Two buildings on death row

An impending execution in Noida.

Can buildings be on death row?

Can the inanimate be executed?

On 28 August, two high-rises in Noida's Sector 93 will be demolished in a controlled implosion. Sanctioned by the Noida authority in 2009 and thereafter built by the real estate developer, Supertech, the “twin towers” will come down in a process that has no parallels in India's modern history.

Earlier this year, after a lengthy legal battle with residents of the adjacent society, the Supreme Court confirmed that the 40-floor towers were built in violation of several construction norms and are thus, illegal.

They have now been given the capital punishment.

Over the last few weeks, a specialised team of engineers rigged the two towers with around 3700 kg of explosives. According to media reports, the whole thing will collapse into a pile of dust and debris within a mere 9 seconds.

Can autopsies be performed on buildings?

Sometime back, I had read briefly about the case in the papers, but wasn't clear on the details. As the reporting around it intensified in the run up to the demolition, I realised that the towers are a mere 5-8 minutes drive from where I live in Noida. There is great anticipation in the media about the impending implosion.

Suddenly, all of it felt weird. I couldn't explain why. Suddenly, the two buildings had come alive in my mind; taken on a human form inside my head.

As I drove to work, I recalled how detailed the news reports about the demolition were. Almost all the top dailies, channels and platforms had done feature pieces on the two buildings. It felt like I was in close proximity to two national celebrities. Two structures that meant nothing to the rest of the world, but had suddenly become national antiheroes.

The reports revealed how the local authorities were preparing for it by cordoning off the surrounding areas, covering up nearby buildings, and directing their residents to evacuate hours before the implosion. “Only god can stop us now,” one demolition engineer told the media.

Apparently, a section of the nearby expressway will also be closed off and a no-fly zone imposed over the area on what one local official called “D-Day”.

It was how an actual execution would be reported in the media. This was probably how the American media talked about Ted Bundy in the days leading up to his execution. Or how the Indian media obsessed over the hangings of Ajmal Kasab or the Nirbhaya convicts.

There was a sense of feverish paraphernalia around it. The papers know the audience will eat it all up — this collective fascination with not just death, but also the mundane mechanics of death. There's something very macabre yet primordially human about it.

I couldn't stop thinking about how the impending demolition and the media scrutiny lent a sort of animate character to the buildings.

Two structures of brick and mortar waiting silently, under the bright sun, the rainclouds and the moonless night sky, to be blasted out of existence in 9 seconds. Two massive objects, standing in restive calm, counting the dreadful hours, waiting to disappear from the city’s scattered skyline for eternity.

I finally decided to drive past the towers to take a final look before they vanish.

The immediate vicinity was already cordoned off by the police. But, I was able to catch a quick, fuzzy glimpse. There was something very supernatural about the way they looked that night, wrapped in white sheets, glowing mutedly under cool neon lights.

The police cordon felt like a death watch that soon-to-be-executed convicts are put under in prisons. The white sheets looked like the special clothes that death row inmates are made to wear.

It was like an ancient death ritual.

Here were two concrete structures that the state was about to demolish because they had become a nuisance, even a threat, to those around them. Isn't that the logic states use to execute human beings? To get rid of the persona non grata. The similarities were uncanny.

Do buildings have souls? Can they become ghosts?

I have always wanted to watch an execution. Not because it would give me joy, but because I have a strange urge to bear witness to a killing that is legitimised by the law. I want to stare at an outrage such as that with bare eyes. And feel raw disbelief and fury. I want to be able to watch the law do what it so religiously intends to prevent or deter.

I am also keen to watch this execution. Probably from the top of another residential high-rise. I want to bear witness to the state indulging in a seemingly anarchic act.

“Controlled demolition” — is that what they are calling it?

This isn’t the first time authorities in this part of the country would be demolishing buildings. They have done it recently. In fact, homes that housed real families were brought down. But, no one called them “controlled demolitions”. And rightly so.

There is something very dry and apolitical about this term. The house demolitions were the opposite of apolitical. Rather, they were out-of-control demolitions. The only commonality was the frenzied public gaze, the collective preoccupation with death and destruction.

Should buildings have epitaphs? Like the late twin towers in New York City?

As the buildings come down this Sunday, the ground will shake. There will be a mini earthquake. There will be a ghastly rumble in the air. A small dust storm will be conjured.

Will those watching cheer? Will they dance around the corpses of the buildings (once it is safe to do so)?

We live in a society that is perfectly okay with the idea of the state killing human beings in its name. I wonder if it would be as merry about the state killing two buildings. How a society treats its buildings – the inhabited, the uninhabited – tells a lot about it, no?

More importantly, how a society responds to the very idea of engineered annihilation — of humans and non-humans — offers a striking glimpse into its fundamental characters. Of course, the execution of humans by states is much more abhorrent than the demolition of two unsafe buildings, but the social response has uncanny parallels.

“By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” ~ Genesis 3:19