Last week, this columnist felt like the proverbial fly on the wall during the release of Bombay Deco at the hallowed environs of NCPA, given that she was seated at the extreme corner of the venue that had packed in its rows with the crème-de-la-crème of the city’s cultural community and its heritage custodians. They were all beaming from ear to ear as one of their own—architect and urban planner Rahul Mehrotra delighted one and all with anecdotal wisdom about his experiences of co-writing an important book with late Sharada Dwivedi, the city’s first lady of heritage documentation. The mood was celebratory and inspiring; the audience was a delightful mix of urban planners, conservation architects, philanthropists, historians, citizen activists, curators, gallerists, researchers, anthropologists, writers, photographers, theatrewallahs, poets…you get the drift, right?

As I scanned the venue, I realised that it couldn’t get bigger or better when it came to an assemblage of deeply invested stakeholders who were focused on the wellbeing of Bombay/Mumbai. However, a closer scan from our vantage corner seat also revealed and reminded me of a glaring reality: the lack of young people in the room. Was it the case of the curated guest list on that given day? Or, another reminder of the need for younger people to become part of this community? It’s anyone’s guess, honestly. On most occasions when I’ve attended such gatherings, where heritage conservation/awareness was the focus, it’s been a case of the latter, barring the odd exception where 20-somethings happen to form part of the organising core. More often than not, and I might not win too many fans by saying this, the same set are spotted at such events; again, a chunk of such events tend to get scheduled in the southern part of the city. Take it from suburbanites like myself who make the unforgiving trek to SoBo, irrespective of the roadblocks, figuratively and literally. And I consider myself a hard-core heritage nerd.