An Unusual Heritage walk

History is so boring at school and so interesting when someone tells it like a story, and that too outdoors! Coming from my niece on a warm Sunday morning while walking the quaint vacant streets of south Mumbai, the sentence speaks for itself.

I had stumbled upon a small advertisement in the events section of the local newspaper a few days earlier. There was to be a ‘Heritage walk’ — interestingly to be conducted by an organisation run by a small but prominent and illustrious community. No mention of historians or Architecture graduates, Art & culture organisations or even the state tourism department !

I called to register for the event, half expecting to be politely refused. Though extremely soft spoken and friendly, the general perception about the community was one of strict cultural and religious practices. The doubts turned out to be baseless and registration done for my sister, niece and myself.

Not wanting to be clueless and unprepared about the tour or even the beautiful old buildings of south Mumbai ( I cannot help thinking ‘Bombay’ — that city I grew up in and quite surely still the identity of the location of the ‘Heritage walk’ ), I googled for some information about the community, the organisation conducting the tour and the person who was to play ‘guide’. Little did I expect that the ‘Walk’ would be lead by a scholar of stature, who was considered an authority on the matters of the Community! And a well know name internationally. A very unusual and interesting event!

On the scheduled sunday, we left our suburban homes and reached the venue well in time. A small crowd of people from the said community had gathered there. Why would people from the community come together to go on a tour that was to be centered around their own community? If I am not wrong, the ‘outsiders’ would have been about 5 in a total of about 50!

Two and a half hours of just one history lesson! Large sections of Indian history as we know it from textbooks, interspersed with interesting and lesser known facts about the movement of an entire community across continents thousands of years ago, their trials and tribulations,integration of a foreign culture with that of their new land, prominent political and business personalities, beautifully architected buildings and their contribution to India during foreign occupations and post independence. A rich heritage that the community members need to know and be extremely proud of!

The one aspect that continues to play in my mind every time I recall the heritage walk is — the reiteration of the senior and respectable ‘guide’ that the community owes gratitude, appreciation and respect to their adopted land for having welcomed an unknown and foreign community of about 1000 people, with open arms , so many centuries ago, and ‘adopting’ them into the folds of society! History of that era indicates that the community might have been wiped out, had they reached other shores instead of India.

A breath of fresh air, in a world where the daily news is filled with heavy doses of the people of the world at war with themselves. A constant struggle for one- up man-ship seems to be the root cause of all human conflict.

A genuine gratitude and thankfulness for what we have, is probably a forgotten sentiment. Add to that, the ability to express it with humility.

In this instance, the senior member of the community expressed his admiration and sincere gratitude for an event long forgotten, in an open forum where such admission is not expected and the absence of which would not have been noticed!

Little wonder that this community has an extraordinary track record of contributions to India and Indian society!

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Originally published in 2016