Delhiwale: Two unsinkable Titanics

A pairing of two landmarks.

Long-standing landmarks of a city sometimes start to speak to its citizens in the most extraordinary ways. Here is an unlikely pairing of two far-apart edifices in the Delhi region. Separated from each other by centuries, they draw renewed attention today due to a unique commonality. The element linking the landmarks is the great Titanic that drowned 101 years ago, but continues to fascinate the world, and was the cause of a recent tragedy involving a submarine carrying tourists to a sightseeing tour of the sunken ship.

Gurugram's Gateway Tower (left) and 'Jahaz Mahal'

A building in Gurugram

Has somebody told architect Hafeez Contractor that his iconic creation in Gurugram, the Gateway Tower, is often casually referred to by the locals as the “Titanic”? It is also called the “ship”, or the “seep wali building” because at night, the high-rise with lights blinking on the top resembles a drowning ship whose stern has turned vertical, moments before sinking into the ocean water (if only you recall that fateful scene in the James Cameron movie!). Built by real estate developer Delhi Land & Finance, the office tower is among the earliest of the Millennium City’s many high-rises. During the day, however, the glossy complex bears no relation to any tragedy, looking confident and successful like any globe-trotting CEO. Even so, a part of its immediate vicinity, filled with eateries, stays as hyperlocal as any small town bazarita. See for yourself — Muradabadi Chicken Biryani Corner is leaning against a paan stall, which is a few steps away from Sourav and Vaibhav Dhaba, which is adjacent to Shahi Muradabadi Chicken Biryani, which is next to Yaduvanshi Tadka Food Corner, which — when viewed from a particular angle — seems to stand right under the “Titanic.”

A monument in Mehrauli

Jahaz Mahal’s reflection on the rippling wavelets of an adjacent lake is said to resemble a ship on sail. The name, ship palace, took off from that impression. While the Lodhi monument’s daytime beauty is borne out of a playful jugalbandi of light and shadow, it acquires a deeper beauty after the sunset. By 8pm, much of the stones start to look soft and malleable, as if they were hewed out of the night’s darkness. The ruin then appears like a ship resigned to its impending doom.