A two-mile stretch in Delhi featuring some of India’s most iconic landmarks is to be redeveloped, angering historians and conservationists who say the move will rob the country of its heritage and valuable public space. Federal authorities last month said they would change the land use for the 86-acre (35-hectare) area that includes Parliament House, Rashtrapati Bhavan (the presidential palace), and the India Gate war memorial to “government use” from recreation and public facilities.

Conservationists fear that the Central Vista redevelopment project will obliterate the history and character of the area, which also has among the biggest public spaces in a city of more than 20 million. “The Central Vista is significant for historical, lived and architectural heritage. Equally importantly, it is a public-use area for tourists and residents, and a green area," said Kanchi Kohli, a senior researcher at the Centre for Policy Research.

“The redevelopment represents a form of ‘government sprawl’ where powerful offices appropriate urban space with little concern for planning or socio-ecological consequences,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in emailed comments.

In India, as in many countries, rapid urbanisation is putting greater pressure on governments to build office blocks and rail networks, which has led to the razing of old buildings and traditional markets. Cities risk losing not just their history and heritage, but also traditional knowledge which is key to promoting inclusiveness, sustainability and resilience, according to urban experts. The Central Vista project, estimated to cost 200 billion rupees ($2.6 billion) and due to be completed by 2024, envisages modern buildings replacing century-old structures that are as familiar to many Indians as the Taj Mahal.

The Central Public Works Department, which is overseeing the project, said in its redevelopment proposal that the area currently suffers from inadequate space and infrastructure. The area lacks basic facilities, amenities and parking, which “leads to congestion and gives a poor public perception”, the proposal said. "Therefore, there is a need for upgradation.

SITE FOR CELEBRATIONS
Delhi was established as the capital of the Indian empire in 1911, when the colonial British rulers moved the capital from the eastern city of Calcutta, now called Kolkata. Architects Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker planned the central administrative area of the city, retaining a third of the area for open spaces, including wide lawns that draw crowds of residents, tourists and vendors all year round. The Rajpath (King’s Way) boulevard connects the iconic India Gate to Rashtrapati Bhavan and is the site of the annual Republic Day celebrations featuring grand displays by the armed forces and a parade of colourful floats from each state.

The Central Vista is an amalgam of traditions from across India: the distinct circular design of Parliament House; the red and beige sandstone from Mughal architecture; and the dome of the Rashtrapati Bhavan inspired by a Buddhist stone monument. “The historical significance of the Central Vista lies in its architecture, town planning and politics,” said Swapna Liddle, a historian at the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage.

“Its history is the history of India,” she said. That does not mean that "it should be frozen in time,” she added, pointing out that several buildings have been upgraded to add amenities such as air-conditioning and internet cable. “More can be done, as long as our starting point is a will to conserve and prolong the life and use of the existing buildings,” Liddle said.

"Losing heritage to modernisation is not inevitable, but it requires careful choices. The decision on what should go and what should stay, and what should come in place of things that are removed” must involve a body of experts, she said.

HERITAGE VS MODERNITY
The question of preserving heritage or modernising is being debated not just in Delhi, but in cities around the world. Almost 70% of the world’s population will be living in urban areas by 2050, according to estimates by the United Nations, and governments everywhere are struggling to find space to accommodate booming numbers of city dwellers.

"Land is a scarce resource, but heritage is even more valuable since it cannot be reclaimed or rebuilt,” said Anuj Srivastava, an architect who has filed a petition against the Central Vista project that is pending in the nation’s top court. Few details of the Central Vista project have been made public, and while several buildings are protected by heritage laws, these guidelines have often been diluted or ignored in the past, he said. A spokesman for the Central Public Works Department did not respond to requests for comment.

The project needs a detailed study, including assessments of its impact on heritage, the environment and traffic, as well as the possible consequences of accommodating about 70,000 government workers in a small area, Srivastava said. “Heritage precincts the world over use the principles of adaptive re-use for changing requirements,” he said, referring to the practice of repurposing buildings for new uses while retaining their historic features.

“The Central Vista should follow these principles, and in no circumstance should open spaces meant for public use be appropriated for government buildings and residences,” he said. The timing of the land-use change notification - in the midst of the deadly coronavirus outbreak that has infected at least 1,200 and killed more than 30 in India - has also angered opposition lawmakers.

Last week, Shashi Tharoor, a member of the opposition Congress party, said in a tweet that the money earmarked for the project must instead be used to deal with the pandemic, which has devastated the country’s poor communities. “Grand spending on buildings at this time of crisis is a postponable luxury,” he said.

https://www.reuters.com/article/india-city-planning/feature-delhis-push-to-modernise-threatens-iconic-sites-public-space-idUSL5N26T2MV, April 1, 2020

N Dhanasekar of Coimbatore’s Chittukuruvigal Arakattalai Trust has some tips for the return of the once-ubiquitous bird. “I remember sparrows visiting our homes looking for grains and water,” says N Dhanasekar. The 38-year-old is the founder of of Chittukuruvigal Arakattalai Trust that has tried to bring sparrows back to Coimbatore. Besides awareness meetings, and camps at educational institutions and Government schools, the six-year-old trust also distributes nest boxes and bird feeders to homes and institutions.

Co-exist with birds
On World Sparrow Day (March 20), Dhanasekar spoke on All India Radio about sparrows and conservation. “The association between humans and the house sparrow dates back several centuries. Their nests dotted almost every house in the neighbourhood as well as bus bays and railway stations. They lived in colonies and survived on food grains and tiny worms,” he explains. Traditions also fostered the co-existence with birds. “For example, when my mother and grandmother used a muram to clean the rice and pulses, the little bits of grains and worms would fall to the ground. The sparrows fed on them. Now, our food grains come cleaned and packed off the shelves!” House sparrows are indicators of biodiversity, he says.

“Rampant use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides have wiped away the vital nutritious food of the sparrows. Only organic farming can bring them back in large numbers.” High-rise buildings have also driven away the little birds away from the neighbourhood. “Modern concrete structures avoid provision that encourages nesting of birds. We have made RWH compulsory to get an approval for a new building. Similarly, we should encourage some space for the birds to nest too. It is important to introduce this culture among the public. Over time, it will become a habit, which is good for the environment, birds and the humans too,” he says.

Sparrow nests
Recently, Dhanasekar reached out to over 1,000 people who gathered for Kaanum Pongal festivities at Karattumedu village near Saravanampatti. “We put up banners on sparrow conservation and had a Q& A with the public on why the sparrows have disappeared from the cityscape. We also gave a demo on how to make a sparrow nest using discarded shoe boxes. We have to keep talking to people, especially students.

It is an ongoing thing, spreading awareness. I also addressed a gathering at the Tamil Nadu Forest Academy on World Forest Day.” Dhanasekar has distributed over 2000 sparrow nests to the public. Made of pine wood, it is designed to provide comfortable nesting. It can be kept on terraces, windows and compound walls. “We have to ensure that the opening is just about 1.5 inches.

This will stop other predators like mynas, shikras and crows from entering the nest.” Sparrows often hop around greenery and marshy bushes. “When you have more sparrows in your home, it indicates that you live in a healthy environment surrounded by agricultural lands and a water source. Nurture native plants like moringa and hibiscus in your backyard to bring them back.” Dhanasekar is happy that students and institutions want to be associated with the trust. It has also led to many sub-organisations that restore water bodies, promote green drives with native trees and in the process conserve birdlife.

“We work collectively towards the common goal of conservation. Everyone is concerned about the environment. This is a healthy sign.”

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/n-dhanasekar-of-coimbatores-chittukuruvigal-arakattalai-trust-has-some-tips-for-the-return-of-the-once-ubiquitous-bird/article31225408.ece, April 2, 2020

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has started restoring five pagodas in the ancient city of Bagan, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Myanmar. The five Buddhist monuments were damaged during a devastating earthquake in 2016.  According to the deputy director of the Archaeology and National Museum Department in Bagan, U Seo Soe Lin, the ASI will carry out emergency maintenance work, including structural maintenance and checking the integrity of paintings and concrete floral patterns. “The restoration would take years,” said Lin. “Emergency maintenance for integrity will be done this year, and the rest will be done step by step, after doing research on the structures.” (Myanmar Times) Founded in 1861, the ASI is an Indian government agency under the Ministry of Culture that is responsible for archaeological research and the conservation and protection of culture heritage in India. The agreement to carry out restoration at Bagan was jointly signed during a state visit to India from 26–29 February by Myanmar’s president, U Win Myint. During the interactions, India welcomed the inclusion of Bagan on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in June last year. India and Myanmar also welcomed the commencement of the first phase of the ASI’s work which will oversee the restoration and conservation of 12 pagodas under a project to restore a total of 92 earthquake-damaged pagodas in Bagan. In 2010, both countries signed an agreement to work on the structural conservation and chemical preservation of Ananda Temple in Bagan, which is dated to 1105. Bagan is located in a low-lying area beside the Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) River, the country’s longest and most important commercial waterway, and represents 42 square kilometers of historical and cultural wealth.

From the 9th–13th centuries, the city was the capital of the kingdom of Pagan, the first kingdom to unify the regions that would later constitute modern Myanmar. Between the 11th and 13th centuries, more than 10,000 Buddhist temples and stupas were constructed in the area. Today, in excess of 3,000 Buddhist temples, monasteries, stupas, and monuments remain, giving Bagan the highest density of Buddhist architecture anywhere in the world. It is also one of Myanmar’s most popular tourist attractions and rapid urban development means that UNESCO protection is very necessary. According to the UNESCO: “The authenticity of Bagan is demonstrated by the landscape of Buddhist monuments of diverse sizes, scales, materials, designs, and antiquity; and the rich and continuing religious and cultural traditions."

However, UNESCO also states that the authenticity of some monuments “has been impaired by inappropriate interventions from the 1970s and 1990s, and by the extensive damages that resulted from earthquakes.” (Outlook Traveller). In 2016, 389 pagodas and ancient buildings in Bagan were damaged by a 6.8 magnitude earthquake.

Four years of work conducted by local and foreign experts restored 365 pagodas to UNESCO standards. There are also plans for UNESCO experts to work alongside Bagan’s archaeological team to improve their conservation and restoration skills, as well as to establish a training course in mural conservation.

https://www.buddhistdoor.net/news/archaeological-survey-of-india-begins-restoring-five-buddhist-pagodas-in-bagan-myanmar, April 3, 2020

The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), East Godavari Chapter, on Sunday donated rice to 400 families belong to the leather puppetry art. INTACH AP State Co-Convener L. Sesha Kumari told The Hindu that the initiative has been taken to help the puppetry artists manage the lockdown period during which they would not have any livelihood options.

At least 400 families are associated with the leather puppetry art and living in the areas of Jamuna Nagar and Madhavapatnam. The INTACH team led by Ms. Sesha Kumari, East Godavari Chapter Convener V.V.L.N. Murthy and co-convener V. Ramakrishna donated 5 kg rice and essential commodities to each of the 400 families. Thota Bala Krishna, an elder from the puppetry art community, thanked the INTACH for the timely assistance.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/intach-donates-rice-essentials-to-400-leather-puppetry-art-families/article31262817.ece, April 6, 2020

A two-mile stretch in Delhi featuring some of India’s most iconic landmarks is to be redeveloped, angering historians and conservationists who say the move will rob the country of its heritage and valuable public space. Federal authorities last month said they would change the land use for the 86-acre (35- hectare) area that includes Parliament House, Rashtrapati Bhavan (the presidential palace), and the India Gate war memorial to “government use” from recreation and public facilities.

Conservationists fear that the Central Vista redevelopment project will obliterate the history and character of the area, which also has among the biggest public spaces in a city of more than 20 million. “The Central Vista is significant for historical, lived and architectural heritage. Equally importantly, it is a public-use area for tourists and residents, and a green area,” said Kanchi Kohli, a senior researcher at the Centre for Policy Research. “The redevelopment represents a form of ‘government sprawl’ where powerful offices appropriate urban space with little concern for planning or socio-ecological consequences,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in emailed comments.

In India, as in many countries, rapid urbanisation is putting greater pressure on governments to build office blocks and rail networks, which has led to the razing of old buildings and Cities risk losing not just their history and heritage, but also traditional knowledge which is key to promoting inclusiveness, sustainability and resilience, according to urban experts. The Central Vistaproject, estimated to cost 200 billion rupees ($2.6 billion) and due to be completed by 2024, envisages modern buildings replacing century-old structures that are as familiar to many Indians as the Taj Mahal.

The Central Public Works Department, which is overseeing the project, said in its redevelopment proposal that the area currently suffers from inadequate space and infrastructure. The area lacks basic facilities, amenities and parking, which “leads to congestion and gives a poor public perception”, the proposal said. “Therefore, there is a need for upgradation.” Delhi was established as the capital of the Indian empire in 1911, when the colonial British rulers moved the capital from the eastern city of Calcutta, now called Kolkata.

Architects Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker planned the central administrative area of the city, retaining a third of the area for open spaces, including wide lawns that draw crowds of residents, tourists and vendors all year round. The Rajpath (King’s Way) boulevard connects the iconic India Gate to Rashtrapati Bhavan and is the site of the annual Republic Day celebrations featuring grand displays by the armed forces and a parade of colourful floats from each state. The Central Vista is an amalgam of traditions from across India: the distinct circular design of Parliament House; the red and beige sandstone from Mughal architecture; and the dome of the Rashtrapati Bhavan inspired by a Buddhist stone monument.

“The historical significance of the Central Vista lies in its architecture, town planning and politics,” said Swapna Liddle, a historian at the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage. That does not mean that “it should be frozen in time,” she added, pointing out that several buildings have been upgraded to add amenities such as air-conditioning and internet cable. “More can be done, as long as our starting point is a will to conserve and prolong the life and use of the existing buildings,” Liddle said. “Losing heritage to modernisation is not inevitable, but it requires careful choices.

The decision on what should go and what should stay, and what should come in place of things that are removed” must involve a body of experts, she said. The question of preserving heritage or modernising is being debated not just in Delhi, but in cities around the world. Almost 70% of the world’s population will be living in urban areas by 2050, according to estimates by the United Nations, and governments everywhere are struggling to find space to accommodate booming numbers of city dwellers. “Land is a scarce resource, but heritage is even more valuable since it cannot be reclaimed or rebuilt,” said Anuj Srivastava, an architect who has filed a petition against the Central Vista project that is pending in the nation’s top court. Few details of the Central Vista project have been made public, and while several buildings are protected by heritage laws, these guidelines have often been diluted or ignored in the past, he said. A spokesman for the Central Public Works Department did not respond to requests for comment.

