Expert advice needed

Participants at the lecture-walkthrough on the Sir JJ School campus. Pic/Fiona Fernandez

Despite being recorded as one of the hottest days in April, a group of serious heritage enthusiasts were not done with their questions and discussions as we reached the fag end of an engaging walkthrough that was preceded by a lecture inside a classroom at the Sir JJ School of Architecture. The subject of this recent session was to explore and decode the many architectural styles that grace Bombay since it grew from a port town into a prosperous mercantile and commercial colonial city.

Roughly three-and-a-half hours earlier, 20-25 participants, including yours truly, were greeted by Professor Mustansir Dalvi at the entrance to the Architecture annexe within the historic campus. Barely 10 minutes into the lecture, the privilege and thrill of being part of an important session by an expert in the field - where he highlighted and drew out incisive thoughts and insightful commentaries about the architectural influences of this great city - dawned on me. It was like being back in college, when an articulate professor would share their knowledge about a tough but passionate subject in a simple, lucid manner, minus the frills. The lecture was without spiffy PPTs or props that we are so used to witnessing in modern-day presentations and seminars. The information was disseminated in the classroom format and from a single source who cited tonnes of examples and references from the past and present. Chalk and blackboard, and seamless delivery. I looked around, and apart from this attentive bunch, and a handful of architecture students; the typical guided walk participant was missing. What a shame. It is another story altogether that this informative session was free of cost.

Later, as we moved from site to site within the tree-lined, massive campus, knowledge was dispersed and we were able to make sense from the classroom to the actual subjects located inside. We didn't wilt under the soaring mercury levels and didn't mind the range of queries that interjected and thus, extended timelines well beyond usual walks that I have previously attended. Nobody was complaining; in fact, earlier, during the lecture, when the professor reminded the group that he might have overshot the duration of the lecture, many prodded him to carry on. We soaked it all in, literally and otherwise.

An interesting, and eye-opening assignment in this context came to my mind as I returned from that lecture-walkthrough. It was from an earlier stint with a city based magazine. This was 13-14 years ago, when the brief demanded that I go undercover as a tourist to draft a report card on popular ‘guided walks'. After four such experiences, that ranged from a slum tour inside Dharavi [this at the height of the Slumdog Millionaire hype], to an open deck bus ride, the verdict was out. Barring one walk conducted by two well-informed heritage experts, the others were a sham - an ill-informed novice peddled poverty porn, cashing in on a globally acclaimed film, and shamelessly invaded the privacy of people's homes in slums, sidestepping the real stories; a dated history timeline greeted us for the open deck bus tour by a guide who mixed up architectural styles to create his own stylebook. And yet, it was all lapped up by my fellow-participants. I was appalled at the utter lack of importance given to factually correct information. It turned out to be the last thing on the minds of those guides who offered their ‘gyaan' to those unsuspecting folk. And everything had a Bollywood connection. Pray, why? As the years passed, every part of the city has become the muse for each of the three prototypes of guides that I have shared in the paragraph above.

Some function purely around commercial interests with profit-making at the core; others are self-proclaimed geniuses who become historians overnight; there are those who state facts despite having never stepped into a library to source information, while a select few, some really good ones often slip between the cracks or are so low-profile that you need to be in their inner circle to fully take advantage of their expertise. Only recently, a veteran chronicler was ruing a young enthusiast who after borrowing tonnes of research from him, disappeared for a bit, only to resurface as an expert on heritage walks.

This columnist, too, has been at the receiving end, where details from a book on heritage walks released in 2007, continue to help ‘experts' in their exploits that promise to share "hidden treasures about the city". As part of work, countless similar examples come to light, where lifting content is common; forget about giving credit to its creator.

The point that one is trying to make is that the lines seem to have gotten blurred somewhere, when it comes to credibility, and to take the trouble to get a genuine expert on board for such historic and cultural storytelling about the city. It is our Bombay; and so naturally, it is our legacy, our milestones, our communities and arches that are at stake. Compromises seem to have been made everywhere, for the sake of personal gain and/or public, commercial appeal. Sure, it remains a challenge to survive in these times but a balance needs to be struck, lest we allow our city to be showcased to the rest of the world by pretenders, instead of the selfless, real McCoys.

mid-day's Features Editor Fiona Fernandez relishes the city's sights, sounds, smells and stones...wherever the ink and the inclination takes her. She tweets @bombayana
Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com