Accounts on architecture: How Mumbaikars are documenting neighbourhood heritage

Looking at architecture is like reading poetry for Nachiket Joshi. Even though the 30-year-old isn't remotely connected to the subject by profession, he has always been fascinated by the intricacies in structures - railings, gate posts and arches - around him. "As a child, I liked the area around Central Avenue and the roads perpendicular to it near the railway station and I am completely charmed by it. You could tell that they were old, special and looked different," says a mesmerised Joshi. All these years later, Joshi, a Chembur resident has found love in poetry and prose which he finds resonate with architecture too. This interest in houses around him made him start @housesofchembur, as an amateur attempt at documenting them on Instagram in 2019.

Joshi is one of several people in the city who document different regions for the sheer beauty of their architecture on Instagram. There are others who are doing it not only because of their fascination with architecture but also because of the need to preserve regular heritage structures in the city beyond well-known monuments. One of them is Mallika Keer, who like Joshi is a city-based architecture enthusiast and is attempting to preserve heritage by showcasing them on her Instagram handle @beyond_heritage, to drive home the message against their redevelopment in Mumbai.

On his many walks through Chembur, Joshi has found beauty in the Grotto near Central Avenue and Ling Mahal, an art deco home that has now been demolished. Photo: Nachiket Joshi

Poetry and development
Interestingly, while both pages display a common love for architecture, buildings appealed to the content creators for different reasons. Joshi explains, "The page is sort of inspired by the poetry I am reading as well for my work. There's a whole tradition in literature of Le Flâneur or the loafer, who is loitering around the city streets and documenting them through poetry or prose and writing about random things that are seen on the streets."

Interestingly, Joshi says India - and Mumbai specifically - has one of its very own flâneur in the form of Arun Kolatkar. "Through Kala Ghoda Poems, he has written some of the most beautiful poems about this tiny neighbourhood. My documenting of the houses and the tiny details in my neighbourhood was an attempt at being like that flâneur," says Joshi, who is currently pursuing his PhD in Paris about contemporary poetry in India. As a part of the thesis, he studies English and Marathi language poetry and translates them into French too. He is currently in the city for the last six months and is making the most of his time here.

On the other hand, it was the constant exposure to structures in the city because of her father that made Keer gravitate towards conserving heritage through architecture. "My father is a developer and has redeveloped a lot of heritage buildings, and I was always against it,' she laughs. "I wanted to change the perspective of developers because they only look at making money out of it," adds the 25-year-old architecture conservationist.

A little over two and one year respectively, Joshi and Keer have amassed thousands of followers and this is only the start. Interestingly, it did take very particular incidents for both of them to start these very pages.

Seeing beauty in Chembur
Now, Joshi has always been interested in architecture, especially in Chembur, which according to him not many people would look at twice when one talks about the subject. It was one particular walk in his neighbourhood in 2019, when a friend came to visit him in the city, that made him take his passion project forward.

He says, "I told my friend it was a nice morning to walk around and so we did and ended up walking for over an hour and a half just looking at the tiny details of these houses. You could make out that some of them were built by individuals because even some of the seemingly insignificant parts of the structure like the gate post were exquisitely designed." While the gate post caught his eye, it was also the name plaque of another house, which had a black-and-white photograph of a man embossed on it that stayed with him. "These are just idiosyncratic details that may mean nothing to any person except the owner," he adds.

Joshi didn't only find beauty in the structures and their designs but also the house names. "There is a house called ‘Caribou', ‘Sunbeam' and a lot of French names too like ‘Chemould'. It was just like we were high on this neighbourhood and ended up taking a lot of pictures that morning," says the literary scholar with a child-like enthusiasm. When Joshi got back to Paris, he decided to do something about it and that's how the page was born. Now, every time he returns, he adds to the digital repository.

Two years on, he is absolutely keen on taking the next step for the page. He plans to make it more than just pictures by sharing more information through interviews with the house owners. The fact that Chembur is as diverse as any other place in the city, is also one reason for him to keep going. "There are many communities that have been living here for a while - South Indians, Goan Catholic communites and even some gaothans. People have no idea what this neighbourhood has." He adds, "We have absolutely poor public appreciation of architecture in India." It is also the reason why, he says that next time people come across his page, they see that even old structures are worth looking at and just because they're old, doesn't mean they're spoilt.

By starting Beyond Heritage, heritage conservationist Keer wanted to change people's approach about heritage in their neighbourhood. Photo: Mallika Keer

Living among heritage
Keer is of a similar opinion, except she is worried that all of it will disappear from people's memories if nobody documents it. She realised this when she returned after completing her masters in architectural conservation in Delhi. "I live in Shivaji Park and it is actually an Art Deco ensemble. When I got back one year ago, I realised that most of the buildings were gone. The number of buildings being redeveloped within a span of two-three years are many and so are the number of buildings being demolished for redevelopment," she explains.

That's when she realised that there is no trace of it and decided to do something about it. She explains, "If you ask people what is heritage in Mumbai, they will say the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel." Keer wanted to change this very approach and tell people that heritage is not only about monuments. "Even the everyday residential or commercial buildings make the city. We need to conserve and preserve them and that can't happen if we don't acknowledge them." It is something she fears the future generations will not be able to see, if nothing is done about it now.

Taking it forward
Keer, who has always been clicking pictures of structures around her in South Mumbai, has achieved considerable success with her page which has over 16,000 followers. She observes, "I used to think people don't care about architecture but now I have realised through the engagement on the page that people are interested because they message me saying that they have lived in the area for so long and this is the building just next to them and they didn't notice it."

Seeing the kind of interaction she has been getting, she wants to explore the suburbs more but says accessibility has been an issue. While it is easier for her to click in Fort and Colaba, she hasn't had good experiences with house owners in the suburbs when she tries to take pictures of the structures. Having photographed various parts of the city, Grant Road, Lalbaug, Parel, Girgaum and the red-light area have emerged as some of her favourite areas. "Mazgaon is special for me because I was doing my thesis at the time and while doing it, I found a lot of history associated with the area, the Eastern waterfront, the dock and the mills there. I am looking to cover the industrial part of the city with the cotton mills and more too," adds Keer, whose thesis topic was the restoration of the Ghadiyal Godi buildings.

While Keer usually post pictures in a series of three - going by the architectural style or area-wise, Joshi does a random take on his neighbourhood but makes sure to release only one picture a month for the fear of exhausting his pictures of Chembur as he wants to continue it for as long as he can. "It is completely based on serendipity," he expresses. While Keer has had mixed experiences with people, Joshi has had better luck and it is the very reason he wants to expand it into better full-fledged interviews with residents. In the process, he aims at keeping the essence of the neighbourhood alive, while Keer hopes to change the view of not only developers but also people in Mumbai by highlighting the structures they may have previously not thought of as ones with heritage value.