Hyderabad
Its raining outside. I can smell the petrichor, and feel the breeze through the open windows but I cannot hear the rain. I am wearing my headphones, listening to the ‘Is it New Wave’ playlist on Spotify. I am reading an article about ‘The Art of Waiting’. I can suddenly hear the rain. The music has stopped, and there is a small gap before the next song starts. That microsecond instantly transports me to a different world. But back to reality. I am stuck at home in Hyderabad, India. The government has imposed a 21 day lockdown to prevent the spread of Covid 19. It is day 15 and reports say that this will inevitably be extended for another 2-3 weeks.
“No Parking” signs are an ubiquitous part of life in India. We see them scattered all across the city, in main roads, in little alleys and on the gates of apartments. There is no escaping them and to me, they are the perfect metaphor for urban life.These signs symbolise the hurried and unplanned growth of India. Often drawn or painted by hand with little prior planning, these signs pop up due to narrow roads, lack of parking infrastructure, combined with an increasing number of car ownership. They are now a common sight on the walls of many localities, houses and buildings across the country. Many companies also take advantage of them as a space for branding. I remember how ICICI started the trend, more than a decade ago, with metal ‘No Parking’ signs that featured the ICICI logo on the board.
DBR Mills came across my purview more than a decade ago. I heard about it in passing and was curious to learn more about it. Old news articles told me that DBR (Dewan Bahadur Ramgopal) Mills shut down in 1992 temporarily but was never opened after that. Today, two and a half decades after its closure, the buildings line in complete ruin.