NRG Harnesses Net To Boost Ahmedabad’s Bid To Become World Heritage Icon
This MBA’s mission is to generate global interest in Ahmedabad’s efforts to become a Unesco World Heritage City. Deval ‘Pino’ Shah has mapped the journey of the 600-year-old and culturally rich city’s endeavour to enter the hallowed list and has highlighted its strong potential to win this bid.
What inspired Deval to do this? “This is all a labour o f love,” Shah says. “After moving to the US in 1987, I visited Ahmedabad in 2009 — after 22 years — and stayed for six months because I was trying to figure out if I could relocate to the city.” During his stay, he often read dailies. “I was impressed with The Times of India’ sustained drive to generate interest in the city’s heritage,” he says. “But it also saddened me when I learnt that hardly any kid in my circle, including my nieces and nephews who reside in the city, had ever gone to Manek Chowk or seen the Sidi Syed ni Jali, or Rani/Raja no Hajiro. Hence I took it upon myself to generate global interest in Ahmedabad’s heritage and its enthusiastic effort to become a Unesco World Heritage City.” So the idea of creating a Facebook page to kindle youth’s interest began.
The mammoth task had a collaborator — a u t o r i ck s h aw driver Yusuf Mohammad,who Shah says “knows every heritage structure of Ahmedabad.” “I personally took pictures of all the major chabutras and havelis, vavs, masjids, and pols,” Shahsays.“Attimes,Iwas in thefieldtill2 am to get perfect shots. I gathered more than 15,000 photos.”
Shah’s journey revealed sights that troubled him. “As I cruised deep in to the walled city, I saw how treasured monuments were being defaced — either painted over or drilled through, or defiled with posters,” he says. “Moreover, commercial encroachments buried monuments out of sight. It deeply pained me. I realized that unless the youth of the city, the Facebook generation as I call it, recognizes the value of the legacy handed down to it, things would not change.”
Shah believes that heritage conservation efforts are key to the survival of our ancient roots and the sense of ‘who’ we are. Deval Shah says, “As an outsider I want to participate in creating a momentum we need to become a World reviewing photos began.
Once Shah returned to Dallas, another daunting challenge of editing the more than 15,000 shots began. “As this page on Ahmedabad heritage which i started in 2010 has generated a good response, hence I have created two pages on Ahmedabad and Gujarat heritage and culture, ” he says.
On Ahmedabad heritage page on Facebook, Deval says. “I have uploaded 10,000 images of heritage structures which has generated a lot of interest for this page. It has attracted 10,696 hits in less than two years. About 2,310 viewers visit this page daily.”
Havelis are being torn down either due to the lack of attention or for commercial gain, and the Shahibaug Palace renovation debacle — all of these are self-inflicted injuries, Shah says. He says that the city’s youth needs to wake up for a cause.
Shah notes tha Ahmedabad’s old city has, among other icons, Jhulta Minara, Sidi Syed ni Jali, pols havelis, Jain temples and ‘live heritage’ preserved in pol life. “The Facebook generation needs to start giving the tender loving care it deserves,” he says.
