Mumbai's hidden secrets

Heritage conservation is considered as an ‘elitist fad’ by most people in India. I believe that to reach the masses, one has to make heritage appealing and relatable. The best way to do so is through narrating stories about people and events.

In the past decade, I have infrequently conducted walks and cycle rides to generate awareness about Mumbai’s heritage. Most walks are conducted in the following format: 2.5 Kms – 2.5 Hours – 25 Spots.
For Mumbaikars, heritage is equal to grand buildings built by the British in Fort. My initiative Khaki Tours, however, has strived to conduct walks beyond Fort that are usually not associated with heritage e.g. Gamdevi, Parel, Lalbaug and Chowpatty. These walks are aimed at instilling a sense of pride in the residents of this city. We have opened up some 8 walks to date with a new walk being introduced every month. The aim is to eventually have more than 50 walks in the city.

Furthermore, people from the city have always been critical about the lack of walking spac and constantly complain about the lack of planning. They then express frustration about how cities in Europe and North America have plenty of walking space. While I understand these sentiments, people need to realize that Mumbai is trapped with treasure. The heritage walks conducted by my team, as well as others in the city, will change the way a Mumbaikar looks at his/her city.

I believe that I was born to be a ‘Heritage Evangelist’. With this mission in mind, I conceptualized Khaki Tours as an “Urban Heritage Safari” in 2011. The idea was to show people the city’s heritage in an open jeep. As a prequel to the jeep tours, the Khaki Walks were started in September 2015. The response to these free walks reached phenomenal proportions when 203 people landed up for the #BangangaParikrama walk on 26th January 2016. Since then, Khaki Tours has started charging for the walks and restricting the number of guests to 25 per host.
Finally, I see the future to be positive. I see local, national and international tourism in the city rising, given the number of new things that are centuries old being discovered in the city.

The writer is founder of Khaki Tours. Currently, Khaki Tours supports NGOs like Nanhi Kali and Angel Xpress through these activities