Antilia

Antilia – Sir Mukesh Ambani’s residential palace in a posh locality in Mumbai, is the costliest residential palace not only in India, but in the entire world. This may owing to the fact that, instead of horizontal expansion (which is physically not possible in Mumbai), it has been chosen to have expanded vertically with its 27 storeys and all facilities a billionaire should have. It has costed him around $1 billion in its entire construction.

As there are two sides of a coin or almost anything, this symbolic building has also come under praise as well as criticism. Why spend so much money on one structure, when a major part of the population lives under $2 per day ? What is the need of such endeavor when even a rich person can live with simple basic necessities of life ? The answer may be not so simple, but we can try to make sense out of it. Let us take an example of Achilles . He was the Hero in Trojan War, which was won by Greeks after destroying the city of Troy. The defeat may not be entirely because the Greeks had a hero, but it definitely may have affected their morale. Similarly, we can take an example of Kautilya (Chanakya), who had been the savior of Mauryan Empire, which flourished under his rules and policies. Even today, we can easily observe how the presence of Sachin Tendulkar in Indian Cricket Team used to affect the outcome of win or loss in any given match.

What I am trying to explain here is how significant symbolism is to a person living in a community. Antilia, being the most expensive house of an Indian billionaire, is symbolic of how powerful a person can be in a country like India, given favorable circumstances. Now, no one would say that India is a poor country, because, hey ! we have the most expensive house in the world. Despite of the inequality (which is pretty low in India, a very good thing), we are able to establish our base in among the wealthy nations. Even British came to India because they got impressed by the wealth of the country, and it was this symbolism which made them wage wars to obtain more Indian territories. Even PM Modi is trying to attract foreign institutions by symbolizing via his foreign policy.  So, yes, we must understand that today we need to create our own image among the established ones. And if creating the most expensive residence or a hotel suite in the world exemplifies the task, why not we appreciate it rather than criticizing.

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