The project needs a detailed study, including assessments of its impact on heritage, the environment and traffic, as well as the possible consequences of accommodating about 70,000 government workers in a small area, Srivastava said. “Heritage precincts the world over use the principles of adaptive re-use for changing requirements,” he said, referring to the practice of repurposing buildings for new uses while retaining their historic features.

The timing of the land-use change notification – in the midst of the deadly coronavirus outbreak that has infected at least 1,200 and killed more than 30 in India – has also angered opposition lawmakers. Last week, Shashi Tharoor, a member of the opposition Congress party, said in a tweet that the money earmarked for the project must instead be used to deal with the pandemic, which has devastated the country’s poor communities. “Grand spending on buildings at this time of crisis is a postponable luxury,” he said.

https://www.gg2.net/delhis-push-to-modernise-threatens-iconic-sites-public-space/, April 7, 2020

World Heritage Day (April 18) celebrations are off to an early start on April 8. INTACH Bengaluru has scheduled walks, workshops, open days and talks to celebrate Bengaluru’s heritage. And the best part is you can participate in all these activities from the safety of your home. The line-up includes speakers from diverse fields. Speaking about this year’s theme, Shared Cultures, Shared Heritage, Shared Responsibility, Meera Iyer, Convenor, INTACH Bengaluru, said, “The theme will resonate in this time of crisis. It is now apparent to everyone that we are a connected world with shared responsibilities." Given the lockdown, INTACH wanted to create a set of events that would make people feel connected to the city, even if they were sitting at home. The different events on social media platforms (zoom, Instagram, Facebook) cater to all age groups. “We have also tried to include INTACH’s different areas of interest — architectural heritage, conservation, history, documentation and intangible heritage. I am also quite excited about the heritage quiz, which I think will be a first of its kind, and is a fun way to introduce people to heritage. The conversation on April 18 will be on art and architecture, both of which are intimately linked to heritage.” Sahesra Muguntan will be conducting a sketching event on Instagram and Facebook. Venkatesan Perumal, popularly known as Pee Vee, has nearly one lakh photos in his kitty.

Credited with one of the largest heritage photo banks of Bengaluru, Pee Vee has conducted photo exhibitions (at Halasuru Metro station and Bangalore Fort among other spaces) and seminars to showcase and create awareness on Bengaluru’s heritage. Pee Vee, who has pictures of Bengaluru markets, heritage buildings, old roads, spots and shops, says, “In the last 15 years I have been part of nearly 500 photo walks. I was happy to be associated with Towns of the City organised by INTACH. I shared my pictures of Cox Town, Frazer Town and Richards Town.” The veteran photographer says his engagement with INTACH began in 2008 with a post card project, Portraits when 16 post cards with photos of Bengaluru were brought out. “As this is a virtual event, I will trace my photo journey covering a broad range of subjects.” Pee Vee says in his workshop he will give tips on how to take the best photograph. “It is not always the known parts of the city that make a good picture. Walk in the lanes and by-lanes and peep into your neighbourhoods to find out the little things that are unique to Bangalore.”

Arts and places of worship
Several of India's most enduring performance traditions began in places of worship. Art and dance historian and Bharathanatya dancer, Gayathri Iyer’s talk on April 12 at 4.30 pm, Temple as a Performance Space, will survey the three factors involved in making a temple, a performance space — patronage, architecture and performance. "Temples served as socio-economic centres of activity, providing living quarters for performers, apart from remuneration and funds for instruments,” says Gayathri.

"Examining this administrative model in conjunction with the spaces created for dance and music in temple architecture resulted in a study that unites the static and dynamic components of Indian art. This is further supplemented by the range of graceful sculptures depicting

dance and music in temples.” Gayathri has done her Masters in Arts and Aesthetics, an MPhil in Indian Art History and is currently completing a PhD in Temple Sculpture at JNU. Her lecture will cover temples in Hampi, Tanjore and Warangal. Relying on historical texts and epigraphs, Gayathri says, “The aim of the talk will be to discover lost contexts." What’s on April 8, 4.30 pm: A virtual walk through Sampangiramanagara by Hita Unnikrishnan. April 9, 4.30 pm: Re-Reading the Spatialisation of Bangalore City through an Epidemic, a talk by Sonali Dhanpal April 10, 4.30 pm: Documenting Bengaluru’s Heritage: A photographer's journey, a workshop by PeeVee April 11, 4.30 pm: Unwept, Unhonoured and Unsung: The “Lost” Life & Times of Sir Albion Rajkumar Banerji, CSI, CIE, ICS (Retd.), a visual presentation by Siddharth Raja April 12, 4.30 pm: The Temple as a Performance Space, by Gayathri Iyer April 13, 4.30 pm: A Virtual Open House at a Conservation Site: The Octroi Post at Mysore Road, by Chetana Hamsagar, Ramya Rajan and Pankaj Modi April 14, 4.30 pm: The Bengaluru Heritage Quiz! by Thejaswi Udupa World Heritage Day, April 18, 4 pm: Shared Cultures, Shared Heritage, Shared Responsibilities - A Conversation between architect Bijoy Ramachandran and artist Suresh Jayaram.

Log on to Intach’s Instagram or Facebook page to participate in the #SketchWithINTACH #HeritageAtHome sketching event, beginning on April 8, led by architect Sahesra Muguntan. Click on
https://zoom.us/j/196574891?pwd=Z2R5cS9qRkRwTGFMaWRqd3AxYm1aZz09 to participate.

https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/intach-bengaluru-organises-events-online/article31279961.ece, April 8, 2020

Explore the planet without leaving your living room

Everything might be closed right now, but can still go globe-trotting - without setting foot outside. All you need is a device and the internet, and you'll have access to some of the best bits of the planet right at your fingertips. You might not experience the warm breeze in the tropics or the smell of a hotdog stand in the city, but it's a great way to explore without leaving your sofa. Feed your wanderlust without getting into trouble and check out some of these amazing virtual tours ready to explore.

See the ancient ruins of Athens up close The ancient ruins of Greece might be off-limits at the moment, but you can still experience some of the highlights of Athens right where you are. Admired by tourists for centuries, this history-packed destination is one of the world's oldest cities, and home to some of the world's most well-known landmarks. And now you can get a 360° view of the city directly from your device - and learn about it too.

Get started here.
Explore Machu Picchu

Forget trying to get a flight to to Peru to marvel the wonders of Machu Picchu, just hop online and get exploring. The virtual tour of this Unesco World Heritage site is fully immersive and you can enjoy 360° views of this famous Inca ruins and the surrounding landscapes. There's a really informative narrator too, and if you look closely, you might just spot some of the really cute native alpacas.

Explore here.
Visit the pyramids Always wanted to see the pyramids? Well you can now take a panoramic tour of these awe-inspiring structures without setting foot in Egypt. The Great Pyramids of Giza are the focus of this amazing tour - the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one to remain largely intact. This tour gives an aerial view of the pyramids, the Gaze of Great Sphynx and even a sunset over the neighbouring suburbs. Take a look here.

Take a tour around Tokyo
This whistle-stop tour offers a bite-sized but full experience of the beautiful city of Tokyo - and it's all killer no filler. The Japan National Tourism Organization has created this 360° virtual reality video where viewers can walk across the Shibuya crossing, win a Pikachu from an arcade and make friends with a robot. It works best with a VR headset, but there's a 2D version too. Explore here. Walk the Great Wall of China The power of the internet means you can also hike the Great Wall of China - and it won't even cut into your daily walk. This virtual tour covers over six miles of the wall on the stretch between Jinshanling and Simatai. The experience has been put together by a local tour guide and includes some really interesting facts and snippets of information too. Get started here. Watch the sunset off the Cliffs of Moher The Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience will remain closed until April 19 but you don't have to hop over to Ireland to see the beautiful views. It's Ireland at its most natural, rugged, panoramic and breathtaking - a historical landmark and a geographical wonder. Take a virtual stroll along this sweeping stretch of coastline using the online tour and see the sun setting on the horizon along with other landmarks on the patch. Take the tour here. Explore the Taj Mahal The world-famous Taj Mahal is located in the far away Indian city of Agra. Known as one of the Seven Wonders of the World, a visit to this landmark is on many a bucket list. And now you can get a close up look at this magnificent feat of architecture and history directly from your device. This virtual tour allows you to easily jump to different vantage points and get the best views of this amazing place. Start exploring here. Wander down the Las Vegas Strip The city that never sleeps has been forced to take a nap, but even if you can't get out to see the bright lights of Las Vegas, you can still explore the iconic destination. Take a threedimensional view of Vegas's world famous hotels, resorts and casinos and see the highlights of the glittering sunset strip in all its glory right here. Go for a stroll around New York's Central Park Bring Central Park to you with this guided, virtual walk that starts at West 72nd Street and takes you through the heart of the world-famous urban park. You'll even learn some of the history of the landscapes and the landmarks found within its 842 acres. Start here. Experience the planet's most active volcanoes Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is home to some of nature's most awe-inspiring wonders. After a short video introduction, you'll be able to take a guided virtual tour of the geological phenomenon. You'll see the lava tubes, the volcanic cliffs and even inside a rumbling active volcano while your guide - the park ranger - takes you on an adventure. Start here. FYI - for the full experience, plug your headphones in. See the Northern Lights Every night, Polar Bears International and Explore.org are streaming the night sky. Broadcasting the celestial light show across the globe, visitors to the website can catch a glimpse of the natural phenomenon without travelling out of the country. This live cam is located directly underneath the aurora oval - one of the best places on earth to watch the aurora borealis, and Spring is one of the best times to catch it too.

Go on adventures in Wales
Wales is home to some amazing landscapes, from challenging mountains and hills, to beautiful coastlines, rolling countryside and woodlands to explore. Check out these 360° videos and get planning your next adventure for when the lockdown is lifted. Filmed on location with a state of the art 360° camera rig to capture all the action, you can go coasteering, swim with dolphins, fly over a quarry on a zipline and more, all from the comfort of your own home. Check them out here.

Hike through famous National Parks from around the world Google Earth has used its cutting edge technology to create virtual tours of some of the best national parks across the globe. A total of 31 have been captured and digitally immortalised meaning the sweeping vistas of these bucket-list destinations can now be explored from the comfort of your front room.

From Yellowstone to Yosemite, The Grand Canyon and the Rocky Mountains, you can get a first-class look at these world-renowned natural landmarks without stepping a foot outdoors. Check them out here.

The most colourful communities on the planet
Take a wander down the streets of some of the most brightly coloured towns and villages found on earth, without moving off the sofa. Marvel at the paintbox palette of homes and buildings, get an up close look at the rainbow of beautiful colours and hues that make up these neighbourhoods. Walk the most colourful streets in the world here.

https://www.kentlive.news/whats-on/whats-on-news/how-take-virtual-trip-around-4021179, April 9, 2020

UNESCO is launching initiatives to support cultural industries and cultural heritage as billions of people around the world turn to culture for comfort and to overcome social isolation during the COVID-19 sanitary crisis, which is hitting the culture sector hard. “The global nature of the COVID-19 crisis is a call for the international community to reinvest in international cooperation and intergovernmental dialogue” said Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO.

“UNESCO is committed to leading a global discussion on how best to support artists and cultural institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, and ensure everyone can stay in touch with the heritage and culture that connects them to their humanity.” On Thursday, UNESCO launched a global social media campaign, #ShareOurHeritage to promote access to culture and education around cultural heritage during this time of mass confinement. UNESCO is also launching an online exhibition of dozens of heritage properties across the globe with technical support from Google Arts & Culture.

The Organization will furthermore provide up-to-date information through an online map on its website and through social media on the impact of, and responses to, COVID-19 on World Heritage sites, which are partly or fully closed to visitors in 89% of countries due to the pandemic. UNESCO will also share first-hand accounts by World Heritage site managers, who are particularly well placed to bear testimony on the impact of COVID-19 on the sites they manage and the communities living around them. Children around the world will be invited to share drawings of World Heritage properties, giving them the chance to express their creativity and their connection to heritage. Once the immediate crisis is over, the #Shareculture and #ShareOurHeritage campaigns will be maintained to share reflection on measures to safeguard World Heritage sites and promote sustainable tourism. On World Art Day, 15 April 2020, UNESCO, in partnership with electronic music pioneer and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Jean Michel Jarre, will host an online debate and social media campaign, the ResiliArt Debate, bringing together artists and key industry actors to sound the alarm on the impact of COVID-19 on the livelihoods of artists and cultural professionals.

The debate is designed to inform the development of policies and financial mechanisms that can help creators and communities overcome the crisis. Creators and creative workers around the world are encouraged to join the ResiliArt Debate on social media and invite fellow artists to showcase the work they produce during confinement. On 22 April, UNESCO will bring together the world’s Ministers of Culture in an online meeting on COVID-19 and its impact on culture. Building on the Forum of Ministers of Culture UNESCO hosted on 19 November 2019, the meeting will help Ministers exchange information and views on the impact of the health crisis on the cultural sector in their countries and identify remedial policy measures appropriate to their various national contexts.

“Now, more than ever, people need culture,” said Ernesto Ottone R., Assistant UNESCO Director-General for Culture. “Culture makes us resilient. It gives us hope. It reminds us that we are not alone. That is why UNESCO is doing all it can to support culture, to safeguard our heritage and empower artists and

creators, now and after this crisis has passed.” The closure of heritage sites, museums, theatres and cinemas and other cultural institutions is jeopardizing funding for artists and creative industries, and for the conservation of extraordinary places and the livelihoods of local communities and cultural professionals. COVID-19 has put many intangible cultural heritage practices, including rituals and ceremonies, on hold, impacting communities everywhere. It has also cost many jobs and across the globe, artists, most of whom rely on ancillary activities to supplement income from their art, are now unable to make ends meet.

https://indiaeducationdiary.in/unesco-supports-culture-and-heritage-during-covid-19- shutdown/, April 10, 2020

At a time when precious art and invaluable artefacts can't be tended to, what are the city's museums and galleries doing to safeguard heritage which we cannot afford to lose? Anupam Sah finds it telling that the need of the hour, for both humans and precious pieces of art, is conservation and prevention. Together with a critical team and security personnel, Sah, who is head conservator at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS), has been living on site, watching over its invaluable collections. "We have something called the Risk Assessment Protocol that was implemented when we realised the health crisis was mounting.

