India, Nov. 9 -- The sound of demolition at Elante, Chandigarh's shimmering symbol of commercial ambition, feels strangely poetic. Dust rising from glass and concrete is not an unfamiliar sight in Indian cities, yet in Chandigarh it carries a different weight. Here the grid, the sectors and the master plan have long defined its identity as a "model" city. Now, in the midst of this order, something is being undone.

The fall of a mall might appear local, but in Chandigarh it becomes a metaphor. It asks a deeper question: can a city built on the premise of control absorb the disorder of its own evolution?

The blueprint mindset: Discipline as destiny

Chandigarh was never merely a city; it was a manifesto in built form, an argument for logi...