houses scattered around the base of a hill. The hill’s flat top has a beautiful temple called Bani Mandir. The distant horizon, as seen from the heights of the temple, shows a ring of city towers, glimmering through dusty daylight haze—see photo. At the same time, the Ghata village below demands attention by revealing itself in all its minute details—from the homely interiors of private terraces to the buffaloes ambling along the lanes.