Mumbais public libraries ought to take a closer interest in archiving its history before it gets lost due to neglect and lack of intent

It's a moment from well over a decade ago, and the setting - inside one of the city's oldest libraries - made it feel as if I was truly set back by at least 50 years, if not more.

I was tracking down a few facts for a particular book on the city's heritage, and after two days had realised that I had hit a dead end. Anyone who has utilised the old-style procedure of tracing a book - under authors and then under title names, done alphabetically - would know the precision required for this task. Add to that my misfortune to learn that the 'computerised' search engine on the library's dusty desktops was out of service. That meant I was stuck with the arduous task of having to look for a needle in a haystack. Harry Potter's chamber of secrets seemed less intimidating. I looked around to find a diverse bunch of 'searchers' - from professors, to research fellows and foreign exchange students - all poring over card catalogues with dedication.

My 'yippee' moment arrived, as I had managed to track down the elusive title; it was all thanks to the neat handwriting on the card inside the catalogue. I was grinning, as if I'd reached my Everest. Truth is, I hadn't. After I handed over the request to one of the library assistants, he looked at it for a moment, mumbled something undecipherable under his breath, and went off to hunt for the title. An hour later, he was back, and to my horror and dismay, with the incorrect book. "Isse chala lo, madam. Same-to-same author ne likha hai," he suggested, looking a tad annoyed. But then, so was I. And disappointed, especially since it was a rare book about 19th Century Bombay. Shouldn't it have been available in its home city?

As I flipped through the opening pages in the hope of finding some solace, fresh pigeon poop lacing a few pages made the experience forgettable. There was nothing of value for me. When I pointed out about this missing title, no help was provided from the gods at the library to help retrace this book, and I had to abort my search. The above account will echo among many researchers, chroniclers, students and authors who've done their rounds of the city's public libraries and archives.

It's a reflection of the approach that most of these spaces have for archival collections and why it ought to adopt a more user-friendly character. The need to preserve these treasures of our city is immense, especially with the rapidity with which our heritage is being chipped away.

Only last week we were introduced to a fascinating collection created by Scottish town planner Patrick Geddes. He had a deep love of studying towns and cities, and was invited by India's colonial rulers to survey emerging cities like Madras and Bombay.

And, a huge chunk of his work around India is sitting safely in archives in far-off Glasgow and Edinburgh. His works will be discussed throughout this week at the ARTISANS Centre. Then, we also learnt about a project undertaken by British photographers who are doing a phenomenal job in sync with our very own Hamilton Studios to restore rare visual archives that include images of people and places that shaped colonial India. There's another exhibition of artist and writer James Forbes' works that detail his experiences in the country in the late 1700s, at the Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum.

"It's terrific that such archival collections are being made available, and ironic, too, that it's happening around the time when we are battling to keep alive our past," remarked a heritage influencer. He would know, especially since he's seen it all - from working around disinterested babus to watching structures being razed to dust with a sign on the dotted line. "In such precarious times, archives are all we have to dip into, to seek inspiration from, and to learn from the past," he warned. And alas, in those few words, lay the tragedy of what is staring Bombay in the face. What happens when we have no archive to reference?

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