Tell ’em the whole truth, shall we?

Pic/Bipin Kokate

It came as a bolt from the blue. "My mother took me around Colaba; there I was also shown this place called Leopold Café that had bullet marks from one of the terror attacks that happened in our city many years ago. Is that also our history and heritage?" This unsuspecting missile was launched at me by an 11-year-old during question hour at an interactive session centred on my book, H for Heritage: Mumbai. Schoolchildren (mostly middle schoolers) formed a huge chunk of the audience.

On the day, I was in the middle of discussing the city's heritage and history with those 30-odd students, their parents and teachers, and most of the questions were predictable until that particular question made me halt, take a moment and spell out my answer without seeming as if I was on the back foot. So, I replied, "Of course, it is history. The terror attacks constitute the local history of our city, post the year 2000, and yes, the bullet marks are part of the heritage of that café, and by default, our city's heritage."

There. I had said it out loud. Of all the Q&A sessions I have been a part of with this age group, this question was a first. As I replied to that young boy's query, I noticed a few had shuffled in their seats; glances were exchanged; there was the odd silence that interrupted the buzz which had otherwise pervaded the Education Centre at Dr Bhau Daji Lad City Museum. I am glad it happened because it was fodder for thought: How do we reveal these unpleasant details of our recent history to impressionable minds? Do we recall the manner in which those lives were lost? Do we side-step or sanitise the real, graphic details about the atrocities that the terrorists inflicted on our city and its unsuspecting citizens? Or should it be told as it is? My vote would go to the latter approach. After all, these children are already way ahead of us when it comes to accessing information of every kind. It would be the smarter thing to do; to share and discuss the facts, tell them how to select what is real news amidst spools of fake news, courtesy WhatsApp University and its wannabes.

In fact, I should have been prepared for these kinds of queries coming my way at forums where discussions related to disseminating knowledge with younger minds are the chosen subject. A few months back, at the launch of my book, where the majority of the audience were grown-ups, a similar question was thrown at me in the interactive session. I was asked by a well-known city author for my views about freely sharing information and creating awareness among the city's children when it came to sensitive topics of civic consequence, like the Coastal Road Project that continues to be a burning topic of debate among citizens, environmentalists and urban planners. My reply was a firm ‘yes'. And the thought process for my reasoning remained the same. Today's kids are far more open to consuming information and soaking it all in at a rapid, almost alarming pace. So it would be prudent to tell them the real deal, as it happens. While many might not be open to reading newspapers or following reliable sources to consume news, they do not hold back when it comes to asking a straight question about what they might have heard being discussed at home or in school. ‘Tell it to us like it should be told' was written all over that 11-year-old's face at the museum session. He is the prototype of this generation.

Conversations at home and school must include such relevant, current topics that affect our lives in a changing metropolis, and by default, in a changing India. More importantly, room and space must be given to allow different sides to the debate. Kids are observant with sponge-like retention, and hence it would be unwise to brush aside their views as non-existent or irrelevant. I am not a parent but interactions with friends' kids are my favourite observation models to gauge how young minds react to the world around them. It is refreshing to hear their views [often eye-opening] and hence, a terrific audience to actually engage with on any topic, be it climate change, urban infrastructure [or the lack of it] or heritage conservation, which I have attempted to do in my book.

At a school engagement programme in Navi Mumbai in late April, a 15-year-old had interviewed me, and one of her questions was what teens like her can do to create awareness about local history and heritage since they lived in a newly-founded city as compared to Mumbai. I loved the question, and so I rolled out a few suggestions from where they could start, including documenting some of the first, significant buildings that emerged in the seventies and eighties, and how natural heritage must also find its way into their plan. I felt positive that there was intent to start working on a blueprint. I hope that idea sparks a little something in those teenagers about their surroundings.

The more exposure children get about current issues and are led in the right direction, the better it can serve as a long-term insurance policy for our cities that will ultimately become theirs to live in.

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

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