A recent gathering of the city’s heritage community served as a glaring reminder of the need for younger people to come to the fore when the conversation is centred on the preservation of Mumbai’s urban history

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Last week, this columnist felt like the proverbial fly on the wall during the release of Bombay Deco at the hallowed environs of NCPA, given that she was seated at the extreme corner of the venue that had packed in its rows with the crème-de-la-crème of the city’s cultural community and its heritage custodians. They were all beaming from ear to ear as one of their own—architect and urban planner Rahul Mehrotra delighted one and all with anecdotal wisdom about his experiences of co-writing an important book with late Sharada Dwivedi, the city’s first lady of heritage documentation. The mood was celebratory and inspiring; the audience was a delightful mix of urban planners, conservation architects, philanthropists, historians, citizen activists, curators, gallerists, researchers, anthropologists, writers, photographers, theatrewallahs, poets…you get the drift, right?

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As I scanned the venue, I realised that it couldn’t get bigger or better when it came to an assemblage of deeply invested stakeholders who were focused on the wellbeing of........

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