This Mumbai Project Aims To Preserve Byculla's History Through Art

A walk along KK Marg in Byculla might just brighten up your dampened day with cheerful yellows, greens and blues. These colours are an amalgamation of the long enduring history of Byculla and Mahalaxmi as a part of the Byculla Memory Project that was kicked off in April 2016. Painted on the walls of Planet Godrej residential complex, this mural was the beginning of a changing cityscape.

Capturing Byculla with its zoo animals, Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Khada Parsi statue, the gothic Gloria church and Chawls, the mural captures the identity of region through the communities that inhabit the area - right from Jews, Christians, Muslims and Maharashtrians. “Many important historic events have begun right here in Byculla,” said resident Harjith Bubber who began this project with other residents with the help of Urban Vision, a think-do tank.

Bubber, who is an industrialist, earlier launched a public space with Urban Vision at the Western Express Highway where one of his constructions was underway a few years ago. “The cost of those installations was low and I had the land so we decided to create a space that everybody can enjoy. It is a safe space for the public meant to be preserved as a public private partnership. A lot of young people frequent the place and use it for relaxation, studies and even socializing. People conduct college tuitions there. It makes the surrounding environment beautiful as well. So I thought, why not create something like that for Byculla where I live?” he said.

Bubber applied the same idea to preserve Byculla’s heritage and other public spaces that would create a sense of ownership among the public. “The textile and union movements began here, Dr. Ambedkar fought his first election from here. When the artist began painting the mural here, people kept offering their anecdotes and memories attached with the area. Residents from the BIT building opposite Godrej had many moments from the past to share. It all brought us out and made us speak to each other. We came to know each other better and our area better. I realised how art can bring people together. They are proud of their history and community,” he said.

The project has been in the works since 2015. Aditi Pathak, Director & Head of Ideas Lab in Urban Vision, said that their goal is to create social spaces that preserve the humanity of a city. “People need a reminder of their past that is so easily forgotten. With Urban vision, we are not just looking at art as a public domain, a city needs social spaces with good tree cover, footpaths, good seating, lighting and a space that feels like home. With Byculla Memory Project, we are consciously taking initiatives where the public takes the ownership of these spaces, where they themselves take care of the art,” she said.

The mural has been painted by artist Harshvardhan Kadam and it is said that it will last two years without maintenance.

“With dhols and lezims, the workers would play music or play games like kabaddi,” says Dharmendra Agarkar, a fireman, in an article by Mid-Day, who has been living in BIT Chawl since his birth, 49 years ago. He swiftly points out to the reporter various historical aspects of the area - “a flat in BIT once occupied by poet and activist Namdeo Dhasal. Further down the lane towards Jacob Circle lived Bhai Sangare, a Dalit Panther leader. Byculla Fish Market is where Ambedkar was married; the Elphinstone High School where Ambedkar was schooled is also in the precinct. Right from the Samyukta Maharashtra Movement to gang wars, Byculla has seen it all, said Agarkar,” writes the publication.

The city can be described in the words of the man who loved it most. Author, playwright and writer Saadat Hasan Manto, also a resident of Byculla said, “You can be happy here on two pennies a day or on ten thousand rupees a day, if you wish. You can also spend your life here as the unhappiest man in the world. You can do what you want. No one will find fault with you. Nor will anyone subject you to moralizing. You alone will have to accomplish the most difficult of tasks and you alone will have to make the most difficult decision of your life. You may live on the footpath or in a magnificent palace; it will not matter in the least to me. You may leave or you may stay. It will make no difference to me. I am where I am and that is where I will remain.”