How oral historians and archivists are struggling to keep memories alive

In November 2019 a few weeks before news of the Coronavirus outbreak trickled in from China the Citizens Archive of India CAI a notforprofit held its debut exhibition at Fortrsquos Chemould Prescott Road gallery Archive director Malvika Bhatia who had been working on the project since 2017mdashrecording and archiving personal stories of Indians whorsquod witnessed India through two centuries using oral history and material memoriesmdashremembers how this solo show was a prelude to an exciting chapter for CAI and the teamIn the intervening years of 2018 and 2019 the team had interviewed nearly 200odd people With enough buzz around their exhibition expanding the project finally seemed like a possibility Bhatia and CAIrsquos founder Rohan Parikh charted out a comprehensive plan for 2020 ldquoWe decided to hire across other metros to help build the archive and even hold a larger exhibitionrdquo says Bhatia Malvika Bhatia archive director at The Citizensrsquo Archive of India says her team spent all of 2020 completing the backend work on transcription and cataloguing They decided to hold Zoom interviews with their elderly subjects early this year as many of them have now taken a shine to technologyUntil the first week of March 2020 the team was conducting four to six interviews a week The rising Coronavirus cases in Mumbai however pulled the brakes on their project ldquoAlmost all our interviewees were senior citizens born before 1947 we couldnrsquot take that riskrdquoFor oral historians and archivists like Bhatia whose projects rely heavily on intimate facetoface interviews and that too with an ageing population the pandemic brought with it a host of challenges Where the world had almost immediately made the switch to digital with Zoom Skype and Google Meets technology seemed mora a bane than boon ldquoWe considered doing online interviews even though we werenrsquot sure if the seniors would warm up to the idea or if the audiovideo quality would be good enough as we had standards to maintain Irrespective we decided to give it a shot But people were not comfortable with the technology back thenrdquo remembers BhatiaThe team unanimously decided to focus on completing the online backend work the bulk of which included transcriptionmdashtranscribing adding key words and preparing summaries for each interviewmdashand cataloguing the texts along with the photographs which were part of the material memory ldquoIt takes time and a lot of care Itrsquos a lot of manual work And thatrsquos what everyone did till December During the lockdown we also got a lot of requests for access to our interviews because I think researchers and writers had more time to work on their projects We were busy processing these requestsrdquoAnusha Yadav who took a short break from the Indian Memory Project last year recently launched a new broadcast WhatsApp number to facilitate easier access to reallife stories and photographs from the archiveHowever Bhatia was aware that they were losing out on precious time Losing an elder was akin to losing a library ldquoThe remarkable thing about the time between April and December was that by then every senior knew how to use Zoom We even interviewed a 100yearold and it worked out well Of course the personal touch was missing but we knew that even if the world opened up anytime soon meeting in a physical setup was going to be a distant dream It was too dangerousrdquoBhatia feels that for oral historians the context in which the interview takes place is also important and the pandemic served as one ldquoWhat makes these interviews different is that these seniors have lived through a lotmdashthe freedom struggle the Partition and World Warsmdashbut have never seen something of this nature Thissetting online interview gives a new context to their stories as wellrdquo feels Bhatia adding ldquoSo what we have now are interviews from the COVID19 period of our history Itrsquos been a very sad time for the whole world but as with any period in history it is important that we record this toordquoFor some memory keepers though compromises are impossible to make Photographer Kurush Umrigar and his collaborator Charvi Thakkar started the World Zoroastrian Archive with the intent to capture the ldquodistinctive features characteristics and personalities unique to the elders of the ethnoreligious Zoroastrian communityrdquoIn December 2019 photographer Kurush Umrigar and his collaborator Charvi Thakkar decided to expand the World Zoroastrian Archive to include oral narratives apart from black and white portraits of elderly members of the community They have decided to keep the project on hold because they believe that a facetoface interaction cannot be substituted The photo projectmdashcomprising black and white portraits intended for a coffeetable bookmdashwas nearly five years in the making when in December 2019 the pair decided to expand the archive to include oral narratives as well ldquoIn the process of photographing them we realised that we wanted a slightly more permanent memory of these people and the fascinating lives they had livedrdquo shares Umrigar ldquoWe were excited because unlike our photo project where we were being selective about our subjects the archive allowed us to include everyone from the community All their voices deserve to be heardrdquo adds ThakkarThey were just two months into planning the archive when the lockdown was announced By then they had photographed around 35 seniors ldquoIt the lockdown period offered us a good breather to focus on the admin aspect of the archive which was to write proposals and figure the funding We remained in that headspace for a while because well hope is a good thingrdquo she addsSince this is a fast disappearing generation Thakkar and Umrigar knew they were racing against time ldquoBut the essence of our project is to be in front of our subjects and interact with them inperson Itrsquos not something we can do over Zoom We want to keep it tangiblerdquo says Thakkar Their images as seen on their website wwwkurushumrigarcomwza are black and white shots taken against a plain background where the focus is mostly on the contours of the face ldquoWe envision our video interviews also to be of a certain kindrdquo he adds ldquoWe want it to remain relevant for posterity And the pandemic cannot be an excuserdquo adds Thakkar At this point the pair says that they are willing to waitandwatch Where they are struggling though is with funding And they admit itrsquos just not a good time to ask ldquoWe are actively looking for individuals who understand our work to invest in it I think it is a matter of timerdquo feels UmrigarAnusha Yadav foundereditor of the Indian Memory Projectmdashthe worldrsquos first online visual and narrative archive tracing personal identities and histories of the Indian subcontinent through imagesmdashsays she deliberately took a break from the archive when the lockdown was imposed Having worked on it nonstop for nearly 12 years Yadav felt it was a good time to recuperate and refresh ldquoI realised that taking a pause wouldnrsquot make my archive any less importantrdquo she saysldquoThough I was asking for contributions I sensed that everyone was distracted I donrsquot blame them because thatrsquos how I was feeling as wellrdquo she says adding ldquoIt didnrsquot make sense to push Why waste energy when you can read the room and figure out whatrsquos going onrdquoBy December 2020 she says work began to move even if slowly And by sheer luck Yadav in a first also managed to raise funds to pay for the interns she had hired for the project With a fuller team at her disposal now she says her motivations levels are highThat even before the pandemic she encouraged people to share soft copies guiding them with online tutorials on how to take high resolution photos of old pictures meant that she didnrsquot need to drastically change her method of working to keep her archive aliveBut she says the pandemic necessitated reinvention A few weeks ago she launched a new broadcast WhatsApp number 9867275219 for Indian Memory Project to facilitate easier access to the reallife stories and photographs from the archive People can also use the number to reach out if theyrsquod like to contribute a story ldquoItrsquos a very different world now and there are very different behaviour patterns that are forming among people which are also new for us to understand We canrsquot depend on our past knowledge on how to promote and market our project and communicate with people here onrdquo