This was more was than a week before the national lockdown was announced. We had planned early, and that helped." By midMarch, the museum's director Sabyasachi Mukherjee, who has his residence on the property, chaired a series of meetings to assess the situation and identify risk factors. The protocol began with securing the perimeters of the museum and identifying the staff that had agreed to live on site.

The museum's galleries were given a clean-up, electrical units and climate control units checked. Ongoing restoration of the museum building was stopped in phases, and locks were changed in some sections of the building. A few priority items and artefacts were moved to the higher security area. Half-an-hour away in Byculla, inside the city's oldest museum—Dr Bhau Daji Lad City Museum (BDL)—a different approach was adopted to protect the collections.

"When we had restored the museum in 2007, museum expert Vinod Daniel had come on board. Having worked on temperature related issues and collection maintenance, he assured us that the heritage building and its exhibits didn't require air-conditioning," says Tasneem Mehta, of the 163-year-old magnificent colonial structure. Mehta, who is managing trustee and honorary director at BDL, shares that Daniel suggested this because Mumbai experiences stable temperatures all year through with marginal variations, compared to say, Delhi.

Which was a good thing. The problem was humidity. "All our airtight vintage wooden display cases hold inside them silica gel bowls to ensure moisture in the atmosphere is absorbed and humidity levels are in check. The newer cases have in-built temperature control. Ninety per cent of our objects are in good shape. We knew this [lockdown] was going to happen, and took ample care," she says. BDL is also home to the Mumbai office of The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), a non-profit that conserves heritage with the belief that living in harmony with heritage can enhance the quality of life. Here too, sensitive artefacts were locked in the company of silica gel.

Back at CSMVS, when the museum was sealed, they tweaked climate control settings to between 24 and 25 degrees Celsius, "because, in case humidity increases due to unforeseen heavy rain, the risk of condensation can be obviated due to the higher setting." Mukherjee says that the team is monitoring the health of the collections with a hawk eye. As per their established strategy, they have adopted the preventive conservation method. Temperature and humidity is also what the city's top art galleries factored in before shuttering for the lockdown. "It's fundamental to have an automated system in place that ensures climate control carries on. A month of lockdown will not affect us," believes Ashvin E Rajagopalan, director of Piramal Museum of Art. Worli art gallery Tao's Kalpana Shah and daughter Sanjana had

to consider the safety of over 2,000 works in their inventory. "The temperature and humidity in the stockroom continues to be controlled and the collections are safe from sunlight," says Sanjana, sharing that the temperature is currently maintained at a cool 20-22 degrees Celsius, the same as when the gallery was operational. Nature comes into play at many levels, more so at the well-ventilated CSMVS building whose wide airy corridors house ancient sculptures.

"We do a thorough physical check of the condition of the art collection every day because when visitors are away, the chance of recolonisation by microorganisms is high. We cover one section daily. The most virulent deteriorant is dust because it carries all fungal and chemical pollutants that can affect objects, but since the sealing of the museum and restriction on movement, there is negligible amount of dust, which is wonderful to see," says Sah, citing the lack of people and vehicular pollution as the main reasons.

"Most collections were made centuries ago in a period that saw far less pollution and population. It must be like a flashback for these objects, I imagine!" he laughs. At Worli's Priyasri Art Gallery, dehumidifiers have been installed in the storage area. Founder Priyasi Patodia says they are fortunate to have an in-house caretaker watch over the collection. Since the Shah family lives in the same building where Tao is housed, weekly checks on the inventory are possible. "However we did a final clean-up before the lockdown and froze all sales and movement.

We repackaged the more fragile works of mixed media that use thread, wood, and the oil works, that require more care. Our ongoing exhibition that celebrated the gallery's 20th anniversary remains on display [visible from the street below through the trademark, ceiling high windows], which we are monitoring," says Sanjana. Owner of Pundole Art Gallery, Dadiba Pundole admits that the lockdown caught him unaware. "Luckily, unlike museums, galleries deal with contemporary art where materials are stable; circulation of air and pre-set temperature levels should ensure the artworks are in good health." Fellow gallerist Pravina Mecklai is also relieved that the collection at Colaba's Jamaat is in good shape, with a staffer going across whenever possible for a quick check. While both, BDL and CSMVS have partnered with Google Arts and Culture, making their expansive collections available for viewing online, for some like Tao, if the lockdown extends to the next month, the Shahs will have to strip the gallery walls and move the works to the stock room.

Sah believes that like so many others who are making the most of the time they have on hand, it's important that his team engages in self and knowledge improvement. The team is using the time to study digital data and treatment records from their 10-year-old archives. "We will also observe patterns of conservation. Other departments of CSMVS are using this period constructively too," he says, "It's a happy place; the morale is high. We are getting to know each other better."

Silica gel can protect exhibits containing ivory, wood, textiles or paper (organic) for up to a month. In case of inorganic materials like metal, since they expand and contract due to heat changes, the silica gel needs to replaced less frequently. Risk Factors

Textiles and wood

Insects
Paper and leather
Fungus
Bronze objects high
Humidity

https://www.theindiantalks.com/news/india/best-bird-sanctuaries-in-india/39993/ , April 13, 2020

Just because you’re stuck at home does not mean you can’t add another place to your travel list. Orchha in Madhya Pradesh, India is a ‘hidden’ gem. It’s historical monuments adjacent to pristine nature narrate a story. I happened to be in Orchha, Madhya Pradesh, on the occasion of ‘Namaste Orchha’ festival, whose director Yasmin Kidwai said that, “Madhya Pradesh is a very underrated destination. While its wildlife is acknowledged, the state’s vast historical and architectural heritage is not. The state represents what best India has to offer.

Orchha is a part of these untold and undiscovered destinations in the state.” A small town in Bundelkhand region may have just emerged as the key to unleashing the rich potential of tourism in Madhya Pradesh, but it is a treasure trove of forts, rivers, forests, and cultures. So, to explore its historical and architectural heritage, I had decided to roam around the nooks and corners of the small town with a glorious past.

Colors of Architecture
Founded in the 18th century by Rudra Pratap Singh, Orchha became the capital of the Bundela Rajput dynasty. Planned along the river Betwa, the complex of forts, palaces, and cenotaphs surprise the visitors with the unexpected. While exploring them, legends come alive and you are lost in a labyrinth inducing curiosity.

Yes, this is Orchha. A vast canvas with all the colors of architecture and each color tells a unique and vibrant story. It is the only place in India where Lord Ram is worshipped as a King. The grand temples stand majestically against the landscape, merging the stories of valor of the Rajput Kings with those of the Gods.

Chhatris – Memorials of Rulers
Fourteen chhatris or cenotaphs line the Kanchan Ghat of the river Betwa. Built in the 17th and 18th centuries, chhatris are memorials spaces for the rulers of Orchha. Like the pyramids of Egypt, they were constructed to respect the dead, but no treasure can be found here. While watching the flowing river, walking through the green fields, you can marvel at their intricate beauty.

While passing through the square shape cenotaph of Vir Singh Deo, I felt as though I could spend hours admiring the structure. Splendid Palaces
Orchha, which means ‘hidden’, has a paradise of forts that need to be explored and admired for its blend of Mughal and Bundela architecture. To understand the grandeur of the past, one must visit the fort complex where Orchha’s rulers used to live. It is a delightful experience to watch the sunset from the jharokas built on the fort’s exteriors. From the top, you can see the entire town and three main structures of the fort – Raja Mahal, Jehangir Mahal, and Rai Praveen Mahal. Raja Mahal includes the Sheesh Mahal and every evening you can enjoy a light and sound show which narrates the story of the Bundelas.

It is one of the most historic monuments in the fort. Situated to the right of the quadrangle, is a palace built by Madhukar Shah. The plain exteriors crowned by chhatris, give way to interiors with exquisite murals, bold colors, and a variety of religious themes. Jehangir Mahal has intricate carvings and large verandahs at every step. Passing through several dungeon-like staircases and maze-like rooms will leave you in awe. Invited by the Bundela King, Jehangir came and ended up staying for a long time; this was constructed to honor him. The Jahangir Mahal is multi-story and offers spectacular views from its balconies.

Rai Praveen Mahal was constructed for the poetess and singer of the royal court at Orchha during the time of Raja Indramani. When Emperor Akbar heard about her beauty, he ordered to send her to Delhi. But, her commitment and love for Indramani forced Akbar to send her back to Orchha. The palace built for her is a low two-storied brick structure, designed to match the height of the trees in the surroundings. Now it is left with stories of the glorious past in its ruins.

Temple Tales
Raja Ram Temple is the main temple for the people of Orchha, where Ram is worshipped as king, not as a God. This complex was originally the palace of then-ruler, Madhukar Shah Judev, a devotee of Lord Krishna. His wife, Queen Ganesh Kunwari, worshipped Lord Rama and wanted to place his idol in the palace. At odds, the Queen set out to Ayodhaya.

Pleased by her prayers alongside river Sarayu, Lord Ram appeared in the form of a baby and agreed to go with her on the condition that he will be the king of Orchha and the first place she seats him will be his final place of stay. On returning, the queen placed him in the palace for the night. Next morning, when she tried to take the idol to the Chaturbhuj Temple, which was constructed for it, Lord Ram did not move; hence the palace became the Raja Ram temple. The Chaturbhuj Temple is dedicated to Lord Vishnu and constructed on a stone platform and is a rectangular building only reached by climbing a long flight of stairs. The temple has brown walls and beautifully carved high ceilings; a 202-meter-high ceiling is undoubtedly a unique feature of any Hindu temple.

You will not find any carvings in this temple but the beautiful blend of palace and temple architecture is impressive. Lotus emblems and other symbols of religious significances provide delicate exterior ornamentation. Within the sanctum, it is chastely plain with high, vaulted walls emphasizing its deep sanctity. Laxminarayan Temple is also a blend of fort and temple architecture. The interior is decorated with wall paintings and ceiling murals, which are vivid compositions. Although it’s a palatial temple with ongoing construction, you can still feel the serenity and calmness soothe your mind and body.

Homestays – An Emerging Concept
Maximum tourists are preferring to stay in homestays, which is an emerging market. Designer Anupama Dayal painted the walls of these simple but comfortable stays with the drawings of Gond art. “It is a repetitive motif albeit in completely different art styles in the frescos and the colorful Gond art. These lovely motifs symbolize the freedom and the link between earth, waters, and strong elements of Orchha,” she told. Suman Bajpai is a freelance writer, journalist, editor, translator, traveler, and storyteller based in Delhi. She has written more than 10 books on different subjects and translated around 130 books from English to Hindi.

https://indiacurrents.com/orchha-hidden-architectural-heritage/ , April 14, 2020

India can be described as heaven on earth, even more so when it comes to such activities as bird watching. The country has many bird sanctuaries in which the habitat needed for certain birds to prosper has been preserved. You may be surprised to hear that winter is ideal for bird watching as many migratory birds nest here during the cold months of other countries, adding to the already rich fauna. The best moments for bird watching are either early morning or near the twilight hours.

Keoladeo Ghana National Park, Rajasthan
Named the Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary in the past, this used to be a hunting spot for ducks for the maharajas and later the British. Since then, the name has been changed and it became a UNESCO World Heritage in 1985. You can take photos here or film the surroundings and on opticsandlab.com you can find some gadgets to help you. Here you’ll find over 370 species of birds, migratory and non-migratory, including the Siberian Crane, which comes here during winter.

The park is open all year long, but monsoon season often covers most of it during the rainy months. You can travel by walking, riding a bike or a boat – especially when water levels get too high. You’ll find the park about an hour away from Agra, the famous historical city where you can see the Taj Mahal. The entry fee in the park is 75 rupees for Indian citizens, while foreigners have to pay 500 rupees (about seven US dollars). The park is open from sunrise till sunset.

Mangalajodi, Odisha
These wetlands represent a highly popular destination for many water birds that migrate during the cold season. What is truly impressive here is that you’ll often have the chance of getting really close to them with your boat so you’ll be able to admire them even better. What makes this trip such a success is the eco-tourism that is communitybased. In the not so distant past, the villagers of the area used to hunt the birds, but now they changed their attitude as they discovered tourism can offer much more money.

This means they use their hunting skills to let you get as close as possible to many species of birds. The wetlands are about 1.5 hours away from Bhubaneshwar. The cost of visiting the area depends on several factors, but about 1,200 rupees for around two hours is a likely price to pay. The best time to visit it is during the winter months (December – February) when many migratory birds arrive in the area.

Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary, Karnataka
This is the largest bird sanctuary in the state of Karnataka and is made up of several islands and isles alongside the Cauvery River. These islands form major nesting grounds for many species of birds which made the area turn into a wildlife sanctuary in the year 1940. While you’ll see many birds, be careful of the crocodiles as well! You can take a boat to visit it, but you’ll be able to walk on foot in the same areas as well. You’ll find the sanctuary about 30 minutes away from Mysore. Again, the prices are different for citizens and foreign tourists, as Indians have to pay 70 rupees to visit it, while foreign tourists have to pay 400 rupees for the experience. A 20-minute group safari in a boat has the same prices as above for Indians and foreigners. You may also hire a private boat, which is probably even better, and you won’t have to pay too much for it. The place is open between 8.30 am and 6 pm. The best months for visiting are January to March.

https://www.theindiantalks.com/news/india/best-bird-sanctuaries-in-india/39993/ , April 13, 2020

As we approach Earth Day 2020, I’m reminded of some of the social distancing “silver linings” I’ve seen shared on the internet. Dolphins reappearing in Venetian canals, increased visibility of the Himalayas in India, etc. While some of these reports are exaggerated, I understand the appeal of wanting to find hope in the midst of this crisis. I hope that the Coronavirus catastrophe does have some of these positive impacts and that it’s not all just wishful thinking.

A Word on Local Produce
One such silver lining may be that, more than ever, people are looking to support local. Not just local storefronts, but local farmers as well. Our family ordered eggs, milk and meat from Prairie Creek Farms for the first time. It was delivered to our door for free just a couple days after ordering, and so delicious! Another option is to subscribe to LocalFarmOK. They have a couple of subscription bags that can be delivered weekly or bi-weekly for as little as $19.99 a week. Beyond the subscription bags, you can order additional items as well. And the Tulsa Farmers Market has a vendor list, complete with contact and ordering information, if you’re missing your local farmers market. But this article is about Earth Day Crafts, so without further ado, here are some fun, stay-athome activities to do with your kids this Earth Day.

