Reconnecting with heritage

People love to talk about ‘heritage’… read about ‘heritage’… but they don’t seem to quite know what to do about ‘heritage’! Its considered politically correct to be concerned about it but the truth is that most people are not sure of how it effects our day to day lives! For instance, in Ahmedabad, there’s a mistaken notion that ‘heritage’ exists only in the pols of the Walled City! We forget that heritage evolves and when the city grew to the West side, our heritage moved with us and thrived as it was passed on from generation to generation (for heritage is not static - its organic). It is only in the last twenty years, with the onslaught of external influences through television and media that we have begun digressing to aspirational lifestyles that have more to do with commerce and less with its cultural relevance. And heritage is all about local relevance.

Any efforts to re-root to our heritage will be successful only if people are made aware of what it really means. Our food, our clothing, our homes, our language, customs and rituals… in-fact, our entire lifestyle was woven on the threads of our heritage. Our heritage is our anchor and without it we are adrift.

It is essentials that children are engaged in different aspects of their heritage right from school and remain so throughout their educational journey. Only then can they cultivate a clear sense of their identity. Unfortunately it is not so. There are few field trips and fewer lessons in the how’s and why’s of the evolution of our culture (and let’s not confuse heritage with history!). This has to change. With government celebrating Gujarat’s 60^th year in existence, heritage awareness has to start from the classroom.

If Gujarat is to have the Country’s first World Heritage City in Ahmedabad, the efforts will have to start with the youth. Towards this goal, my company has been involved in restoration and adaptive reuse of architecture and crafts of Gujarat for over a decade. It has introduced two heritage walks in the last four years. An Audio Guided Heritage Tour of the Walled City that gives you a multi-media experience as you walk through the live theatre of life and the other is a Night Heritage Walk that takes you through a maze of pols with a torchlight!

Earlier this year, we launched another initiative, ‘Ahmedabad4whc’ – a Facebook group that attempts to get youngsters to explore our architectural and cultural heritage through a host of activities organized in the Walled City of Ahmedabad. It organizes Photo Competitions, Treasure Hunts, Art Workshops, Art Events and other interactive experiences to spread awareness about the meaning and true value of heritage. This group is also creating a one of a kind Google Map of Ahmedabad that documents all the local crafts, foods, religious places, listed heritage properties and places of interest in the Walled City so that people anywhere in the world can learn about Gujarat’s heritage at click of a mouse.

‘Ahmedabad4whc’ is now approaching schools to introduce regular workshops for their students in the Walled City so that they experience a living tradition first hand and grow up with the clear idea of how their lives have evolved over generations.

Gujarat can become a truly global state and not another ‘wannabe’ Shanghai only if it takes a firmer grip on its rich heritage and nurtures it while it continues its march towards economic prosperity. Jay ho, Gujarat!

-The author is an entrepreneur involved with adaptive reuse of architecture and crafts in Ahmedabad. Write to abhaymangaldas@houseofmg.com with your comments.

My Sundays

I’ve never quite managed to make Sunday join seamlessly with the rest of my week and even now, Sunday is often more a hurdle than a pause between two workweeks.

If you really enjoy work (or if you have nothing better to do, as the case may be!), taking a forced break after every six days can remain a challenge. I felt like this even when I lived in Mumbai for many years, so it’s not the city… it’s me. I am not from the tribe that dreads Mondays!

Come Sunday, I have to face the challenge to engage myself in an interesting activity, especially between noon and five (my ‘graveyard shift’). I enjoy being by myself and I don’t have to worry about anyone else, yet it’s a chore to come up with an idea for one. The rest of the day is a greatly anticipated with lazy breakfast, catching up on reading, online social networking and playing with the dogs and evenings at the gym followed by a book/DVD ensconced in my favourite sofa or the occasional social/family gathering.

Motorbike ride in the old city, driving off to Thol lake with the dogs, personal pampering at a salon, attending a book reading at Crossword, spending contemplative time at the sites of my restoration projects, sipping tea at The Green House and chatting with hotel guests, exploring the world on Google Earth, searching for adventure travel options on the Net… these are some of the things I did the past few Sundays in the graveyard shift.

