Museum reopens, but slip shows

After a two-year delay, the newly restored Bhau Daji Lad Museum at Byculla finally reopened on Friday. Yet, despite all its grandeur, your experience at the museum is likely to be a few shades less than perfect

MUMBAI: A few years ago, spirited Shiv Sainiks trooped across town blackening signboards that weren’t written in Marathi. On Friday, as Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray was taken on a tour of the newly restored Bhau Daji Lad Museum at Byculla, one wonders if he noticed that several artefacts did not have information panels in Marathi. While some have information in English and Hindi, a few are presumably meant only for the English-reading visitor. And then there are some that don’t have any information at all.

For a museum that hopes to endear itself to the commoner and not just the connoisseur, not displaying information in the local language could be a costly oversight. What makes it more glaring is the fact that the Shiv Sena-BJP combine are in power at the BMC, which owns the museum.

But Tasneem Mehta, Mumbai head of Indian National Trust For Art and Cultural Heritage (Intach), the agency in charge of the restoration project claims shortage of qualified translators is to blame for the slip. “Translating text accurately is not an easy job and we are having a problem finding good Marathi translators. We have even asked the BMC to help us find translators,” she concedes. “It’s a time-consuming process and things will improve with time,” adds Mehta, who also is chairperson of the Bhau Daji Lad Museum Trust.

Even Uddhav Thackeray’s wife Rashmi Thackeray, who was present at the inaguration, felt that the volume of information can be better. “In certain places, the context is not properly explained. Some Mumbaikars might understand the reference, but it will be very difficult for a foreigner to understand it,” she said.
 
But the problems don’t end there. If your gaze strays away from the artefacts, you are likely to notice a few damp patches on the wall, paint peeling off from the ceiling and what looks suspiciously like fungal growth. In fact, a close scrutiny of the gallery on the first floor even throws up traces of a termite infestation. This, at a museum that won a Unesco award for heritage conservation.

Mehta puts the blame for this mess squarely on the BMC. “We haven’t been able to paint the building in the last one year. And that’s because the BMC is not releasing funds,” she claims. “How then are we supposed to paint the structure?”

However, conservationist Debi Goenka refuses to find faults. “The museum has turned out to be very beautiful. After all the obstacles, it is finally open to the city,” he says.

Rashmi Thackeray also warns against being overtly critical. “We shouldn’t be criticising the great work that these people have done. It is the first day of the museum and things will only get better as time passes by,” she says. Mehta agrees, saying that her team has grand plans for the museum. However, yet again, BMC’s purported reluctance to part with funds could ruin the show. “As of now, the BMC is not releasing funds. We have made it clear to them that these plans won’t work out if we don’t get the resources,” Mehta says.

From the looks of it, controversies will continue to dog this repository of heritage.