1. Yarn-Wrapped Sticks
My son’s school is decorated in natural art that the kids have made. So we tried some at home! Hunt for an interesting stick (not too skinny), then wrap it in yarn. Try to keep the yarn wrapped tightly, with few gaps showing. Don’t forget to knot it on the ends! It’s beautiful as-is, but if you have some beads lying around, you can tie additional strands of yarn to the branch, hanging down. Thread beads on these strands, and knot at the bottom. Use one more piece of thread to make a hanger so you can hang your artwork on the wall, from the ceiling, etc.

2. Beaded Stick Arrangement
A variation on the turn-sticks-into-art theme is to get skinny sticks and place the beads directly onto them. Put the sticks in a vase, and you’ve got a beautiful arrangement that will never go bad! Straighter sticks may work best–if they are too curved at the ends, the beads might fall off! And if you have a variety of beads, that will add to the interest of the piece. Feel free to paint the sticks before beading, and consider painting a recycled glass bottle for the vase as well!

3. Nature Portraits
Start by gathering natural materials outside. Leaves, flowers, rocks, grass, etc. Next, arrange them to create a face, animal, or whatever your imagination comes up with! 4. Flower Paintbrushes

If you’re like us, your kids have been doing a lot of painting lately. So switch it up by hunting for some natural materials you can use as paintbrushes! What textures or patterns do you get by using different types of flowers? Here is a recipe for taste-safe paint you can make at home using just dry milk powder, water and food colors.

5. Pinecone Bird Feeders
Coat a pinecone in crisco or peanut butter, then roll it in birdseed. Tie a piece of yarn to the top, and hang it in your yard!

6. Maple Seed Dragon Flies
If you take a walk around the neighborhood, no doubt you’ll see an abundance of maple seed “helicopters.” Gather a few, as well as some small, straight twigs. Glue the maple leafs onto the twigs and decorate with paint, glitter, etc. Now you have a dragonfly!

7. Plaster of Paris Nature Imprints
One thing we learned while doing this craft was to make sure you let your Plaster of Paris set slightly before adding your natural elements. Otherwise, they just sink to the bottom, leaving holes when removed.

8. Rock Painting
Gather rocks, and use acrylic paints to create your preferred design. Think about the shape of the rock: What does it remind you of? How can your painting reflect that? Use a spray-on sealer if you want to protect your paintings afterwards. When you’re done painting, leave your rocks around your neighborhood so people can find a fun surprise! Other Activities

In addition to these crafts, some other Earth Day-inspired activities include: Do our Neighborhood Naturalist Scavenger Hunt. You can also create your own Outdoor Scavenger Hunt. For example, see if you can find every color of the rainbow! You can also plant a seed and track its progress over the coming weeks! Joss’s class at school is enjoying watching the growth of their two tomato plants, Elizabeth the Bolting Seedling and Twinkles. It’s been amazing to watch how quickly the plants sprout and grow–over an inch per day sometimes! They started out inside and have now moved outside to a larger pot.

This has provided lots of discussion prompts for the class as well. For example, what do seeds need to grow? Why might they need to move to a bigger pot? Etc. And you can always paint a fun design on their pot as well! Another Earth Day activity that’s on my radar is this Picnic in Place event hosted by Myriad Botanical Gardens and the Oklahoma Nature Conservatory. Hopefully we will have a beautiful Earth Day, making it the perfect day to plan an outdoor picnic.

Eat in your back yard, or consider bringing a blanket and basket to a park (keeping in mind safe social distancing, of course!!). How are you celebrating Earth Day this year? Let me know in the comments!

https://www.tulsakids.com/8-nature-inspired-earth-day-crafts/ , April 15, 2020

Puthandu, or Puthuvarusham is the Tamil New Year, the first day of the month Chithirai on the Tamil calendar. On this day, Tamil people greet each other by saying "Puthaa du ṇ vaazhthugal. People prepare by cleaning the house the night before. They believe that for a new beginning, the old negativity must be thrown out first. The festival morning begins with a ritual called 'Kanni' i.e. ‘auspicious sight’. Poila Boishakh is the Bengali New Year. Boishakh is the first month of the Bengali calendar, and Poila stands for First. So, Poila Boishakh literally means the first day of the month of Boishakh, thus, marking the beginning of a new year. People greet each other saying, Shubho Noboborsho where Naba means New and Barsho mean Year, together means New Year.

Vishu – Malayalam New Year. In Sanskrit language 'Vishu' means 'equal'. The festival of Vishu heralds the beginning of the Malayalee New Year and the festival is celebrated in a big way in Kerala and the adjoining areas of Tamil Nadu. This festival signifies prosperity and is a festival of harvest. The most important event of the festival is “Vishukkani” means the first object viewed in the morning. It is one of the most popular traditional celebration festival followed by people of Kerala.

Bohaag Bihu the most important festival of Assam, celebrates both the beginning of a new year and the harvesting season. It is usually celebrated with much fanfare by the Ahomiyas (natives of Assam). They seek the blessings of the almighty for a prosperous year while farmers extend gratitude for a good harvest. Baisakhi or Vaisakhi is a spring harvest festival for Sikhs and Hindus. It marks the Sikh new year and commemorates the formation of Khalsa panth of warriors under Guru Gobind Singh in 1699. Vaisakhi is also an ancient festival of Hindus, marking the Solar New Year and also celebrating the spring harvest.

Baisakhi or Vaisakhi is a spring harvest festival for Sikhs and Hindus. It marks the Sikh new year and commemorates the formation of Khalsa panth of warriors under Guru Gobind Singh in 1699. Vaisakhi is also an ancient festival of Hindus, marking the Solar New Year and also celebrating the spring harvest.

Gudi Padwa – Marathi New Year. The phrase “Gudi Padwa” is coined from two words— Gudi meaning Brahma’s flag and Padwa, Padva or Paddava meaning the first day of the bright phase of the moon. Predominantly celebrated in the state of Maharashtra, Gudi Padwa marks the beginning of the harvest season. The day is celebrated as New Year’s Day for the people of Maharashtra, as per the lunisolar Hindu calendar.

Losoong – Sikkimese New Year. Losoong is a traditional festival of the Bhutias, but the Lepchas also celebrate it and call it Namsoong. The festival has been adapted from the traditions and rituals of the Tibetan New Year 'Losar’. The festival is organised at the Phodong and Rumtek Monasteries in Sikkim.

Ugadi – Telugu New Year. Ugadi ushers in a celebratory mood in the states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana. For the people of these states, Ugadi symbolises the beginning of the New Year as per the Hindu calendar. It is an occasion that is traditionally celebrated with day-long festivities. People undertake new ventures during Ugadi as it is considered to be an auspicious time for doing so. Vishua Sankranti in Orissa. Maha Vishuba Sankranti is the traditional new year day festival of Buddhists and Hindus in Odisha. The festival falls on the first day of the traditional solar month of Mesha, identical to the purnimanta system of lunar month Baisakh (the 24th day of Chaitra).

Navreh – Kashmiri New Year. The word 'Navreh' is derived from Sanskrit 'Nava Varsha' meaning the New Year. Kashmiri Pandits celebrate their New Year's Day, Navreh, on the first day of the bright fortnight of the month of Chaitra. On the eve of Navreh, which falls on Amavasya or the last night of the dark fortnight, they keep a thali filled with rice, a cup of curds, a bread, cooked rice, some walnuts, an inkpot and a pen, a silver coin and the Panchanga of the New Year, as the first thing to be seen at the Brahma Muhurta or the wee hours.

https://gulfnews.com/photos/lifestyle/10-new-year-festivals-india-celebrates-across-the-year-1.1586863193279?slide=10 , April 15, 2020

As a travel journalist and someone who cares deeply about the future of our planet, the moral dilemma of air travel is something I constantly grapple with. I’ve reduced the number of trips I take, buy carbon offsets when I travel and focus my assignments on stories that allow me to tackle conservation issues whenever possible. But the positive effect these measures have had is hard to quantify. What isn’t as nebulous is this: when the world stays home, the planet benefits. There’s nothing good about the coronavirus, but with a ban on non-essential travel and some countries in lockdown, we’re able to witness what happens to the Earth when we’re largely absent for the first time. Satellite images published by NASA and the European Space Agency detected a reduction in nitrogen dioxide emissions (which come predominantly from the burning of fossil fuels) from January to February in China, due to the economic slowdown during quarantine.

Findings by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) show that China’s carbon dioxide emissions (which also come from fossil fuel combustion) have reduced by 25% because of measures taken to contain the coronavirus. During Italy’s quarantine, similar satellite data has shown a drop in nitrogen dioxide emissions in the country’s northern region; and waterways in Venice appear cleaner because of a drastic reduction in tourist boat traffic (though, much to the chagrin of animal lovers, the photos circulating of dolphins frolicking in the canals were actually taken nearly 800km away in Sardinia). In India, a nationwide curfew on 22 March resulted in the lowest average level of nitrogen dioxide pollution ever recorded in spring, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).

And as North America (one of the world’s major polluters) enters a major economic downturn, it’s likely we’ll see similar effects there. Of course, a global health crisis is not the answer to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but the phenomenon should give us cause to reflect on the impact human activity has on the planet – including how we travel. Restrictions on non-essential travel means airlines are grounding planes, drastically slashing flights or suspending operations completely. While data on the specific environmental outcomes of reduced aviation is yet to be published, we know it’s likely to have a significant impact. A 2017 study conducted by researchers at the Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies in Sweden (LUCSUS) in partnership with the University of British Columbia showed that there are three personal choices we can make to quickly cut a lot of greenhouse gas emissions: reduce air and car travel, as well as meat consumption.

A 2018 study published in Nature Climate Change showed that emissions from tourism add up to 8% of the global total, with flying making up the largest share of this. “By far, the biggest action we can take is to stop flying or to fly less,” said Kimberly Nicholas, a sustainability scientist at LUCSUS. “One round-trip flight from New York to London is the equivalent of about two years of eating meat [in terms of personal carbon footprint].” In light of these startling statistics – in conjunction with the visible signs of environmental relief we’ve seen as the world stays home to beat Covid-19 – the question needs to be posed: when we can travel again, should we? “There's just no way to have a safe climate and the business-as-usual plan with the aviation industry,” said Nicholas. If we want to meet the Paris Agreement’s target of limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels by 2030, we need to make significant changes to how we travel.

Part of this is going to have to come from within the airline and transportation industries. Some airlines are making headway through research into innovations like biofuel and electric-powered aircraft. “There's still a lot of potential fuel economy that could be gained from redesigning aircraft to be more efficient,” said Colin Murphy, deputy director of The Policy Institute for Energy, Environment and the Economy at University of California, Davis. “If you're using waste oil, biofuels typically get about 60% greenhouse gas reductions compared to conventional petroleum,” he added. The amount of land needed to grow new sources of biofuel – renewable fuel derived from organic materials – could pose a problem, however. And while there’s potential for electric-powered aircraft, Murphy notes that limited battery technology means this will never be a viable solution for long-haul flights.

Even if we succeed with these technological innovations, we still need to change our approach to travel as individuals. Just as the planet seems to be taking a breath right now, we’ve also been offered an opportunity for introspection. The coronavirus pandemic has forced us to see how interconnected the people, systems and organisations in our world are. While this revelation has been devastating in terms of how quickly the virus has spread globally, it’s also shown us how we’re able to unite and act as individuals for the collective good. We’ve practised social distancing to protect the elderly and immune-compromised; we’ve cheered healthcare workers on from our balconies; and shared the message to #stayhome on social media. When Covid-19 is behind us, we need to once again look outside ourselves and take individual action for the good of the planet.

Just as coronavirus has forced our lives to slow down, we should consider a slower, more thoughtful approach to travel. There’s an authentic connection that comes with a place when we take the time to understand its people, culture and natural beauty in a meaningful way. This can’t be achieved with superficial port-to-port itineraries – we could also do without the environmental wreckage that a lot of large cruise ships leave in their wake – or by hopping around to a legion of countries in two weeks. It might mean taking one longer trip per year instead of packing in five or six shorter ones, which would drastically reduce our carbon footprint. “Overtourism is just another form of overconsumption,” said Shannon Stowell, CEO of the Adventure Travel Trade Association and sustainable travel advocate. “I'm fine seeing tourism numbers lower overall and for the quality of tourism to increase, where people understand the destination better and have a positive impact on it versus overcrowding and pollution and wildlife habitat loss – which are all outcomes of too much tourism,” he added. We can also alleviate some of the environmental stress of travel simply by keeping more of our adventures local.

“This is actually the biggest impact we can have,” said Nicholas. “I used to be a frequent flyer, but I’ve found other ways to find that kind of novelty and adventure. Basically, slow travel and self-powered travel.” This might look like enjoying your local beach instead of one in Mexico and saving your carbon budget for a more impactful trip. When we do fly, we can purchase carbon offsets. “Carbon offsets help and they absolutely move the needle,” said Murphy.

They're not as good as actually reducing the emissions from travel so you're not completely undoing all the harm, but they help.” When trying to decide what kind of offset to purchase, it’s vital to donate to a project that’s additional, meaning that it didn’t exist beforehand. So, when you donate to a

http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20200415-how-can-we-be-sustainable-post-covid-19 , April 16, 2020

People have always been obsessed with building such structures that not only last long but also defy the laws of physics. These constructions range from the Hanging Gardens of Babylon to the modern skyscrapers in Dubai that touch the clouds. Building on the water is another bold step by people in their quest to conquer the impossible. Here are some of the most impressive constructions.

Burj Al Arab, Dubai Burj Al Arab (Arab Tower) is a luxury hotel in Dubai. It is one of the tallest hotels in the world and the seventh-tallest in the world. Burj Al Arab is located on an artificial island and is connected to the mainland by a private curved bridge. The shape of the structure is designed to look like a ship’s sail. It has a helipad near the roof at a height of 210 meters above the ground. The Virgin of the Rocks, Montenegro The Virgin of the Rocks is one of two islands (the other is St.

