The Hindu : Front Page : A voice now for the Dancing Girl of Mohenjodaro

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 16, 2005

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A voice now for the Dancing Girl of Mohenjodaro

Mandira Nayar

BREAKING THE ICE: Apart from the Dancing Girl of Mohenjodaro, now other National Museum exhibits like this one here too will talk.

NEW DELHI: More than 50 masterpieces at the National Museum here in the Capital will get a voice this coming week. With the museum all set to launch an audio guide for some of its prized possessions in five languages, the good old Dancing Girl of Mohenjodaro will finally waltz into the globalised new world of the 21st Century to speak in Japanese, French, German and English apart from the desi Hindi.

Produced and managed by an Australian company, Narrowcasters, the audio tour will be formally inaugurated by Union Culture and I&B Minister Jaipal Reddy. A first-time effort, the audio tour is expected to go a long way in helping visitors go beyond the labels and learn a little more about the exhibits at the museum.

A hi-tech gadget with headphones, the audio guide will allow visitors to identify important exhibits. With practically no other facility available to the visitors to learn about the objects they see, the audio tour will add a welcome new dimension to the museum experience.

An old hand in the history business, Narrowcasters has been working to give objects a voice in the country for the past few years. Having started business in India in 2001, Narrowcasters has made the exhibits in Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya -- better known as the Prince of Wales Museum -- as well as the grand old Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur speak.

"The audio tour at the National Museum will be included in the ticket for foreign visitors at Rs. 300. There will be a description of the exhibit, its history and salient features. The 75-minute tour really is aimed at foreign tourists for the moment," says a museum official.

Bringing alive the history of exhibits that have acquired almost iconic stature from the seals found at the Indus Valley Civilisations sites in Harappa and Mohenjodaro to the body armour of Aurangzeb dated 1680 and even miniature paintings, the audio tour will highlight perhaps the most famous exhibits in all the galleries at the museum. The punch-marked coins from the 6th Century B.C. to 2nd Century B.C. as well as the Indo-Greek coins from the 1st Century at the yet-to-be-opened gallery "From Cowries to Credit Cards" will also be included in the audio tour.

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