AHMEDABAD: On Monday,
Kapil Thakar, founder of the
Historic and Cultural Reserch Centre (HCRC), Ahmedabad shared a photograph captioned - ‘the world’s oldest stump!’ - on his social media page. The picture depicted a stone belonging to 15th century
Khan Masjid in
Dholka used as a stump to play cricket in a nearby ground.
While the adoption scheme of the central government — encouraging the private entities to take care of the historic monuments — is creating buzz, a group of history and heritage enthusiasts are advocating better understanding of the monuments and public initiative for the same.
Atulya Varso, a group run by Thakar, tries to create awareness by organizing heritage tour around Ahmedabad and tea parties in Ahmedabad, India’s first World Heritage City. “The nearby spots are historically intertwined with Ahmedabad and thus we decided to create awareness about towns such as Mehmdabad, Dholka, Viramgam and so on,” he said.
A member of the group, not wishing to be identified, said that majority of the Gujarat monuments up for adoption are already in a very good condition. “The need of the hour is to identify hidden gems in the state or dilapidated structures and help to bring them back to life. Compared to our legacy, we have been able to preserve only a minuscule part,” said the member.