Dr Shehernaz Nalwalla, Vice President of Asiatic Society of Mumbai and Chairperson of Mumbai Research Centre, speaks to Omkar Gokhale on the ongoing Jashn-e-Dastaan-e-Mumbai festival (January 8 to 29) on the city’s street life, need for more young researchers to explore various aspects of Mumbai and digitisation of rare books with Asiatic Society.
Tell us about Jashn-e-Dastaan-e-Mumbai… how did it began?
The Mumbai Research Centre (MRC) was founded by our former president Aroon Tikekar in 2009 to undertake research on various aspects of urban life in Mumbai. Over time, we came up with new initiatives on Mumbai and its culture and history. In 2020, we decided to start a festival, Jashn-e-Dastaan-e-Mumbai, to bring together academics and people from the city, artistes and entrepreneurs to share knowledge and interesting aspects about the city, lesser known to people at large and also to raise funds for research. We conducted an online lecture series, for which we got phenomenal response. As Covid-19 restrictions started easing, people were fed up with online activities and wanted to explore on the field. That’s how the idea came for walks.
What is the theme of this year’s festival and what’s the idea behind it?
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One thing that unifies Mumbai and its people are its streets. People do all kinds of activities on the streets. Streets give identity and character to any city, be it Chandigarh’s broad, genteel avenues, Varanasi’s crowded, variegated streets, New York’s ‘every man for himself’ streets or Paris being known for its street cafes and unhurried pace of life.
Mumbai’s streets are its lifeblood. It is where the city’s people shop and eat, work and waste, and as is true, live and die as well. With this thought, we decided to dedicate this year’s Jashn-e-Dastaan-e-Mumbai to various streets of this megapolis with their unique culture including food, forgotten street furniture and vivid street signs shouting new wares.
What all events are being organised this year?
The events are being conducted outdoors as well as at the iconic Durbar Hall situated inside Asiatic Society and includes at least 11 walks across the city with different themes, talks and workshops, all culminating in a poetic tribute on the steps of the Asiatic Library at Horniman Circle on January 29. Our walks are different and are not typical tourist walks, but have lots of insights given by researchers and experts.
On January 27, a visit to BEST museum is being organised for schoolchildren along with a talk on urban ecology. There will be an ‘open house’ organised on Friday and Saturday to acquaint the public with the works and history of Asiatic Society and its building.
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On January 28, there will be Versova Gaothan and Khau Galli walks along with a street fauna walk about the city’s stray animals. A textile trail will be held at Mooljee Jaitha (MJ) market, popularly known as kapda bazaar. At Durbar Hall, a lecture on street songs featured in movies will be given by author Manek Premchand.
On January 29, a trail will be held at Dharavi Gaothan which also has several shrines, followed by a street photography workshop. The final evening of the festival will be curated by Professor Mustansir Dalvi, where seven poets including Ranjit Hoskote, Sampurna Chattarji, Hemant Divate, Prabodh Parikh and actor Danish Husain will recite poems in Hindi, English, Marathi, Gujarati, Urdu and Bengali on the steps of Town Hall. Some of the events have free entry, while others will be charged.
Asiatic Society and its iconic building have a unique place in the city’s history. How are you trying to attract more people to research and exploring different facets of the city?
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There is a difference between information and knowledge based on research. You have to move beyond Google and Wikipedia to go through various materials and make available the treasure of knowledge to a larger audience. We have collaborated with colleges to have youngsters geared towards research about the city. We have to encourage youngsters and one such attraction is the ongoing festival. We have around 4,000 rare books about Mumbai, including government gazettes and many of them are digitised. We began the digitisation project funded by the state government around seven years ago under the project ‘Grant Sanjeevani’ and some of them can be accessed online on subscription.
What other programmes have been initiated by the MRC?
The funds raised through the festival will contribute to the MRC’s research into the history, culture, economy, sociology and more such aspects of Mumbai. We offer grants for research into all aspects of Mumbai and its environs and also organise public awareness programmes based on the internal research of the centre through talks, walks, lecture series and heritage tours. We are building a Mumbai-specific sub-library of books, maps, reports and manuscripts within the collection of Asiatic Society, with an accompanying catalogue. Moreover, the initiatives to create resource books on the city are undertaken and efforts are made to conserve and restore books on the city.
Source: https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMioQFodHRwczovL2luZGlhbmV4cHJlc3MuY29tL2FydGljbGUvY2l0aWVzL211bWJhaS9qYXNobi1lLWRhc3RhYW4tZS1tdW1iYWktb25lLXRoaW5nLXRoYXQtdW5pZmllcy1tdW1iYWktYW5kLWl0cy1wZW9wbGUtYXJlLWl0cy1zdHJlZXRzLXNoZWhlcm5hei1uYWx3YWxsYS04Mzk4MjE5L9IBpgFodHRwczovL2luZGlhbmV4cHJlc3MuY29tL2FydGljbGUvY2l0aWVzL211bWJhaS9qYXNobi1lLWRhc3RhYW4tZS1tdW1iYWktb25lLXRoaW5nLXRoYXQtdW5pZmllcy1tdW1iYWktYW5kLWl0cy1wZW9wbGUtYXJlLWl0cy1zdHJlZXRzLXNoZWhlcm5hei1uYWx3YWxsYS04Mzk4MjE5L2xpdGUv?oc=5
