As supertech towers crashed down a mass of private tragedies became a public spectacle

As supertech towers crashed down a mass of private tragedies became a public spectacle

At the Supertech demolition site, it was easy to forget, perhaps, that the two towers were once the brick-and-mortar embodiment of many families’ dreams.

On August 28, almost a year after the Supreme Court ordered the demolition of the Supertech twin towers in Noida, the two structures came crashing down in a controlled explosion. There to witness the “once-in-a-lifetime event” were TV crews and cameras, breathlessly recounting the lawsuit that led to this day and describing the nuts and bolts of the demolition plan to bring down structures taller than the Qutub Minar. Aam spectators were there too, most having made the journey specially to watch the towers destroyed. In locations farther away, people watched live streams of a sight that, so far, they had only seen in big budget action movies.

No doubt there was something thrillingly cinematic about the demolition, as the towers came crashing down, Jenga-like, and sent a massive cloud of dust billowing out in every direction. And there was something of the movie hall audience in the crowd that had gathered to watch, which cheered and whooped. If there were questions — for example, about how the families that lost their homes felt about the televised demolition, or even if demolition was the only or best way out — they were swept away by the flood of tweets, posts and reels documenting the spectacle.

In a society where sight and sound is increasingly mediated through a 6-inch screen, there is something inevitable about the transformation of an experience — with all its joys and sorrows, and despite them — into spectacle. At the Supertech demolition site, it was easy to forget, perhaps, that the two towers were once the brick-and-mortar embodiment of many families’ dreams. Framed by TV and smartphone cameras, this mass of private tragedies became a 12-second public spectacle, to be consumed on a Sunday afternoon ahead of a busy week.