Making a mountain out of a molehill

Why I consider the Adopt a Heritage scheme an improvement over what we have done so far

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In my over four decades as an Indian, never have I felt more ashamed of what we were doing with the rich cultural heritage of this nation as I did around four or five years ago when I took my children to see the sound and light show at Delhi’s Red Fort (the second time was more recent when I dragged them to Mumbai’s Elephanta caves last December).

The sound and light show at the Red Fort used to be a delight for us as kids. The sounds of the horses neighing and the clattering of their hooves, the booming voice of the Mughal emperors, the battle cries, the sound of bugles and bangles, the dramatic play of lights to highlight the drama of the story.. this show along with Ram Leela created by Delhi’s Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra were etched in our minds as children. I could recall what would come next. Thanks to this show, from an age of around four or five, I remember loving every inch of the Red Fort.

In fact, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the show at the Purana Qila lacked the punch and thrill of the one at the Red fort, despite the fact that Humayun fell to his unexpected death at the steep steps of the fort, a story the guides managed to thrill everyone with in their morbid retelling back then.

That’s why I was horrified when I went to the Red Fort show a few years ago. In the same week, I watched the new show at the Purana Qila, redone by former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit for the Commonwealth Games. While the Old Fort show was not what I would have liked — the show focuses more on Delhi as a city, than the history of the fort, it was a few hundred times better than the Red Fort one. Vivid in colour and music, it holds your attention regardless of what it is focused on.

In contrast, the audio at the Red Fort was inaudible, you couldn’t make head or tail of what was happening and even the lights failed to bring the drama alive in any way. The bewildered audience — with a large smattering of foreign tourists — was looking at each other for some kind of explanation. The show was a complete national embarrassment. As usual, I was closely questioned about what I had loved so deeply by those accompanying me. As usual, I had no answers.

That’s why for me this news of the Dalmia Bharat adopting the Red Fort and running it is the best news I have heard since India got independence. Nothing is more upsetting than witnessing what we are doing to our monuments — starting from the Taj Mahal to the Salar Jung Museum — a gem in Hyderbad — across the country. I don’t need to elaborate as anyone who has visited any of these in the recent past can testify. The Salar Jung Museum — I have been four times – still has a lovely collection of objects, slowly falling apart. Horror stories of the Taj Mahal appear every other week and I would love to know what Shah Jahan thinks of what we have made of his great monument of love. I can go on and on. What we have done or failed to do with our monuments and cultural heritage is more the subject of a book. My column can do no justice.

Any reader who has visited museums and historical buildings in Europe will vouch for what I am saying — a visit to Stonehenge is a lesson in how to make a mountain out of a molehill. To my mind, it’s a set of nice rocks in a nice setting but a British cultural icon? Please. And here we have mountains staring us in the face in every corner and we refuse to acknowledge or take care of them.

I really don’t know what the objections — except that we seem to be doing little else these days — are to this Adopt a Heritage scheme but as I see it, anything is an improvement over what we have managed so far. Do those who are objecting have any better ideas or are we supposed to wait for some kind of turnabout from the authorities who have failed us so far? Let’s for once keep our political leanings and predilections aside and see what is the best way to highlight, preserve and protect what we have.