The vision of a giant near-100 m structure that is taller than the Qutub Minar being felled in a controlled demolition may not have the dangerous spontaneity of deconstructing the Babri Masjid, but it did hold as much excitement for onlookers as a rocket launch going the other way – down, not up. Before the dust settles, however, the Noida structure going down was the big-ticket event in NCR where people settled down within visible – but not casualty – range, with their post-lunch drinks, potions and lotions to make it a day to remember.
Strangely, for a monetisable event, there were no ‘Goodbye Supertech’ concert, stalls, merchandise – ‘I Was There When Supertook a Fall’ T-shirts could have been a rage. Instead, it was a DIY farewell with house parties revolving around the Great Demolition.
Today’s papers will make the Supertech deconstruction to be at par with the latest in explosive technology. Perhaps it was. But what it managed to do in real, human terms is make a mountain out of a high-rise structure. Or, rather, the controlled blowing up of that mountain for many folks’ entertainment in a safe, communal way.