I would rather call it HITEC Enclave. HITEC City – Hyderabad Information Technology Engineering Consultancy City is located in Madapur suburb of Hyderabad, is one of the prototypical low points of Tech-Park urbanism, which is nothing but a cluster of giant footplate, gated, air-conditioned building complexes hermetically sealed and ceremonially cordoned off from rest of the city. I was heartened by the fact some parts of the road network had traces of a 3′ wide unpaved sidewalk, but ironically not enough people to use them in a city of more than 7 million. For one thing those who have no means of transport except their foot have no business in this place. Most of those who work here either have their own car or a two wheeler. The ones with cleaner lungs are probably using the company vans and buses. And then there are those occasional bicycles used by the security guard ‘types’. That only leaves the service staffs like the cleaners and watchmen, and off course the lone ranger urban designer with his camera, braving the security guards, who are convinced my digital SLR is a missile in disguise aimed at the these mirror glass enclosures, threatening to destabilize the engines of global economy.
You enter on “Deloitte Way” flanked by CyberGateway building on the left and Motorola on the right. After passing the Deloitte building, you have the proverbial fork in the road. You can’t really lose yourself here, for the cobalt blue signage proclaims one leads to HSBC and the other to Oracle. Brief stretches of newly planted trees in wire-mesh cattle guards are a saving grace in this sterile single-use urban realm of asphalt, concrete and glass. After walking for about 15 minutes beyond a stretch of rocky Hyderabad landscape and makeshift tenements of laborers working on new constructions, I take a break in the shade of the solitary chaai shack that seem to be doing brisk business. I finished my second glass of hyper sweetened chaai, while waiting for my cousin to pick me up in his Maruti Suzuki from the building next door.
1 Comment
November 15, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Hey, good attempt. But the story is not finished. there is more to that. Did you try talking to the migrant laborers who have built te so called hitec city?
that would be really nice