George -Sveti Đorđe) located in front of the city of Perast, in the Gulf of Kotor, in Montenegro. It is part of the National and Historical-Political Area of Kotor, which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. It is an artificial island on which the homonymous church (of the Virgin of the Rocks) is built, while there is a museum and a shop. The church was built in 1632 and ninety years later it was expanded and the dome was built. The building has undergone a series of renovations over the centuries and is now a famous museum.

Veluwemeer Aqueduct, Netherlands It is a bridge like no other that connects the country with Flevopolder, also known as the largest artificial island in the world. The aqueduct is 25 meters long and 19 meters wide. It has a depth of 3 meters which allows small yachts to easily pass over the tunnel. About 28,000 vehicles pass by every day and there is a pedestrian crossing equipped for the public to enjoy the view.

Jal Mahal, India Jal Mahal Palace is located on Lake Shangar Lake and was the home of the Rajput kings, who were obsessed with architecture. Built-in the 18th century by Maharaja Jai Singh II, the palace covers an area of 121 hectares and is one of the most visited and photographed buildings. Unfortunately for future visitors, the historic palace will be converted into a hotel and will not be accessible to many locals.

Pampus, Netherlands Going further south, to the center of the country, the artificial island of Pampus, which was created in the late 19th century and is located near Amsterdam, in IJmeer and belongs to the defensive line of Amsterdam (Stelling van Amsterdam), is remarkable. It is open to the public in April-October. The fortress survived many historical events, such as World War II, when it was looted and abandoned by Amsterdam residents.

Peberholm, Denmark The artificial island of Peberholm is located in the Eresund Strait and belongs to Denmark. It was created as part of the dismantling of the Eresund Bridge, which connects Copenhagen with Malm., Sweden. The main reason for the construction of the island was to have a crossroads between the submarine tunnel and the bridge. The tunnel was built to give large ships the opportunity to cross the Eresund without worrying about the height of the bridge. Another reason is that it would cause a problem at Kastrup Airport, which is close to the edge of the bridge.

Deeg Water Palace, India Built between Rup Sagar and Gopal Sagar lakes, the palace was built for Jat leaders and designed in the same style as the Mughal, which is unique in Ankara and Delhi. The construction of the palace was completed in 1772. Deeg Water is now open to visitors.

Ile aux Cygnes, France Ile aux Cygnes is an artificial island built on the Seine River in Paris in 1827 to protect the Pont de Grenell Bridge. Ile aux Cygnes is full of trees, while a copy of the Statue of Liberty adorns it. The island is crossed by three bridges, the Pont de Bir-Hakeim, the Pont Roulle and the Pont de Grenell. Kansai Airport, Japan Engineers in Japan designed an airport on an artificial island to deal with earthquakes and tsunamis. Three mountains, 10,000 workers and more than 80 ships were needed to build Kansai Airport from 1987 to 1990. It officially opened in 1994 and is still operating without any problems to date. Venetian Islands, USA They are located in Miami and are a collection of artificial islands that have existed since the 1920s. The area now hosts over 13,000 inhabitants and consists of beautiful buildings and trees that do not testify that the whole ground is artificial.

https://ceoworld.biz/2020/04/16/top-10-architectural-wonders-built-on-the-water/ , April 17, 2020

The COVID-19 crisis has dealt a body blow to the tourism industry, ranging from travel companies and hotels to tour operators and heritage site staff. But many monuments and wildlife parks now offer online viewing, ranging from photo galleries to interactive tours.During the extended lockdown, billions of citizens around the world are flocking online to share memories of their travels in better days, and making lists of ‘Top Three Places to Visit’ once the lockdown ends. Every year, April 18 is designated as World Heritage Day, to increase awareness about cultural and natural diversity. It spans monuments, historical sites, and national parks.

Broader interpretations also include other forms like handicrafts, music and cuisine. World Heritage Day is ratified by UNESCO, and was first proposed by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS). Objectives include preservation and promotion of sites of cultural importance, and appreciating their universal value.

Irrespective of our interpretation of history, it is vital that we preserve these symbols of our past. The theme this year is ‘Shared Cultures, Shared Heritage, Shared Responsibility.’ Earlier themes for World Heritage Day included Rural Landscapes, Heritage for Generations, Sustainable Tourism, Sacred Places, and The Heritages of Agriculture, Sport, Water, Education, and Commemoration. Even during times of lockdown, a number of innovative initiatives are springing up.

For example, Google Arts & Culture provides free online access to a number of cultural heritage sites around the world. South Africa is promoting virtual tours of Robben Island (where Nelson Mandela spent 18 years in prison). The city of Bath is offering online activities on its website. They include sharing family experiences with designing a mosaic, planning the town centre, and constructing a column. The Archaeological Survey of India plans to have a special lighting of candles and lamps at Delhi monuments like Red Fort and Qutub Minar.

The Bengaluru chapter of INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage) is organising a series of online talks on topics like documentation and conservation of performance spaces. Others activities include quizzes on iconic landmarks, slideshows, and VR/AR games. Webinars are being conducted by the International Institute for the Inclusive Museum and the International Centre for Inclusive Cultural Leadership.

India has 38 designated heritage sites, the sixth largest number in the world. They include 30 cultural sites and seven natural sites (eg. Kaziranga National Park, Manas Wildlife Sanctuary, Sundarbans National Park). The compilation of quotes in this column salutes the visionaries, architects, designers, engineers, labourers, and staff who built and maintain heritage sites and parks around the world.

The quotes reflect gratitude to the artistic and humanistic spirit across all ages, and reinforce the importance of creativity, hope, and connectedness in these dark hours. The quotes in this compilation are drawn from YourStory articles on art and heritage, as well as a range of online resources. The photographs are from our weekend PhotoSparks section on art. See also our compilations of quotes on the occasion of World Art Day, and Top Quotes of 2019 on Design and Art.

A city is born from a tangle of monuments and infrastructures, culture and market, national history and everyday stories.

Renzo Piano A concerted effort to preserve our heritage is a vital link to our cultural, educational, aesthetic, inspirational and economic legacies - all of the things that quite literally make us who we are.Steve Berry

A contempt of the monuments and the wisdom of the past, may be justly reckoned one of the reigning follies of these days, to which pride and idleness have equally contributed. - Samuel Johnson

A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots. - Marcus Garvey

Ancient monuments are full of wisdom, for they have been filled with what they have seen and heard for hundreds of years! - Mehmet Murat ildan Culture consists of connections, not of separations: to specialise is to isolate. - Carlos

Fuentes Death comes to all, but great achievements build a monument which shall endure until the sun grows cold. - Ralph Waldo Emerson Heritage does not equal destiny. - Cate Tiernan History is a clock that people use to tell their political and cultural time of day. It is a compass they use to find themselves on the map of human geography. It tells them where they are but, more importantly, what they must be. - John Henrik Clarke History should belong to all of us, and it needs to include people from different cultural backgrounds. - Malorie Blackman

In all of us there is a hunger, marrow-deep, to know our heritage, to know who we are and where we came from. - Alex Haley India is not, as people keep calling it, an underdeveloped country, but rather, in the context of its history and cultural heritage, a highly developed one in an advanced state of decay. - Shashi Tharoor

Instead of causing us to remember the past like the old monuments, the new monuments seem to cause us to forget the future. - Robert Smithson It is time that we start building living monuments to hope and possibility. - Majora Carter Just as a tree without roots is dead, a people without history or cultural roots also becomes a dead people. - Malcolm X

Maintaining one’s culture, values and traditions is beyond price. - Getano Lui Monuments and archaeological pieces serve as testimonies of man's greatness and establish a dialogue between civilisations showing the extent to which human beings are linked. - Vicente Fox Monuments are for the living, not the dead. - Frank Wedekind Monuments are the grappling-irons that bind one generation to another. - Joseph Joubert Monuments differ in different periods. Each age has its own. - Philip Johnson Our rich and varied cultural heritage has a profound power to help build our nation. - Nelson Mandela

Peace has its victories no less than war, but it doesn't have as many monuments to unveil. - Kin Hubbard

People tend to believe that to be modern you have to disengage from your heritage, but it's not true. - Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned People who alter or destroy works of art and our cultural heritage for profit or as an exercise of power are barbarians. - George Lucas

Profundity and daring attempts at it are what separate our cultural touchstones from the white noise of daily communication. - Stewart Stafford So much of our future lies in preserving our past. - Peter Westbrook Success follows those adept at preserving the substance of the past by clothing it in the forms of the future. - Dee Hock The risk of the Holocaust is not that it will be forgotten, but that it will be embalmed and surrounded by monuments and used to absolve all future sins. - Zygmunt Bauman The world may need fixing, but it's worth preserving. - Rick Riordan

To know nothing of what happened before you, is to forever remain a child. - Cicero Tombs are the clothes of the dead and a grave is a plain suit; while an expensive monument is one with embroidery. - R Buckminster Fuller

We have been the benefactors of our cultural heritage and the victims of our cultural narrowness. - Stanley Krippner When you think about your heritage, you think about toughness and hard work. - Jeff

Garcia Without an understanding of history, we are politically, culturally and socially impoverished. - Antony Beevor

You don't stumble upon your heritage. It's there, just waiting to be explored and shared. - Robbie Robertson

Effective conservation happens through enlightenment. - Arun Kumar Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul. - John Muir

Great national symbols and our national park system belong to all of us, both legally and spiritually. - Edwin C Bearss In wilderness, I sense the miracle of life, and behind it our scientific accomplishments fade to trivia. - Charles Lindbergh

If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them something more than the miracles of technology. We must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning. - Lyndon B. Johnson

If you know wilderness in the way that you know love, you would be unwilling to let it go.... This is the story of our past and it will be the story of our future. - Terry Tempest Williams

Mountains are earth's undecaying monuments. - Nathaniel Hawthorne The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness. - John Muir The parks are the nation's pleasure grounds and the nation's restoring places. - J. Horace McFarland

The wilderness and the idea of wilderness is one of the permanent homes of the human spirit. - Joseph Wood Krutch

The wilderness holds answers to questions man has not yet learned to ask. - Nancy Newhall We need the possibility of escape as surely as we need hope. - Edward Abbey

https://yourstory.com/2020/04/quotes-world-heritage-day-coronavirus , April 20, 2020

Every year, April 22 is celebrated as the global Earth Day. The year 2020 marks 50 years since the start of this modern environmental movement in 1970. With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic—as most parts of the world remain under lockdown, the Earth Day has gone digital to keep up the momentum. The theme for this year is Climate Action.

"The impact of the coronavirus is both immediate and dreadful. But there is another, deep emergency—the planet’s unfolding environmental crisis.

Climate disruption is approaching a point of no return. We must act decisively to protect our planet from both the coronavirus and the existential threat of climate disruption. The current crisis is an unprecedented wake-up call. We need to turn the recovery into a real opportunity to do things right for the future,” said António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, in his message for the day. On Wednesday, the 50th anniversary of Earth Day will be celebrated by different types of digital events—global conferences, calls to action, performances, and video teach-ins to name a few.

Moreover, many online activities will be focused on different environmental issues across the globe.

How Earth Day started
The idea to initiate Earth Day came from the US Senator Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin in 1969. Driven by a deep concern over the deteriorating environmental conditions due to oil spills and rising air pollution in the 1960s, he initiated environmental movements to educate people about its ill effects on both human and environmental health. The first Earth Day was organised on April 22, 1970. About 20 million people—nearly 10% of the US population—are said to have participated in this pioneering environmental movement to spread the message of protecting natural biodiversity and put forth their concern over environmental deterioration. In 1970, the participants took to the streets, college campuses, parks from different cities to protest against environmental ignorance and demanded better conservation measures for the only habitable planet in the solar system. The movement was a significant victory and led to the launch of several landmark environmental programmes and laws, including Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts, and created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the US.

The first Earth Day inspired several such environmental movements across the globe. Several countries eventually adopted laws to safeguard the environment.

Moreover, on this day in 2016, the United Nations opened the Paris Agreement on climate change for signing. After 50 years of this journey, Earth Day continues to hold major international significance, and is celebrated with full enthusiasm to inspire protection of the natural wealth.
2020 theme: Climate Action

The theme set for this year’s Earth Day is Climate Action. As glaciers continue to melt, droughts and floods increase, species go extinct, heat waves get intense, and weather patterns change, the call for climate action has grown louder than ever. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has warned of severe impacts if the warming crosses 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. The change is majorly attributed to the increase in carbon emission over the past few decades due to human activities. In this context, the main objective of the day will be to educate the masses—about greenhouse gases, an increase in carbon emissions and individual carbon footprints.

The day will bring together experts and influencers from diverse fields to engage in a dialogue and spread the message of climate action. From simple lifestyle changes to driving local or national climate policy, every one of us has the potential to contribute to mitigating climate change. As the world has come to a screeching halt, this Earth Day reminds us that the time is ripe to rethink about the future of planet Earth.

https://yourstory.com/2020/04/quotes-world-heritage-day-coronavirus , April 20, 2020

The repository of heritage is we—the people of India, and not they—the ‘custodians’ of India. Just a few months ago, I visited the JJ College of Architecture in Mumbai to deliver a lecture. The moment I was on the campus, I was surprised by what I saw. It seemed I had entered a premises in Shimla, a town that is not just thousands of kilometres away, but also at an elevation of 8,000 feet above Mumbai. The buildings on the JJ College campus resembled those in Shimla. Every year, 18 April is marked as World Heritage Day, a day that serves as a reminder to us all to commit to protect historic monuments and consider them our shared heritage. The theme for 2020 is: shared culture, shared heritage and shared responsibility.

This theme is all the more legitimate today, when the Covid-19 pandemic fuels a global crisis. To focus on global unity while a worldwide health crisis unfolds is a way to not just recognise that world heritage is connected with landscapes, monuments, places, but also that it should be valued by all diverse groups and communities. The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), a body responsible for conservation of monuments and sites all over the world has emphasised that people must realise the importance of sharing knowledge between generations which can promote conservation and protect our cultural heritage. India holds centuries-old heritage and it must urgently transmit it to its younger generations, and across spaces: this is why the parallel between Mumbai and Shimla is important.