So long as the answer to that one question I like to ask myself before I go to sleep…. ‘When was the last time did I do something for the first time?’.. is ‘Today’, I rest easy… till the next Sunday!

Affluence and empathy

Affluence and empathy are not inversely proportional. Jawaharlal Nehru was affluent and so was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. This perhaps hightened their sense of empathy towards the poor in India and strengthened their resolve to work towards their upliftment.

Maybe there is also a higher probability that affluent people join politics with the right motivations. In my case, my relative affluence has allowed me an excellent education and the option to choose any field of work. My choice of career, of trying to revitalise the heritage of the old city of Ahmedabad, was possible only because I enjoyed financial security. If I get a broader platform through Lead India, I can expand my scope of rebuilding the crumbling infrastructure and disappearing heritage of not only the historic old city of Ahmedabad but of other cities as well and in the process, make a small contribution to the lower middle class and poor people who reside in them.

‘Friends of BJP’ meeting in Ahmedabad, March 28, 2009, Another party plank or a non-partisan effort?

It is true that politicians come to power on the back of ‘vote banks’ that do not contribute in commiserate measure to India’s economy. Educated urban professionals and businessmen, by and large, tend to shy away from participating in the electoral process. It is essential that this segment stand up to be counted even during elections. The idea of a forum to bring this target vote bank to interact with politicians in familiar environs of a drawing room or a comfortable hall is, therefore, an excellent one.

Even the charter of ‘Friends of BJP’ handed out to the people who streamed in to the Thakorebhai Hall in Ahmedabad on Saturday, March 28, 2009 was logical and non-partisan. Except the name ‘Friends of BJP’. ‘Friends of Democracy’ may have been more appropriate. There was nothing in the audio-visual presentation or the introduction given by the founding members to suggest that they lean towards the ideology of any particular political party. The tagline, ‘India deserves better’, was perhaps better coined.

The audio-visual presentation at the start of the program was, unfortunately, completely clichéd. It could have been made for any period in history of our democracy that has been dotted with similar manmade disasters and not just the last five years. Were we better off when BJP was in power between 1999 and 2004. Did India not deserve better then?

Also, what was the need for the fawning introductions (bordering on sycophantic in case of Mr. Jaitley) of the people on the dais by the compeer? It served no purpose other than to massage the egos of those present on the stage, if even that and it took away from objectivity of the forum.

Most disappointing of all was Mr. Jaitley himself. We had gathered to hear him speak about the lessons that his party had learnt during its own tenure at the centre. To explain how it had introspected and come out stronger so that now they were in a better position than before to run the country. But instead, we had to sit through his entire speech only to hear him run down the ruling party, its prominent members and mocked its electoral complacency that had come to haunt it. In any case, here he miscalculated badly because, as individuals, Dr. Manmohan Singh Mr. Chidambaram and Mr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia belong to the very class of people that he was addressing. They are held in the highest regard and their integrity remains beyond question. Their role and competency in bringing India out of the License Raj to its present free market economy will never be forgotten. Had he followed it up with the credentials of members of his own party who were qualified and capable of doing a better job, it may have seemed less of rhetoric.

Mr. Jaitley did not even mention the core issue. The educated electorate has already figured out that that biggest ailment of our democracy is not any political party or its members. It is our political system. Is it not true that unless the System itself is reformed, no party in power will be able get away from horse trading and vote bank politics? That a hybrid model that adopts the best of both the Presidential and the Parliamentarian system is the need of the hour? On what basis does he proclaim that the BJP, which has no other unique differentiator for its party’s ideology beyond ‘Hindutva’ (itself is a vote bank agenda) will not fall pray to the System again, as it did in the past? How does he or his party intend to remain relevant and yet hold a high moral ground in a system where the end justify the means? Why did he not even mention the need for electoral reform or his party’s commitment to bring it about? If anywhere, this was the platform to share his party’s views on such issues because the audience would have understood.

