Century scored.

[Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi]

Some facts are as unbendable as iron. Gurugram is so old that it traces its name to the ancient days of Mahabharat. Gurugram is simultaneously so new that it is also known as the Millennium City.

Then there’s the universal acknowledgement that unlike next-door Delhi it is not so easy in Gurugram to spot a truly old building. But this year a landmark in the Millennium City is observing its centenary—Swatantrata Senani Zila Parishad Hall.

Founded in 1925, the edifice is tucked in a sprawling compound in the town’s genteel Civil Lines. Rechristened to its present name a few years ago, it was earlier called Gurgaon Agricultural Hall. It is actually better known as John Hall. A marble plaque in the stately porch reveals that the building was built 100 years ago by “Rai Sahib Dhanpat Rai, Tahsildar Gurgaon, from subscription raised by Lal Shiv Shankar, Revenue Assistant, among the zamindars of the district.” Those old days being the colonial era, the building came up to honour the memory of “John Goble Browne,” who was the then British Deputy Commissioner’s second son (perhaps this was a child who died young). The adjoining plaque displays the names of landowning zamindars whose combined contribution of 58,806 rupees funded the construction.

The heart of the Hall is naturally a large hall. One afternoon, the gateway to the compound was open, but the hall within was empty, steeped in silence and slow time. The walls were marked by tall windows with colored glass panels. The floor was of white tiles, the ceiling crisscrossed with blue-and-white tiles. The hall’s overwhelming quietude had the forcefulness of an omnipresent spirit.

Outside, but within the compound, stands a solemn monument. The stone tower is inscribed with the names of the area’s soldiers who were killed in the First World War, as well as those Indian Army personals from the district who died in the “Chinese aggression in 1962”, the “Indo-Pak conflict of 1965” and the “Indo-Pak war 1971”. The memorial is surrounded by a row of frangipani trees. The flowers from the tree frequently fall on the ground as if commemorating the martyrs’ supreme sacrifice.

A short distance away from the 100-year-old building stands another old building of Gurugram. We shall visit it in 2066, on its 200th year.