And yet it is only one instance of our shared legacy. Indian architecture and monuments speak to the diversity our country holds within it. Architectural forms in the country have encompassed a multitude of expressions over time and space, and in it new ideas have developed as history advanced. Right from the Indus Valley Civilisation, which is almost 4,000 years old, the inhabitants of this region have imagined cities. The innumerable religious structures built during the Chola, Maurya and the Gupta empires, and during the reign of their successors, especially the Buddhists, have left deep impressions on each other and added to the cultural diversity of the region.

The Ajanta and Ellora caves and the Sanchi Stupa are a few amongst them. Similarly the Sun Temple at Konark, Chennakeshava Temple at Belur, Hoysaleswara Temple at Halebidu followed by the large forts constructed by the Rajput rulers are part of this combined heritage. The advent of Mughal period and its influence on the architecture is quite evident. Qutub Complex, Red Fort at Delhi, Fatehpur Sikri, Taj Mahal etc., pose the imbibed heritage of the country and are symbols of commonality. The colonial rule in India by the British and in some parts by the Portugese, left a legacy of magnificent buildings. The development of the Indo-Saracenic style and its inter-mixing with several other styles can be vividly witnessed in the heritage of Indian architecture.

The Victoria Memorial and Chatrapati Shivaji terminus are two examples. There are thousands of monuments and buildings that stand today and are part of the common heritage that we all share. Interestingly, when the British shifted to Delhi and built the Central Vista and Lutyens Delhi, they did not impose the British architecture. Rather, as Swapna Liddle, a historian, points out, the magnificent buildings of the Parliament, the Rashtrapati Bhawan, the North and the South Blocks are an admixture of the so called Indian ethos. The red sand stone was used with domes on top of the buildings. Hence, the construction of the Central Vista was an answer to the national freedom movement exhibiting that what the British were constructing is part of the Indian legacy. But as we celebrated this World Heritage Day, there is a threat to this common heritage and the buildings that have outlived generations together. Is this common heritage valued by multiple and diverse groups? This is for all of us to ponder.

We have already witnessed a vicious campaign to generate animosity towards this shared culture in the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on 6 December 1992. The fanatics do not want to settle matters there, of course. Rather there are a few more buildings and monuments on their radar and hence we will find a more concerted effort in the years to come for fostering hatred towards a monument or a building, which according to them is not “theirs”. Sohail Hashmi, an expert on the historic monuments in Delhi describes how the capital city of Delhi had seven different periods of rule. Invariably all of the rulers left a deep imprint on its buildings and monuments. In some of the old forts in Delhi, one monument exposes different layers of brick, mortar and other engineering advancements.

Now such monuments cannot be appended to one period, rather, he says, these are part of a conjoint heritage. However, this does not make any relevance to the present rulers and they are bent on reviving the ancient and the mediaeval monuments, which were ascribed to the Hindu rulers and not a mention to the Mughal and British periods. Interestingly, this feeling can be seen in the NUPF (National Urban Policy Framework) where in the 10 sutras there is reference to the Indian cities and their engineering advancements including monuments and buildings, but not a reference to the Mughal and British period architecture. In these times, there is a big challenge to this form of historicity, which is not just common but also very diverse. The uniformity that the present rulers want to thrust upon all of us is dangerous for the overall environment in the country. The latest executive attack on this diverse heritage is in the form of redevelopment of the Central Vista (CV) and the proposed changes in the TOD (transit-oriented development) policies.

A new parliament is being proposed to be constructed at a time when the country requires more resources to fight the pandemic of Covid-19. The old Parliament, North and South Blocks and the President’s estate are considered as a colonial legacy and hence should not be paid heed to. Rather, the present BJP government wants to spend money on building a new Parliament building along with other buildings, thus ruining the heritage of the CV and the Lutyen’s Delhi. I would like to conclude with an anecdote on ‘colonial heritage’. I was Deputy Mayor of Shimla from 2012 and 2017. Shimla town wears a British look for the simple reason that it was developed by them. One of the chief justices of Himachal Pradesh High Court, through a judicial order, pronounced that the city must get rid of the colonial legacy and allowed the use of motor cars to the Ridge. To those who are new to Shimla, it is a mountain town where just 25% houses have access to motorable roads, rest of the city walks or uses pedestrian paths. In some of the important places like the Ridge, the Mall etc., no movement of cars is allowed. The judge said that he will be the first one to take his car to the Ridge and called upon the citizens also to drive through the place.

The next day he was the lone car-owner taking his car to the Ridge and not a single citizen drove to that place. This is part of the combined and imbibed heritage that we owe. Later, the High Court order was set aside by the Supreme Court of India. Hence, the repository of this heritage is ‘we’ the people of India and not ‘they’ the custodians of India. We have to reclaim that right, earlier the better.

https://www.newsclick.in/world-heritage-day-shared-culture-heritage-responsibility , April 21, 2020

Odisha’s ‘Manabasa Gurubara’, ‘Chhau Dance’ and ‘Rabana Chhaya Dance’ have been included among 106 items listed in Intangible Cultural Heritage list released by the Union culture ministry, a government notification said.

Releasing the list Saturday, Union culture minister Prahlad Singh Patel said 13 traditions of Indian Intangible Cultural Heritages were already recognised by UNESCO, and the national list was an attempt to further raise awareness and protect these practices. “This initiative is a part of the ministry’s Vision 2024 programme.

In the list released on the ministry’s website, a total of 106 practices from different states are mentioned, though some are repeated as they occur in more than one state and five elements are common to the entire country,” Patel said. The Intangible Cultural Heritage list has five broad categories such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, knowledge and practices related to nature and traditional craftsmanship. It may be mentioned here that Chhau Dance originated in Mayurbhanj district of Odisha and is widely performed in Mayurbhanj and Balasore districts.

It is based on the martial arts tradition where the dancers tell the tales of Hindu epics such as Ramayana, Mahabharata, Puranas and other classical Indian literature in a dance form. Manabasa Gurubara is a festival widely celebrated by Hindu families across the state to please the Goddess of Wealth Laxmi. It is held every Thursday in the month of ‘Margasira’ according to Hindu calendar. Ravana Chhaya can be considered a single dance style or a family of related dances. It is generally performed by the dancers of Puri district.

Two video links of Chhau and Ravana Chaya dances have been released by the Union Culture Ministry on its official website. By clicking on the video link people can see the dance videos and learn more about the rich heritage of the state.

https://www.orissapost.com/manabasa-gurubara-chhau-dance-find-mention-in-intangible-cultural-heritage-list/ , April 21, 2020

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) lit earthen lamps near Qutub Minar on World Heritage Day on Saturday, conveying the message of stay home, stay safe amid the lockdown to curb coronavirus pandemic.ASI on Saturday lit up monuments in Delhi, Kolkata and Cooch Behar. The Red Fort, Qutub Minar and Humayun's Tomb in Delhi, the Cooch Behar Palace Museum in West Bengal and the Metcalfe Hall, Currency Building in Kolkata were illuminated. While the UNESCO World heritage site Qutub Minar was lit with the message of "stay home, stay safe", the Red Fort glowed in the light of earthen lamps forming India's map with the words "Hum Jeetengey" (we will win).

Taking to Twitter, the ASI posted a short video clip from the Red Fort and wrote "In this tough time of CoronaVirus Epidemic, a message from Red Fort is that we will win." At Humayun's Tomb, ASI lit 41 candles to symbolise the 41 days of the lock-down period, denoting that "one candle of humanity is enough to fight the darkness." Speaking to ANI, ASI official Arvind said that the earthen lamps and candles are being lightened to support the corona warriors and to boost their morale as they are working to save the nation.

"The ASI has lightened up 3 heritage sites in Delhi -- Qutub Minar, Lal Qila and Red Fort," he said. The ASI has closed all its historic buildings for the general public in view of COVID-19 lockdown. The World Heritage Day is about preserving the diversity of the world's built monuments and heritage sites.

It also emphasises on the efforts required to conserve these sites. This year, the theme of the day is "Shared Culture', 'Shared heritage' and 'Shared responsibility", focusing on global unity against COVID-19.

https://www.newkerala.com/news/2020/69048.htm , April 21, 2020

How well do you know some of history's most influential environmental activists?

The conservation movement is hardly new. For hundreds of years, people have been advocating for the preservation and protection of the natural world. Some early activists educated the public on the consequences of deforestation. Others exposed humanity's exploitation of natural resources for profit and encouraged the development of national parks. Still others revealed the dangers of chemical pesticides on animals. With activists spanning from 17th century England to 20th century America, here are five of the most important figures in the history of conservation.

1. John Evelyn
John Evelyn (1620-1706) was an English country gentleman who served on a variety of royal commissions and councils under King Charles II. Evelyn was a fan of gardening, designing his first garden at the age of 22. Over the course of his life, he authored about 30 books, including one of the most influential books on forestry in history: "Sylva, or a Discourse of Forest-trees, and the Propagation of Timber". "Sylva" was the first comprehensive study of trees in the United Kingdom.

It was presented as a paper to the Royal Society, a recently founded British national scientific society, in 1662 and published as a book in 1664. The book advocated for the replenishment of England’s forests, as industrialization and a recent Civil War had caused an increase in timber production, greatly depleting the nation’s woods. The book also provided detailed descriptions of the various types of trees in the United Kingdom, explaining how to cultivate them and cataloging their uses.

Sylva was a best seller and encouraged wealthy aristocratic landowners to plant trees, eventually replenishing the depleted forests.

Keith Moore, the head librarian of the Royal Society, told BBC News: Evelyn's work in planting forest trees and harvesting the products from them - whether it was wood or apples - really hit the mark. Of course, you have to remember that this was after the Civil War so trees across the nation had been denuded as part of the war effort but, as Evelyn himself says in the book, as a result of industrial activities - such as glass making - people were chopping down trees, therefore they had to be replaced.

Ten editions of the book were published by 1825, and the text is now available online for free.

2. Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was an American author and philosopher best known for his 1854 book "Walden; or, Life in the Woods." The book described Thoreau’s experience living alone in the woods for over two years and is considered to be a masterpiece of nature writing. At the time that the book was published, many of Thoreau’s contemporaries considered him an eccentric, and the book was not well received.

Today, however, Walden is the most widely read 19th century non-fiction book and has been translated into numerous languages. The simple living and cooperation with nature that Thoreau described in Walden reflected his advocacy for preserving the wilderness. In his essay Walking, he proclaimed, “In Wildness is the preservation of the World,” arguing that people could not survive without nature.

He also advocated for the federal ownership of woods and mountain ranges to protect them from commercial exploitation. The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) inducted Thoreau into their Conservation Hall of Fame in 1967, calling him a “conservation pioneer." 3. Hugh Cleghorn
Hugh Cleghorn (1820-1895) was born in Madras, India to Scottish parents. He was first employed as an assistant surgeon by the East India Company at the Madras General Hospital. Cleghorn soon became fascinated by botany, and after studying plants and trees for several years, he began to give speeches about the failure of agriculture in India, catching the attention of the Indian administration. With the assistance of the administration, he helped establish the Madras Forest Department, today known as the Tamil Nadu Forest Department, India's first forest conservation organization. He was appointed Conservator of Forests in 1856 and Joint Commissioner for Conservancy of Forests later in 1867.

Through his research in botany, Cleghorn realized that the British colonization of India had increased consumption of timber in the region, inevitably causing deforestation. He noted that the construction of new railroads by the British resulted in the consumption of an unsustainable amount of timber.

He also exposed the colonizers' cultivation processes as inefficient and dangerous to the environment. His teachings were instrumental in protecting India's forests, and his findings encouraged the government to reform their timber cultivation methods.

Among these reforms was the banning of “kumri,” a type of shifting cultivation that Cleghorn described as a “wasteful and barbarous system.” Today, Cleghorn is known as the “father of scientific forestry in India.” His role in developing a program for forest conservation in the region was vital in protecting India’s natural resources from exploitation.

4. John Muir
John Muir (1838-1914) is debatably the most influential naturalist in American history. Often referred to as the “Father of Our National Park System,” Muir was an advocate for the protection and preservation of significant nature areas. He wrote articles about conservation for numerous magazines including The Century, in which he exposed the destruction of forests and meadows in the mountains. His writings influenced congress to create a number of national parks including Yosemite, Petrified Forest, Grand Canyon, Mount Rainier, and Sequoia. Robert Underwood Johnson, an editor for The Century that had aided Muir in some of his environmental campaigns, suggested that he start an organization to protect the Sierra Nevada from degradation. In 1892, Muir founded the Sierra Club with a group of his supporters.

The Club aimed to establish new national parks and to convince the government to better protect Yosemite. Today, the Sierra Club is the largest grassroots environmental organization in the world with over 2.4 million members. Muir is also famous for his three-night camping trip with President Theodore Roosevelt in Yosemite in 1903. After reading Muir’s 1901 book, "Our National Parks", Roosevelt decided to visit Muir in Yosemite, stating, “I want to drop politics absolutely for four days and just be out in the open with you."

During the trip, Muir convinced the president to expand the federal protection of the land in and around Yosemite National Park after exposing him to the exploitation of the valley’s resources and the degradation of the land. The trip forever shaped Roosevelt, who used what Muir taught him to improve his conservation programs.

5. Rachel Carson
Rachel Carson (1907-1964) was an American marine biologist and writer best known for her 1962 book, "Silent Spring," which exposed the dangers of chemical pesticides, especially DDT. In her book, Carson argued that pesticide use posed a serious threat to the livelihood of fish and birds and could have hazardous effects on children.

Her work encouraged the United States government to ban DDT, and Silent Spring is often regarded as a catalyst for the modern environmental movement and the development of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Before writing "Silent Spring," Carson worked for the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, later renamed the Fish and Wildlife Service, eventually becoming the Editor-In-Chief of all of their publications in 1949. She also wrote numerous articles on marine biology for newspapers and magazines and published three books about the ocean, "Under the Sea-Wind," "The Sea Around Us," and "The Edge of the Sea."

Carson’s publications taught the public about the natural world, and many of them highlighted the ability of humans to alter nature. However, it was not until Carson became fascinated with the increased use of synthetic pesticides after World War II and published "Silent Spring" that she solidified her legacy as one of the most influential conservationists of all time. Biographer Linda Lear perfectly summed up Carson’s legacy in her 1997 biography, Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature: Her courage in sounding the alarm and her ecological vision of the oneness of all life indelibly shaped the contemporary environmental movement and anticipated the global crisis we face in the 21st century.

https://www.treehugger.com/conservation/historical-conservationists-you-should-know.html , April 22, 2020

The ongoing lockdown has brought alive storytellers and people’s appetite for stories, mostly narrated on social media

Somewhere in the middle of the nationwide lockdown, writer and director Tahira Kashyap Khurrana posted a video on her Instagram handle which started off like this "even if there’s a lockdown, you can’t take stories out of a writer." She goes on to narrate a small snippet from the life of 24-year-old Sia in a story titled 6 Foot Duur. The post got over a lakh views. Perhaps that’s what a country (and the world) starved of social interactions craves: stories. Khurrana says, "I started with the lockdown tales without any agenda.

