Majhi Matharpacady

The reel mingled the past with the present as the residents of Matharpacady a quaint village deep inside Mazgaon saw the bygone days of their hometown come aliveThe Virtual Realitydriven immersive experience was just one of the many features of the Maza Mazagaon project which is holding on to life stories that are fast dying out The yearlong labour of love also includes photographs documentaries and interactive fiction computer game and a radio set in the middle of the locality where you can turn the dials to listen to different stories from the neighbourhoodThe project was developed by Anant National University ANU Ahmedabad in collaboration with Istituto Italiano di Cultura Mumbai ldquoIt is a remarkable example of cosmopolitan livingrdquo says professor Vijayendra Sekhon Head of Department of Interactive Design at the ANU ldquoYou have Jews Chinese Muslims Hindus Parsis and Kolis all living in the same space for generations It is one of the very few urban villages in Mumbai now facing pressure from gentrificationrdquoThe proposed cluster redevelopment of Mazgaon faces severe opposition from the Advanced Locality Management ALM at Matharpacady that doesnrsquot want the centuriesold gaothan to be affected Notices have already been issued to some residents to vacate their housesmdashtestaments to erstwhile Parsi and Christian architecturemdashand while some have accepted others continue to resistldquoEverybody wants an upgrade in infrastructure but there has to be a way to do so without ripping apart the fabric of the localityrdquo says Sekhon ldquoMe and my students from the Interactive Design department started in January 2023 by just talking to the people and getting to know their stories Simultaneously we mapped the area through photographs Somewhere along the way we began throwing ideas around and came up with the project in its current formatrdquoSekhon was aided in the initiative by Aditi Vashisht Assistant Faculty of Space Design at the ANU and Maia Manielli an Italian interactive designer ldquoFirst of all my specialty has nothing to do with outer space as in extraterrestrialrdquo Vashisht laughs as soon as she comes on the line This is testament to the novelty of the projectmdashusing fields that not many have heard of as platforms to showcase historyWhen we began speaking to the people of Matharpacady we realised that many of them were interested in conserving their village in its current formrdquo she says ldquoWe started thinking about what we could do for them and the project was born The next question was how to showcase these stories to a larger or wider audiencerdquo she addsManielli who had cotaught a course with Sekhon readily came on board ldquoIt has been interesting learningrdquo she says ldquobecause where I come from historical heritage has financial value what we sell to the tourists I understand that it is a complex issue in India but it still concerns me how little attention is paid to itrdquo She also couldnrsquot help notice how so many communities had lived together for generationsldquoI discovered the bakeries and fell in love with them These have catered to Matharpacady and nearby areas for decades together cooking rotis pav pita bread and cookies by the lot every dayrdquo she tells usAfter months of ideation planning and execution Maza Mazagaon was ready to be seen The consensus was to showcase it in the locality firstldquoAnd yetrdquo says Sekhon ldquowe have barely scratched the surfacerdquo