Vizag's amazing vanishing act - Kurupam market vanishes

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Kurupam market vanishes

Vizag’s amazing vanishing act

28.11.13

Appeared in the Times of India on 1st December 2013

Sohan Hatangadi

Now you see it … now you don’t

One night last week, Vizag’s imposing century old lady; the “King Edward VII Market” locally known as the “Kurupam Market” was erased from the face of the Earth. Poof! Like a great magician’s illusion she was gone. Only problem is that unlike an illusion the market was not hidden under a trapdoor or behind a screen, or clouded by smoke and mirrors. It was gone for good!

Gone

As it was in its heydays

The beginning of the end

Distraction and disappearance

Magicians do their tricks when the audience is distracted, and as Vizag’s population was distracted by cyclones and cricket, a big JCB trundled in like a Jurassic monster and ruthlessly brought the iconic building down in a cloud of dust. Then, just to make sure it there would be no remnants of the building, they dug deep into the ground and removed every bit of the foundation as well. Along with the structure went the clock, the curved plaque, the rafters, the steel fittings that held the roof together and all those precisely cut stones. A complete magical disappearance!

Whose decision brought her down and why?

When acts like this are done one is curious to know what type of organisation and more importantly what type of person would decide to do something so uncivilized.  Was it a collective decision, a curious case of spontaneous group insanity?  It happens sometimes you know. Or was it a smiling father figure who quietly gave the orders and the submissive staff, hands folded, looked respectfully at the floor and chorused “yes sir … yes sir … we will knock it down sir.” Or was it a contractor, who having been instructed, staggered away zombie like saying “old building … old building … Destroy old building … Destroy! Destroy! Destroy”!

Old and dangerous?

One response is that it was old and dangerous. The leaning tower of Pisa has been old and dangerous for 500 years. The Italians did not demolish it; they just arrested the tilt and kept people away from the leaning side. Clinical psychologists from all over the world would love to delve deep into the mind of the decision makers at Vizag. Perhaps we will be able to find the mysterious SAD gene – you know – the “Seek and Destroy” gene. While this is all speculation, no one really knows who declared the death sentence and the GVMC has not yet decided on their standard response.

Just shoot your grandmother

One convenient reason is to say indignantly “No one brought it down. By some divine fate the old lady just gasped, fell down and died. We are just getting rid of the corpse.” Some GVMC officials said that it was brought down because the structure was weak and therefore dangerous. The GVMC engineers in their profound technical wisdom may have decided that no repairs were possible, a building that had withstood the fury of nature for more than a hundred years, where lakhs of residents had shopped, a building that had witnessed Vizag’s infancy had to go. That is like shooting your grandmother when she is ill instead of taking her to the doctor!

Taming the beast

We Vizagites were just beginning to think we had honorable and wise men running the city for us. We thought that since we paid the taxes that ran the city and paid the salaries of the GVMC officials, we would be consulted before disposing off our heritage. But we were wrong. Our corporation has become a rogue elephant in a glassware shop. Left to itself it may demolish other heritage buildings like Turners Choultry, Queen Mary’s School and any other building that offends it sensibilities.

Heritage conservation committee

Every enlightened city has a “Heritage Conservation Committee”. Take for example Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and a host of other smaller cities have these committees that are consulted about how to preserve their heritage structures. Not Vizag. INTACH Vizag has been campaigning for this committee to be formed for a long time only to be thwarted by a liberal dose of apathy. In its Revised Master Plan for Visakhapatnam Metropolitan Region – 2021, on page 25 VUDA states “In Visakhapatnam Old Town more than 200 (actually around 50) buildings have been identified and classified on the basis of age, architectural and archaeological and socio-historic context for conservation by the Indian National Trust for Arts and Culture (INTACH).” Yet what VUDA has proposed - GVMC has disposed.

Unkindest cut

On 23 March 2013, at a special occasion attended by a host of politicians and VIPs, a stone full of VIP names was put up at the Kurupam Market. (It is always strange how these stones can carry fifty names of persons and make it sound like they are all giving their own money for the project and our taxes have nothing to do with it.) The stone proclaimed that Sri Dronamraju Srinivasa Rao MLA representing Visakhapatnam South constituency had allocated Rs. 100 lakhs for "PUNARUDDHARANA" of the Kurupam Market. This word “Punaruddharana“is said to mean “revive, restore or regenerate”. One had high hopes of the market regaining its past glory. Eight months after that the market vanished into thin air. Ladies and gentlemen, you just experienced Vizag’s biggest vanishing act, courtesy GVMC.