When i had started it was truly out of the space of sharing something that was brewing inside me. I feel the lockdown has happened for a reason, for us to take it slow and easy. So I started doing things which i’d never done before, like cooking and painting. In the process these stories started growing inside so I thought of jotting them out and sharing with the world.

Now people have started finding them as a source of inspiration and have started empathising with the characters of the stories." Khurrana says these stories are inspired by news, other everyday events and real life characters. She adds, "What bowls me over is a lot of people are undergoing the stories that I’ve written. So now it’s become a mission." The lockdown has brought alive storytellers and people’s appetite for stories. No wonder social media handles are flooded with people narrating stories of all kinds, for children and adults. While some stories talk about preserving the art and culture of the country, others take you back to your childhood.

And then some others weave fascinating incidents around the current times. But the idea is common to engage people and whisk them away from counting Coronavirus case numbers to a make-believe world. What’s one of your fondest memories of childhood? Going to your nani’s place for summer vacations and lying next to her even as she narrated fascinating stories that took you away to faraway lands? Historian Rana Safvi wants to recreate this magic for the millennial children who are stripped of these little pleasures.

She says, "children cannot go to their nani and dadi’s houses in the current times so I’m trying to take them to that world with my stories."

Safvi’s YouTube page has stories such as Ali Baba Chaalis Chor, Sheikh Chilli Goes visiting, A Tale of Four friends. She says, "I started telling these stories in the initial days of lockdown for my nieces and so many of my friends’ children who were confined at home and their parents were working. It was my way of comforting them. But the reaction I got was from adults that the stories took them back to their children.

Whenever someone is upset, nostalgia and childhood lifts spirits." Safvi has done eight folk stories and some on history. Speaking of history, the author Swapna Liddle and convenor of INTACH Delhi began narrating stories of history via Facebook live. The stories range from forgotten fairs and festivals of Delhi; the heir of Begum Samru to the secret story behind Phoolwalon ki Sair. Liddle, who’s been conducting heritage walks for INTACH in the city says, "The advantage is that a lot of people who aren’t in the city too can join. There’s a lot of interaction too as people keep posting their comments on the live session.

The most popular one so far has been the Phoolwalon ki Sair. The other talks I’ve given include old newspapers of Delhi from 1840s and 50s, how Raisina Hill was picked as the site for Rashtrapati Bhavan; the first Indian member of the British parliament in 1841 and so on."

LOCKDOWN LESSONS
The current imposed lockdown seems to be recreating a lot of nostalgia from Doordarshan re-playing its most popular serials including Ramayan, Mahabharat, Circus et al, to people going back to stories. Says Khurrana, "storytelling has always been part of our history and culture. These stories come from my heart, from a space of honesty.

I want to keep them real, honest, endearing and to talk about issues that disturb me. My way of addressing any situation is through writing, movies or creating. My approach is not a very direct one but like to layer it with perspective. For example, I wrote a story on TikTok because I wanted to understand what those people feel before going on to TikTok. In my story Chocolate Icecream, I’ve tried to bring out the class difference between the driver and the people he works for." Adds kahanikaar Sudhanshu Rai, "The impetus that the art of storytelling has received in the recent past, and especially during the lockdown situation, is certainly a good sign for the craft as well as the craftsmen.

The traditional practice, which had been lagging amid the wave of technological advancement and streaming services, has definitely got a new lease of life, and who other than the storytellers could be attributed for its much-needed revival."

https://www.treehugger.com/conservation/historical-conservationists-you-should-know.html , April 23, 2020

Earth Day is a widely known celebration that promotes environmental conservation and meaningful actions to save the planet. Over the past year at Guinness World Records, we’ve noticed more brands electing to break records that are significant to protecting the earth and saving the environment.

One of these records specifically includes the most people potting plants simultaneously, a title that has been broken twice by conservation volunteers in the past two years alone. In honor of Earth Day 2020, we’re taking a closer look on the inspiring efforts of these individuals who have contributed to making the world a greener place.

The city of Portsmouth, Ohio first broke the record back in 2018 – an initiative to bring the community together and spark conversations about making their local area a cleaner and healthier place. At the time 1,405 volunteers gathered on the city’s main streets, Chillicothe and Market Street, to properly put saplings of different varieties in individual pots, which were later distributed around the city. The record was just one component to the town’s event, which included painting light posts, power washing business fronts and sidewalks, and staining brick among other activities to beautify the area. Not only did this communal effort improve the town's greenery and environmental atmosphere, it also helped to raise $100,000 for future eco-friendly projects.

Flash forward two years later and a group in Udaipur, India decided it was time for Portsmouth’s record to be challenged. With a large gathering of 4,035 people who ranged in age, they collectively succeeded in nearly tripling the former record – a title that benefited the earth to be broken! This particular purpose was led by the Prince of Udaipur, who wanted to celebrate his birthday by planting as many plants as he could as a way of giving back to nature due to the Australian bush fires. While there are no plans to break this current title just yet, we hope those who hear about this record are motivated to continue helping planet Earth.

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2020/4/earth-day-2020-here%E2%80%99s-the-eco-friendly-record-that-keeps-being-broken-615565 , April 23, 2020

Earth Day is a widely known celebration that promotes environmental conservation and meaningful actions to save the planet. Over the past year at Guinness World Records, we’ve noticed more brands electing to break records that are significant to protecting the earth and saving the environment.

One of these records specifically includes the most people potting plants simultaneously, a title that has been broken twice by conservation volunteers in the past two years alone. In honor of Earth Day 2020, we’re taking a closer look on the inspiring efforts of these individuals who have contributed to making the world a greener place.

The city of Portsmouth, Ohio first broke the record back in 2018 – an initiative to bring the community together and spark conversations about making their local area a cleaner and healthier place. At the time 1,405 volunteers gathered on the city’s main streets, Chillicothe and Market Street, to properly put saplings of different varieties in individual pots, which were later distributed around the city. The record was just one component to the town’s event, which included painting light posts, power washing business fronts and sidewalks, and staining brick among other activities to beautify the area. Not only did this communal effort improve the town's greenery and environmental atmosphere, it also helped to raise $100,000 for future eco-frienThe ongoing lockdown has brought alive storytellers and people’s appetite for stories, mostly narrated on social mediadly projects.

Flash forward two years later and a group in Udaipur, India decided it was time for Portsmouth’s record to be challenged. With a large gathering of 4,035 people who ranged in age, they collectively succeeded in nearly tripling the former record – a title that benefited the earth to be broken! This particular purpose was led by the Prince of Udaipur, who wanted to celebrate his birthday by planting as many plants as he could as a way of giving back to nature due to the Australian bush fires. While there are no plans to break this current title just yet, we hope those who hear about this record are motivated to continue helping planet Earth.

https://www.republicworld.com/world-news/rest-of-the-world-news/earth-day-2020-young-climate-change-activists-holding-baton-to-save.html , April 23, 2020

Artisans in Raghurajpur near Puri, who make the traditional paintings, have suffered huge losses due to the lockdown. Around 160 artisan families practising Patachitra, the traditional paintings of Odisha and West Bengal, in the village of Raghrajpur near Puri, have been hit hard by the ongoing lockdown due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Raghurajpur is a heritage crafts village, known for its master Patachitra painters. The village is also the birthplace of one of the finest Odissi exponents, Kelucharan Mohapatra. Raghurajpur is also home to crafts like palm-leaf engravings, stone and wood carvings and masks. Around 5-7 members of a family paint patachitras and other craft items. “The fate of the artisans of our village is now at stake. The Union and state government recently announced an economic package to cope with COVID-19. But craftspeople are not covered in it,” Biswanath Swain, an artisan of Raghurajpur and the president of Raghurajpur craft village committee, said. “This age-old occupation has been a source of our livelihood since the time of our ancestors. We are now suffering a lot due to the lockdown,” Swain said while showing stocked Patachitras and other craft items in his house. Almost all the families of Raghurajpur paint Patachitra in their houses.

“Our village is estimated to have lost at least Rs 50 lakh in the first 20 days of the lockdown. The losses could deepen further, as the state government extended the lockdown period up to 30 April,” Jagannath Mohapatra, another artisan of Raghurajpur, said. The lockdown has forced many buyers, especially tourists to postpone their visit to Raghurajpur as a result of which, artisans were now in distress, Chandrasekhar Swain, another artisan of Raghurajpur, said. “We suffered huge losses during the cyclone Fani last year and now, the COVID-19 lockdown is pushing us closer to the brink,” he added.

The Patachitra paintings are made over a piece of cloth known as ‘Pata’ or a dried palm leaf, which is first painted with a mixture of chalk and gum. Over the prepared surface, colourful and intricate pictures of various gods, goddesses, and mythological scenes with ornamentation of flowers, trees and animals are then painted.

A painter takes 6-12 hours to paint a Patachitra, that costs Rs 500-5,000. “This is the only village in India where each family is engaged in one craft or another. After the end of the lockdown period, we hope they will get more customers to sell their craft items,” Ratikanta Patnaik, the tourist officer of Odisha’s tourism department, said.

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/economy/covid-19-lockdown-hits-patachitra-artisans-of-odisha-crafts-village-hard-70656 , April 24, 2020

The past is the new normal as lockdown forces people to find meaning and connections using old memories of feel, look and taste. The future looks fragile. The present is lonely and adrift. Only the halcyon days of the past make sense in the time of isolation, shortages, conflict and deprivation. The quip that the streets were empty when Ramayan played on Doordarshan (in the 1980s) and Mahabharat plays when the streets are empty summarises the relevance of lost meaning—anchoring us in a fantasy of stability.

To ace the social-distancing act, people are plundering memories for comfort and belonging. The corny cardboard arrows and Arun Govil’s sotto voce homilies are strangely reassuring. And suddenly, we wanted more of it: Amul ran its old advertisements that synced with the original broadcast date of Ramayan and Mahabharat.

The sun-kissed terraces of quaint homes that we lived in, the taste of grandma’s dhansak, getting lost in the sepia-toned era of films; or exploring the stories of the past—entrepreneurs across the spectrum are aiding journeys into the past which will remain untouched long after the virus is a nasty memory.

As Chef Chiquita Gulati of Spice Market, Delhi, so perfectly sums it up, “Childhood memories and flavours become a part of our subconscious.”

The past is the new normal as lockdown forces people to find meaning and connections using old memories of feel, look and taste. The future looks fragile. The present is lonely and adrift. Only the halcyon days of the past make sense in the time of isolation, shortages, conflict and deprivation. The quip that the streets were empty when Ramayan played on Doordarshan (in the 1980s) and Mahabharat plays when the streets are empty summarises the relevance of lost meaning—anchoring us in a fantasy of stability. To ace the social-distancing act, people are plundering memories for comfort and belonging. The corny cardboard arrows and Arun Govil’s sotto voce homilies are strangely reassuring.

And suddenly, we wanted more of it: Amul ran its old advertisements that synced with the original broadcast date of Ramayan and Mahabharat. The sun-kissed terraces of quaint homes that we lived in, the taste of grandma’s dhansak, getting lost in the sepia-toned era of films; or exploring the stories of the past—entrepreneurs across the spectrum are aiding journeys into the past which will remain untouched long after the virus is a nasty memory.

As Chef Chiquita Gulati of Spice Market, Delhi, so perfectly sums it up, “Childhood memories and flavours become a part of our subconscious.”

Restoring History
History is waiting on the banks of the Hooghly, where the Belur Rash Bari complex stands, comprising a cluster of temples, colonnaded pavilions and residential quarters in a curious, almost eccentric juxtaposition of the old and the new. Crumbling skeletons of old structures—fragments of begrimed bare-brick walls and staircases and the dilapidated, overgrown erstwhile ‘baithak khana’ at the far end of the premises represent sharp contrast to the recently renovated quarters boasting fresh coat of paint, polished fenestrations, gilded ornamentation on temple arches and manicured gardens overlooking the river.

“This place is a work in progress,” says Subhajit Datta, the co-proprietor of Twins Tours, a Kolkata-based tour outfit that manages and runs the heritage homestay. The 138-year-old Rash Bari belongs to the illustrious Daw family of Jorasankho, built by Purna Chandra Daw in the late 19th century. For decades it lay vacant. “The family only visited during annual festivals,” says Datta. A few years ago, Atanu Daw, one of its younger members, proposed a restoration. Work began two years ago with workmen brought in from Bagnan town, known for mistris with knowledge of the architecture of the past. In recent years quite a few properties in and around Kolkata have been restored and repurposed as heritage hotels and homestays. The Bawali Rajbari, which originally belonged to the distinguished Mondal family, is about an hour’s drive from Kolkata. The sprawling mansion, nearly three centuries old, with colonnaded balconies, archways, ornate balustrades and a sprawling courtyard, got a new lease of life when Kolkata-based industrialist Ajay Rawla stumbled on the property in 2008.

He got local artisans to train under the Aga Khan Foundation in lime-water construction and traditional brick-baking. He sought expert advice from specialists. The once dilapidated mansion is now a coveted luxury destination to be ticked in the post-Covid Bucket List. Some restoration projects like Baithakkhana Amadpur have roots in family pride. The grand mansion of the Chaudhuris, erstwhile zamindars who settled in Amadpur nearly four centuries ago, has been reincarnated by scion Shiladitya Chaudhuri. He worked tirelessly with master masons from Murshidabad. “Initially I was reluctant in turning the place into a homestay,” he says. Until February, Amadpur was a top draw among people looking for a quiet weekend away. Similarly, entrepreneur Darshan Dudhoria’s palatial 1700s ancestral mansion in Murshidabad’s Azimganj took five years to come alive. Known as Bari Kothi, the grand edifice, which stands on the banks of the Ganges, amalgamates Roman, Greek, French and Rajasthani architecture.

