Its legendary origins date thousands of years back to Mahabharat. But it is also called the Millennium City. It has the Hindi word for village appended to its name, but it has clusters of New York-style high-rises. It is sometimes dismissed, and sometimes praised, as a city of gigantic shopping malls, but it also has little-known narrow bazaar lanes. Gurugram defies cliches. Naturally, its famous and not-so-famous edifices reflect that dizzying diversity. Here’s a sample.
Delhiwale: The Millennium’s edifices
A temple
The ceiling inlaid with glass tiles has a chandelier as its centrepiece. The floor is made of marble. The hall is so huge that murmured prayers echo. The walls of Parshvanath Digambar Jain Temple in Rakabpura are adorned with paintings depicting scenes from Jainism. Almost each piece of decoration in the mandir is donated by a devotee. A marble column beside a window is installed by Dalchand Hriday Ram Jain of Ferozepur Jhirka. A plaque depicting a scene of ‘Rani asking forgiveness from the muni’ is a gift by Mrs Kailashwati Jain of Gohana. An old-fashioned tijori is donated by Maman Chand Jain of Sadar Bazaar. Here, you feel you are no longer in the Gurugram you know.
A house
Nothing’s left on the pale blue wall but the imprints of a staircase. It looks like a painting. In fact, these are the remains of an old building in old Gurugram, a short walk from the city’s bus stand. The wall is part of the remains of an extinct bungalow. It was demolished some time ago to make way for something new, perhaps a multi-storey building, suggests an area shopkeeper. Despite being knocked down to their bare minimum, the residue of the house easily evokes its original architecture. A large fireplace has survived wholly. A sidewall shows shelves and taaks, those old-fashioned niches that seem to have disappeared from contemporary architecture. One day a new edifice will stand on this Millennium City spot.
A tower
This is the Millennium City’s most iconic high-rise. The Gateway Tower precedes the millennium, and a great number of people simply refer to the building as Titanic. Architect Hafeez Contractor designed the grey-and-glass structure in a style that at night many believe looks like that super-tragic ship whose stern turned vertical moments before disappearing under the ocean water.
Built to house offices by real estate developer Delhi Land & Finance, this is one of Gurugram’s earliest high-rises. Also known as ‘seep wali building’, a great part of the area around the tower is ringed by a collection of small eateries. Indeed, if viewed from a particular angle, the tandoor at Yaduvanshi Tadka Food Corner seems to stand right under the high-rise. The building looks particularly scenic from the grounds of DLF Cyber City.
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