India, Dec. 12 -- The house must have had two storeys. But the upper storey rooms seem to be gone, except for a few leftover walls. A pair of labourers are standing up there, relentlessly hammering on the floor, right beside their feet. The building is meanwhile cloaked in a thin layer of dust. Yet another residence is being pulled down. Greetings from Sushant Lok.

As things stand, many stand-alone houses in the so-called Millennium City of Gurugram have been replaced by sleek apartment complexes. Some old single-storey bungalows continue to survive though. A few of these survivors lie deserted in a ruinous state, probably waiting for their turn to be erased from the face of earth-so as to give way to new edifices. A vacant bungalow near...