A Building,.. And Some Nostalgia

A Commons’ Committee, investigating on the delay caused in construction, called British Library’s new building ‘one of the ugliest buildings in the world’. Obviously none of the members had ever been to India or else the library would have met some serious contenders. Worse still, if they had seen the new secretariat complex built under the supervision of Karunanidhi, British Library would have lost its undeserved title.

Built at the ‘record’ speed and equally ‘record’ budget, the new assembly building is a testament to the destruction of aesthetics. Standing like a cancerous tissue that’s just grown out of the body, the concrete dome with glass panelled facade is a vandalism of the fragile Chennai skyline. Besides complaints related to aesthetic and administrative blunders, I have a personal grouse as well.

I grew up around what used to be called the MLA Hostels and Rajaji Hall. This part was full of trees and the quietude of the foliage was almost like a delightful aberration in the middle of the noisy, ancient streets of Triplicane and the dreadful motors honking past the Mount Road. There was a small but graceful Gandhi Museum inside the woods. Not far from the museum there was a ‘suyambu’ Ganesh temple, a natural Ganesha-like formation on the trunk of a dense banyan tree that was converted into a makeshift temple had a few but steady patrons. I used stand in pious attention at the splendorous testimony to the 'presence of god’. I used to cycle through the tiny, spiralling stretch inside the campus just to enjoy the greenery, a luxury commodity in Madras. It was like a tiny Theosophical Society campus in Triplicane. I had seen a dead snake near the temple. I had seen a gay couple behind a cosy shrubbery.

When Karunanidhi decided to erect the assembly building I considered it as personal slander and violation of my nostalgia. He has always been a ‘builder’. During all his tenures, he had focused on erecting buildings and flyovers. Perhaps that was the only way he knew to swindle money. It was a time before he learned about better methods such as telecommunication signals. But what ends up with a looted signal is only loss to the exchequer and swelling of Keelakkarai havalas, but with such construction projects, unbearable sights laugh at you in ridicule.

I’m glad that Jayalalitha decided not to operate out of the new building. However might her current tenure turn out to be, I’d be grateful for this shared despise. I’m not sure if it’s possible to demolish this structure. Already minnows such as PMK and MDMK are up in arms against returning to St. George’s Fort. Demolition may not bring back the lost space and the lovely foliage but that will prevent subsequent governments, including the present one, from making hasty relocation decisions. Also, I’ll have had my revenge.

And the British Library could claim back its title.