In conclusion, the central idea of the organizers of this meeting is very relevant, their ability to attract a good audience is commendable and their personal commitment to it is laudable but unless they keep the forum neutral, they will alienate their target audience. We are concerned with burning issues and not with a political party. We want to get to know our candidates and their views on these issues to gauge their ability to solve them when we cast our vote. I hope that with time and experience, this movement will tweak this anomaly and play a more significant role in bringing the educated urban citizen of India closer to the electoral process.

A Precarious Balance

Modern Times By Abhay Mangaldas
A Precarious Balance
'Hey Vish, do you find that, consciously or subconciously, you are always seeking a balance in everything that you do in life!
I guess that's how most of us perceive things! Who doesn't want live life on an even keel?
You end up dividing life into different compartments, don't you? There is work, relationships…with spouse (when there is one!), family…then there is health…. emotional, intellectual and spiritual growth… and your present state of mind is based on how you are faring in all of the above, right? But you invariably find something missing in one or the other.
…. and your focus is always on that missing aspect, isn't that what you are trying to say? Like an exam where you even though you may get a distinction in all the subjects, if you fail in one you still repeat the year!
Well, that may not be an appropriate analogy as it is probably important to recognise your weaknesses and make a conscious effort in improving on them, however good you may be in other areas! Would you not be fooling yourself if you try and hide you failings under the carpet of your achievements? What I meant was that you rarely savor the gift of life… this in spite knowing that in reality, if you only focussed on evolution of the self, the rest would automatically fall in place!
Well, as they say, all you need to change the world is to change your attitude, right?
Easier said than done. Try and remember the last time you felt that 'if I died at this moment, I'd be a happy person'!
Let me think….
Not to say that you never do, but most of the time, you are either brooding about something in the past or in anxiety of the future…and seldom in the present moment! Unfortunately, even after you realise this, the moments keep passing by…. !
Ah! The pleasure of life is in the journey and not the destination…. it's the means and not the end that really matters…?! Is that your drift?
Pretty much! That's why I like the saying 'take life by its horns'…it's nice to compare life to a raging bull of pulsating energy…with the reigns in our hands. Imagine! We have the power to channel this awesome energy in to whatever we chose to… without ever losing the excitement of the ride!
And all we end up doing is to keep looking back or looking in front and forget that the bull is right under you! No wonder we get thrown off along the wayside!
Reminds me of the three categories of people who make up this world. Those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder what happened!
Bhrahm! Now how is that relevant to the subject of maintaining balance?
That we worry more about how other people think of us…a major reason why we look ahead or behind and not under. We shape our reality based on a perception of how others see it. Heck! How many times have you stopped yourself from doing something that you'd really love to, only because it would be perceived to be inappropriate… or, on the other hand, doing something that you really didn't want to, but did it only because you were expected to? We rarely take out time to get to know ourselves, so busy are we in flowing with the tide! No wonder our identity, for most part, remains a blur…like a moving reflection in a funny mirror!
So, till we don't recognise and accept who we really are, we can't enjoy the proverbial bull ride?!
… and our life remains in a suspended animation… a perpetual state of trying to stop from tilling over…a precarious balance in search of an equilibrium.

Who wins if India loses…a conspiracy theory!