“My purpose was to restore the local ecosystem and empower the community around the Bari Kothi,” Dudhoria said. It has 15 heritage suites and offers curated itineraries designed to showcase Murshidabad and the Sheherwali way of life. The imposing pediment with an ornamented tympanum, grand pillars, chess-board floors, intricate hand-painted tiles, stained-glass paintings and spacious rooms with exposed beam ceilings, ornate furniture and valuable antiques speak of the Kothi’s glittering legacy.

But there is no need to drive out of Kolkata to sample ancient charms. In a quiet lane in North Kolkata’s Shyambazar area stands The Calcutta Bungalow—a nonagenarian townhouse, acquired, restored and repurposed as a heritage B&B by Iftekhar Ahsan, the founder of the immensely popular Calcutta Walks. He worked closely with scenographer Swarup Dutta to transform the crumbling North Kolkata house. “We pondered bringing in conservation architects but found that the best advice came from mistris,” says Ahsan. Master masons from Murshidabad skilled in working with the old chuna-surki method were brought in.

“Their recipe to make the mortar used in restoring the building consisted of chitey gur (jaggery), fenugreek, wood apple pulp, betel nut and other edible items along with powdered brick and lime water,” Ahsan says.

Much of the wooden and cast-iron elements used in the reconstruction were architectural salvage from other old houses. The stunning interiors, inspired by Old Calcutta place, are strewn with vintages of an era gone by—portable typewriters, old-sewing machines converted into tables, khorkhoris or wooden shutters turned into bed heads and more. These restored homes are repositories of stories and memories waiting to be rediscovered.

Archiving an Era
Walking into Sumant and Asha Batra’s Delhi office is stepping into a Time Machine. Housing film scripts dating back to the earliest talkies to lovingly restored film reels to memorabilia spanning decades of filmmaking in the form of posters, ticket books, publicity material, film stills and more, their studio is a film archiver’s dream come true. Their online venture Cinemaazi, based on the contents, is a digital repository of memories and fan stories relating to Indian cinema—an ideal log in for a film buff confined to the quarantine couch.

Film memorabilia holds pride of place. “We archived them digitally because much of this treasure is being destroyed,” he says. Indian cinema here means Indian cinema—not just Bollywood. The Batras are helped by a very young team of largely film students. Together they researched and sourced prominent regional films—South Indian, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Assamese, Marathi, and the lesser-known Gujarati, Garhwali, Konkani, Manipuri and more. Cinemaazi hosts regular podcasts with filmmakers and film historians and comes up with relevant features.

One day it is on Dilip Kumar, another day it’s a feature on the forgotten Nitin Bose, the Father of Cinema Technique. “We want to document the legacies of people and films, and archive their contributions. We want to recount the spectacular journey of Indian cinema from the first talkie to circa 1999. We stop at 1999 because there is enough material available on the net after that,” Sumant says. Their aim is to create a vast repository of over 35,000 films, starting from 1913—Sumant is confident of completing it by the end of 2022.

His archiving method is a manual of detailing: pick a film, and offer basic information regarding plot, script, songs, cast and crew. The archive then details the career graph of each cast and crew member, with relevant film reviews, awards, and more. Nostalgia is the Batras’ calling card. Their studio also showcases old radios, typewriters, calendar art, out-of-print books and magazines—a past which will stay alive even in the future.

Weaving Stories
The sari is the ageless symbol of Indian classical couture. In childhood, Priyanka Modi, Creative Director, AMPM, was deeply enamoured of the sartorial style of her grandparents. The fashionista is inspired by her grandmother’s collection of cotton saris and her grandfather’s vintage jackets and cardigans. “Fashion thrives on nostalgia. It’s a recurring source of inspiration. It can either mean re-imagining an entire decade or revisiting specific eras that remind you of childhood.”

Her loyal patrons often offer to help her build an archive of past sari collections from pieces they own. Likewise, when K Radharaman, CEO, founder and principal designer, House of Angadi, first started his business, he went through his mother’s closet. He realised that even after years of wear and love, many of her saris remain beautiful and relevant. “I understood the beauty of classics through these cupboard raids.” Today’s fashion consumers may think global but they also celebrate their culture equally.

“Which is why brands are reintroducing classic silhouettes with a modern twist or are constantly looking to redefine traditional garments. The line is slowly blurring,” believes Manjula Tiwari, CEO of Ancestry. Designer Adarsh from Osaa by Adarsh explains it beautifully. “We saw our grandmother pair a kurti blouse with a sari. Now that kurti has become a statement on its own. Modern craftsmen are borrowing a piece from that timeline to create a piece of art which everyone can take forward.” Recently, the classically renovated Bikaner House paid a tribute to past wardrobe with the ‘Conscious Sari Swap’, in which the whole nine yards were taken out from the forgotten corners of closets and exchanged with period saris from other collections.

Out came Banarasis, Kajivarams, Bomkais, Paithanis and Patolas which had swirled through weddings, parties and festivals as the regalia of feminine grace and power. Women have always repurposed their mothers’ and grandmothers’ saris; at times to preserve, or to reinvent. Says Vidyun Singh, Founder and Creative Director of Future Collective, “The concept behind the show was not just to re-churn a sea of beautiful saris. It’s a bed for an ocean of stories.

The sari swap is not just about getting a sari that you like in place of one that you no longer care for. Behind every sari there is a story… should you wish to share or want to hear. It is an opportunity for women to connect through the sari and its story, to make new connections and revive old ties."

Reliving Strokes
Restoration is another name for nostalgia reborn. When tourists were still traipsing around in Udaipur, in a secluded area of the City Palace Museum, a small dedicated group was working painstakingly on a set of paintings. Conceptualised in 2015-2016, the Conservation Laboratory at the City Palace Museum, Udaipur, became fully functional in January 2018. Comprising two consultant conservators Saloni Ghuwalewala and S Girikumar with three full-time conservators—Anuja Mukherjee, Bhasha Shah and PM Vasundhara—the team was working on the ‘Paintings on Paper’ project until the coronavirus struck. But they have already restored 22 paintings.

Mukherjee says, “When an artwork comes to the lab for conservation, the amount of restoration work depends on its material composition and condition. After a detailed documentation of its nature and condition, we establish a tentative course of treatment.” All the paintings being restored belong to the City Palace Museum, Udaipur, an integral part of Maharana of Mewar Charitable Foundation. In the East, the Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata, held an exhibition of 50 restored paintings by masters such as Gaganendranath Tagore, Jamini Roy, Benode Behari Mukherjee, Atul Bose, JP Ganguly, Nirode Mazumdar, MF Hussain, Paritosh Sen and Jogen Chowdhury.

Boasting a collection of over 1,300 paintings, the organisers turned to the National Research Laboratory for Conservation of Cultural Property, Lucknow, for help to restore 212 of the works. Technology is the conservator’s friend, as is evident in the operations of Odisha-based Centurion University, which preserves tribal art and culture in 3D. Researchers of the university’s Gram Tarang vocational institute have helped preserve more than 4,000 artefacts of five of the 62 tribes across Odisha.

In the basement of Chitrakala Parishath, Bengaluru’s premier art institution, a group of 10 specialists who jokingly call themselves ‘the doctors of painting’ recently celebrated 25 years as the only centre in South India where art conservation happens in an established manner. Known as the Intach Chitrakala Parishath Art Conservation Centre (Ickpac), old manuscripts and paintings are painstakingly restored here by the ‘doctors’.

From paintings from the Raja Ravi Varma School sourced from Kerala to art from the US, the canvas is wide. Ickpac has restored the Shrine Basilica in Velankanni, besides conserving paintings and murals at Chennai’s Senate House, Thanjavur Maratha Palace, Ramalinga Vilasam in Ramanathapuram, and Nalknad Palace in Coorg. It’s all there, waiting patiently for the lockdown to end.

Taste of Childhood
As more and more millennials are working away from home, diners are demanding ‘homely flavours’. This has forced chefs to return to their roots and source recipes from their own childhood,” says Chef Anil Khurana, Corporate Indian Chef, Hyatt Regency Delhi. The corona-infected pizza delivery boy apart, nostalgia cuisine from Kappa Chakka Kandhari in Bengaluru is a tribute to recipes collected from traditional homes. Founders Chef Regi Mathew, John Paul and Augustine Kurian will take you on a trip down memory lane, with flavours and fragrances of northern Malabar kitchens, toddy shop snacks, Syrian Christian and Travancore food. Cherished family recipes are also on the menu. “What you eat in childhood evokes the strongest memories. Therein lies the nostalgia of food,” says Chef Regi.

Read Kappa vevichathu, boiled tapioca mashed with crushed bird’s eye chillies and coconut; Pazham nanachathu made with sun-dried elaichi bananas tossed with shredded coconut and drizzled with paani made from slow-reduced sap of the toddy palm and Chakka vevichathu, a jackfruit jam containing freshly ground spices and grated coconut. Chef Chiquita Gulati of Spice Market, Delhi, is all for past schmaltz. “One always relates to a particular dish or ingredient with a particular time of the year, festival, sickness or happiness.

For example, my maternal grandmother, a kayasth, would always serve me the best Prawn Pulao and fried fish. Those are benchmarks that I associate with good memories.” Her paternal grandma, a Gujarati, barely used onions and garlic in cooking. But she used to make a special cauliflower dish with onions and garlic called ‘Punjabi Shaak’. Today it has pride of place in Gulati’s Punjabi household. When she was designing the Spice Market menu, her son visited the restaurant and demanded soul food—gud ki roti.(roti with jaggery).

“It is now on our menu and so is the CKP Prawn Pulao,” she smiles. Many European restaurants and South Asian eateries are also cooking up nostalgia. Burma Burma offers many dishes from co-founder Ankit Gupta’s growing-up days. Kayunin mao, sticky rice with white pea and sesame steamed in a banana leaf and served with coconut cream; Laphet thoke, a mix of fermented tea leaves, fried garlic, nuts, sesame seeds, tomato and lettuce, or the much-loved Si chet khow suey comprising thick hand-pulled noodles with turmeric oil, garlic, lemon, roasted chilli flakes and brown onions, all transport him to the time when his tastebuds were developing. The favourite dish of Amar Dwivedi, Executive Chef, Grand Mercure Gandhinagar is his grandmother’s bhindi.

“At home for a study breaks preparing for my final exam, my grandmother used to cook it for me.” The Silbatte wali bharwan bhindi is a regular on his menu. Nostalgia plays a significant role in developing food preferences. Jamsheed Bhote, Chef/Patron at Plats, Delhi says, “On our menu is a dish which is a take on my grandmother’s recipe. Called crumb chops at home, its name now is Braised and crumbed lamb steak with caramelised onion, ginger, mint and lamb jus.” Chef Karann Talwar, Managing Director and Gastronome Chef, Kitchen Kraft Luxury Catering, reminisces how the vegetarian’s delight—cottage cheese or paneer—was a common ingredient on the dinner table. His grandmother’s Shahi paneer, with her trademark use of whole spices and fresh homemade purees, has stayed with him.

He also admits he has not been able to master it. Likewise, Chef Subhash Jana, Executive Chef, Swissotel Kolkata, cannot get over his grandmother’s payesh. “It is soul food, and can never be replaced,” he says. When Chef Anahita Dhondy, Chef Partner at SodaBottleOpenerWala, CyberHub, Gurugram, decided to have the quintessential dhansak on the menu, she asked her mother to teach the chefs using authentic, homemade dhana jeeru masala. “It’s nostalgia, comfort and delicious,” she smiles. Nostalgia in the time of Covid-19 is marking its presence on Instagram, Facebook, online playlists and book readings. It has pervaded lives. The Mumbai police tweeted visuals to harness the power of memories urging people to stick to Covid-19 guidelines—“‘Dekh Bhai Dekh’, there’s a ‘Mahabharat’ happening outside. ‘Humlog’ won’t go to ‘Nukkad’.

We won’t let ‘Mungeri Lal Ke Haseen Sapne’ turn into ‘Flop Show’.” Painful or sweet, nostalgia defines us. As researchers, doctors and historians muck about in the history of past pandemics, the best of our lives offer a chance to relive and reinterpret the facets of love and beauty. It also gives us an opportunity to stay relevant today in a new world that resonates with the echoes of the past. Restoration is another name for nostalgia reborn. And technology is the conservator’s friend. The works are all there, waiting for the lockdown to end.

The sari is the ageless symbol. Women have always repurposed their mothers’ and grandmothers’ saris; at times to preserve, or to reinvent. When Chef Anahita Dhondy decided to have the quintessential dhansak on the menu, she asked her mother to teach the chefs the authentic recipe

https://www.newindianexpress.com/magazine/2020/apr/26/the-age-of-nostalgia-amid-coronavirus-lockdown-2134334.html, April 27, 2020

Call it a goof-up or deliberate move, the government has issued a notification tasking a defunct Bangalore Urban Art Commission (BUAC) with grading and protecting heritage structures in the city. BDA commissioner GC Prakash initially feigned ignorance and later said BUAC did exist under Section 51 of the Bangalore Development Authority Act, 1976 and will be revived as per the notification.

"We will form the committee while preparing the next comprehensive development plan for Bengaluru,” he said. Urban development department (UDD) officials said there will be a change in constitution of heritage com-mittees in the districts and BUAC will be revived as an advisory body.

In 2001, when the Congress government headed by SM Krishna decided to construct Vikasa Soudha by removing the iconic government press building, BUAC had opposed it despite being a government agency. Vested with the power to grant or reject licence for any structu-re that comes up in and around iconic buildings, the three-member BUAC was created under the BDA Act. Upset over the commission putting a spoke in the whe-els of then Congress government plans, the latter reportedly abolished it.

Conservation bodies welcome agency’s revival
With no checks and balances since, the number of heritage structures came down from 835 in 1985 to 530 in 2015.In 2019,it dipped further to around 300 as most private structures (bungalows) were also removed from the list. Heritage conservation bodies like Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (Intach) have welcomed the government move to revive BUAC. “Intach is ready to work with the Karnataka government in reviving BUAC and protecting the city’s heritage,” said Bengaluru chapter convenor Meera Iyer. “It is to be seen how the commission will function after its revival.

BUAC needs qualified persons on board to protect the city's heritage and shouldn’t be burdened by government patronage,” said Sathya Prakash Varanashi, a heritage consultant.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/govt-asks-defunct-panel-to-save-bengaluru-heritage-buildings/articleshow/75373456.cms, April 28, 2020