INFORMAL IN FORMAL: MUSHROOMING OF DHABAS NEXT TO B.P.OS IN GURGAON

Abstract
The research focuses on the changes, in form of growth of the dhabas (the informal road side eateries) next to the Multinational Companies or BPOs, in the millennium city of Gurgaon. While driving through the roads of Gurgaon one can see the presence of the grey spaces below the series of glass boxes, the physical forms of BPO and MNC establishments. Both the Creators/Designers and Developers of these rendered façades never expected this kind of ‘smudging’ at the ground level. This smudging of Developer’s commercial desires is due to the formation of unanticipated informal growth adjacent to these big glass boxes. As an architecture student, the author’s immediate concern was the acknowledgement of these informal spaces, which pop out while the building is constructed, and flourishes after it is completed. This concern further interrogates the author’s mind, so as to find, why these spaces can’t be anticipated while planning and designing these Multi National Companies in a country like India, where these counter-cultural phenomena or some physical re-adjustments are always expected.

The city of Gurgaon has seen unprecedented growth in the last five years. This millennium city consists of Multi National Companies and Operations, to whom and through which the millennium image was propagated. One of the crucial visages of this new millennium city is the presence of the informal sector, at the human-eye level. They are the expression of ground realities of migration and urban survival. These dhabas next to the BPOs are one of the best examples of juxtaposition of an informal and formal set-up. Traditionally, they are found along the Indian highways acting as resting places/motels. But, these dhabas outside the BPOs not only serve the Indian food but also the unconventional craze, redolent of Gurgaon’s fast food culture, like momos and Maggi noodles. Thus, these dhabas are also rhetoric of globalization and gobblization.