How a city that loves the spotlight struggled to give camera museum shape

The next time you visit Red Fort, you will walk through a grand arcade. The ceiling of the Chatta Bazaar, which was once adorned with the most exquisite paintings, is getting some of its former glory back.
Not too long back, Aditya Arya — photographer, curator, collector and archivist, and a long-time resident of Gurgaon — thought to take his camera museum from the basement of his home to a larger space. The indefatigable Arya had made it his mission to give Gurgaon a museum befitting of its Millennium City signature.

Lack of official interest, allied to bureaucratic delays, threatened to derail his plans, but this Gurugrammer is made of sterner stuff. That ‘The Museo Camera’ has come up in the heart of New Gurgaon at all is entirely down to Arya’s determination and his hawk-eyed supervision at the building site, where he has camped every day.

Arya first intimated the government of his plans in 2015, after which it took two years to sign a memorandum of understanding. Work got under way in January 2018, but 15 months on, administrative apathy on the part of contractors, and the elections bringing the machinery of governance to a halt, have conspired against an early opening.

"The project had run into delays due to the revision in the estimates and the delay by the contractor. The museum is almost ready and we have given it for retrofitting. Once the elections are over, we will get it inaugurated by the honourable chief minister," said MCG commissioner Yashpal Yadav.

It seems, then, as if it will be a while before Arya’s labour of love sees the light of day. This journey, full of false beginnings, seems to sum up this city to a T. Gurgaon, as much as it continues to be Work in Progress, is also a story of What Could Have Been.

Then again, here’s a city that has evolved in fits and starts, some buildings coming up as fast as a skyscrapers in Guangzhou, China, the progress of others evoking the soporific pace of pre-Liberalisation days. For example, so focal has Golf Course Road become to the fortunes of the city that it has left MG Road, the stretch that gave Gurgaon its name, in shade.

Yet, it must be borne in mind that the Millennium City remains an outlier among Indian metros, an urban experiment unlike any other. And maybe that’s why Gurgaon suffers in comparison with its northern neighbour, judged, mostly, by what it doesn’t have than what it does. It doesn’t have a sprawling expanse of green (Lodhi Gardens) or a hub of culture (Mandi House). More critically, it has shown it doesn’t have the will to fight pollution.

Nonetheless, the museum offers reasons for optimism, and a chance for residents to embrace a local landmark as enthusiastically as they have embraced the Aravali Biodiversity Park, a model for ecological regeneration worth emulating.

So, how about celebrating Gurgaon for what it is? A city whose residents have shown initiative, endeavour and pluck to make it just that bit more livable, seeing their government has, by and large, abandoned its responsibilities. A petri-dish of innovation in which trends are born, and where what happens today will likely be lapped up somewhere else tomorrow. Where startups take wing despite infrastructural bottlenecks. Where a Galleria is no less than a Connaught Place. And, yes, where a man can dream of creating a world-class museum. Gurgaon takes little and makes the most out of it.

And while those who have set up base in Gurgaon, migrants from all over country, are for most part aspirational 20- and 30-somethings, eager to make a mark, the city is best personified by people like Arya, whose pioneering spirit opened doors to its growth. A physical space dedicated to the story of photography could be just the ticket. For all the boozy indulgences of pubs and funky offerings of restaurants, a museum that engages and enlightens – a rarity in India – is a thing of wonder.

‘The Museo Camera’ promises to be a realisation of a personal dream, a (Kodak) moment of pride for the city. And at long last, something for Gurgaon to boast to the world.