Post-earthquake Bhuj
SELINE AUGUSTINE
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Tyabji’s book on Bhuj raised some important questions on personal responsibility when disaster strikes.
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Photo: G. Praveen Raju
Azhar Tyabji: With students of Asan Memorial S.S.S.
That part of our old culture we are proud about” — was the answer from a student of Asan Memorial Senior Secondary School to the poser “What does heritage mean?” There was a chorus of names of heritage structures — temples, San Thome church, St Thomas Mount, Central station, GPO, Ripon building, Fort St. George and Museum premises .
Besides the built up structures, “textiles” a bright young student chortled, and came in for wholesome praise from V.R. Devika of Prakriti Foundation which had arranged an interactive session with Azhar Tyabji, author of Bhuj
: Art, Architecture, History and the heritage club members of a few city schools recently.
Historic city
A devastating earthquake brought the 60-year-old town of Bhuj to its knees on January 26, 2001. This historic city in Kutch simply crumbled and it was a tragedy of colossal proportions.
Tyabji did an illustrated presentation of his book and the students of Asan Memorial School were in rapt attention. The author had lost a few friends to the killer quake and instead of taking up relief work, chose to opt for long term town planning.
Tyabji, a town planner among other things, has lavished attention on pictures of 19th century Bhuj and played up stories got from residents, museums and local organisations. Result of painstaking research and efforts.
Tyabji’s parting shot to the students was: Think what will happen to the city of Chennai if a calamity were to strike it? What is your responsibility?
During an informal meeting earlier with the Principals of the Junior and Senior school and the History teachers, Tyabji underlined the need for schools to get together and see what the students can do for the city. “May be even shoot a film, why not?” he suggested.
According to Devika, at the Sri Sankara S.S.S. it was a smaller group of students from classes VIII to X who asked Tyabji “How is Bhuj today? What are the people doing about conservation now?”. The interaction seemed to have stirred a curiosity about history and art, she said. The author met with a similar response when he went to the Kalakshetra College of Fine Arts. When Tyabji juxtaposed images of Bhuj of old and now, the students of class VII of Bala Vidya Mandir reacted enthusiastically. “History to them was as fascinating as a fairytale”, Devika said.
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