Modern TimesBy Abhay Mangaldas
Who wins if India loses…a conspiracy theory!
Hey Bhrahm, good to see you again, it's been a while! What's up?
Hi Vish, I am still a bit shell-shocked! What with the riots, the scams, the terrorist attacks, the nuke scare…life has been dodgy, you have to admit! It makes one think, what next?! I am beginning to look at things from a different perspective.
Like how?
Who do you think has the highest vested interest to keep India on its knees?
Why Pakistan, of course!
What can Pakistan gain, except Kashmir? Both countries need to focus on Economic development and education, which they can do if they divert less money towards defense.
Then who?
China.
Give me a break! Why would China want to waste time bothering about India, we are a mosquito in comparison.
Don't be dazzled by the gleam of their superficial success. While privatised companies in China may be thriving, they have a growing problem of unemployment and unrest in the public sector, their socialist legacy. You can't expect a socialist country with 1.4 billion people, who for years have had all their basic necessities provided for by the state, take on the avatar of capitalism without going through the labour pains of transition? Look at the latest Time magazine cover story and you'll know what I mean. Millions of unemployed, growing disillusionment amongst the masses, threat of a civil uprising…all potent stuff!
But how would keeping India unstable solve their problem?
Direct Foreign Investment. China gets over $40 Billion of it a year, against India's $3 Billion. The only way that China can keep its loss making public sector chugging along during the transition is by subsidizing it with a bigger share of foreign investment. If the rate of inflow goes down, the bubble would burst! It has must, therefore, project itself as the ONLY safe destination for foreign investments in this region till the transition is complete, which may take five to ten more years.
How will they do this?
Do you think Pakistan has the guts to provoke and challenge India without the tacit support of China, who also happens to be its main supplier of military and nuclear technology? Forget foreign investment, even the foreign diplomatic missions in India have closed down under the latest threat of Nuclear War! The Chinese must be laughing all the way to the bank!
What else?
They have launched an economic offensive...influx of cheap Chinese products that are threatening the survival of local manufacturing units. Then they will use their influence to destabilize our border - aside from the Kashmir, where they are using Pakistan, they have occupied Indian territory, which is a thorn they can use to hurt us.
I have heard talk of them diverting the waters of the Ganges by claiming their right over it as they have Tibet.
Imagine what would happen if the river was diverted from flowing through India! And in Nepal, Maoists rebels have already taken control of over one-third the territory!No prizes for guessing who could be funding them and where they could start trouble next! Does it take a genius to figure out what keeps the Burmese Military Junta in power in spite of its isolation from the rest of the world for decades? China has many options available and they will use them. Everything will be covert of course, and it will be 'Indi-Chini bhai-bhai' on the surface!
What can we do?
Only a strong and visionary leader can galvanize India and steer it on course. With none in sight and the existing lot seemingly afflicted with myopia, I guess we don't have much choice but to make an independent call on how to deal with the instability that lies ahead!

Life is a comma

Modern Times
By Bhrahma
Life is a comma

Wow! The last two weeks went by really fast. So many things happening every day!
Vish, if I asked you the difference between what you did in the last two weeks from what you did the previous two weeks or the two weeks before that, what would you say?
Hmm. Lets see! Well…. I guess it’s a continuation of a process that goes on day to day. I can’t really say that anything I am doing is drastically different from how I spent my time before! Maybe 10% of it changes, but the other 90% remains more or less the same.
Exactly. Think of each day as a comma, each week as a sentence, each month as a page and each year as a chapter… in the book of our life. We spend each day, doggedly making our way through the metaphoric punctuations, albeit with an acute sense of self-importance.
Bhrahm, your analogy reminds me about the story of the pigmy cutting his way through thick jungle grass with a machete – he thinks he is in a large field and the only way he can get through is to cut through it. He is too short to see over the top to look for a clearer path that could be just a short way away and too much in a hurry stop and climb a tree to check the terrain for a better route.
That’s pretty much the story of my life, Vish! Just when I think I have made fair progress and pause to glance back, I realize that in the larger context, it’s not just my day that’s a comma, but my entire existence is! If we look at history, only the characters and context seem to change, the story remains the same and it keeps repeating. Today’s War against Terror in Afghanistan was yesterday’s War against Communism in Vietnam. Tomorrow, it will just take another name.
Thanks for making me feel like the pigmy guy, pal!
Think of it as a humbling reality that frees you of the burden of rushing through the chapters. Unfortunately, most of us don’t pause, either often enough or long enough, and end up wasting more chapters ‘chopping through grass’, like the pigmy.
Dude, you are beginning to depress me! Do you mean to tell me you are wasting your time everyday!
Not all of it! I know that if I stepped back more often for an overview of the larger picture, I would waste less time and life would seem more meaningful.
So what stops you?
Oh! just lack of applcation. Like many of us, I too tend lead a robotic existance.
Gosh, how long do you think before man evolves to the next level?
I cannot forsecast a Darwinian answer but if I were to take a guess, the next big step will be when human’s get cloned. That has to be the final chapter - when man can challenge the supreme power and fight the Mother of all Wars!