In areas like fort in south Mumbai, most of the heritage sites and historical places are in one place. When it comes to the suburbs they are scattered and, in some cases, hidden in plain sight.A NEW four-volume heritage handbook on the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) collaborated and co-published by the People Place Project (PPP) and Mumbai Metropolitan Region Heritage Conservation Society (MMRHCS) was unveiled recently. It had six historians, architects and urban researchers with an interest in the history walk around Bandra to Uttan, Dongri-Mumbadevi, Vasai Virar and Thane, Kalyan to document history of these places meant to serve as a guidebook for citizens. Mohamed Thaver spoke to Nisha Nair Gupta founder of PPP and Minaz Ansari, an architecture professor and one of the authors about the book.How did you come up with the idea for the four-volume book?Nisha: Initially, PPP designed 10 maps for MMRHCS for various parts of the MMR that would guide the common man to explore these places. Later, we approached MMRCHS to have a guide book proposal as a companion to maps. Once approved, our pilot book was Mumbai fort published in 2020. After its success, we took forward 5 more maps in these 4 books and approached six people who we knew were already experts in areas like Minaz for Bandra and suburbs, Het Shah and Shwetal Patil for Kalyan – Thane, Pascal Lopes for Vasai-Sopara-Virar and Manasi Chokshi and Esa Shaikh for Mumbadevi-Dongri to work on these books. We hope to complete companion books for the other four maps as well.How are these books different from the available books on city history?Minaz: These books are more in the form of guide books wherein those interested can carry this book while exploring the particular part it relates to and it will have instructions like if you take a left from here, you will see this and spell out its historical significance. For those who cannot walk or travel to these places, the narrative of the book is experiential and the places can be explored from one’s home.In areas like fort in south Mumbai, most of the heritage sites and historical places are in one place. When it comes to the suburbs they are scattered and, in some cases, hidden in plain sight. That is where the book becomes useful.Also, private heritage like homes are often redeveloped, and this book is a repository of its memories.Story continues below this adWhat were your experiences in researching the book and how different are these from heritage walks?Minaz: Heritage walks are more a sample of the way things were, while the book contains a lot more details than that. To research this book, I walked around several localities and observed local customs and traditions. A Koli woman I met at Ambu village near Madh Island called Natal Maushi. While Natal means Christmas, she was a Koli woman and also had deep faith in the local dargah where Kolis offer coconuts. The fluidity of the faith there was interesting.Also, Manori, Gorai and Uttan villages that for a part of Dharavi islands – distinct from Dharavi in central Mumbai – near Vasai creek are places where you can see proper village life even now like people using bullock carts to travel, fishing, no commercial encroachments, a slow pace of life and good air quality. The fact that such a place exists in MMR was quite fascinating. Also in Uttan, the warmth of the local community in welcoming us was quite heart-warming.Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram© The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:Mumbai