A fresh look at history through heritage walks
18 Oct 2012 6:59 AM IST
Walking tours may be a great way to explore a city and more so when you have a guide who puts together a mix of history, culture, performance art among other specialisations to transform the touristy experience.
Navina Jafa, has for the past decade been turning convention on its head by being a “study leader” to select groups of people, which include leading global political dignitaries, and letting them discover India’s cultural heritage.
Jafa who specialises in walks has in her first book “Performing Heritage: Art of Exhibit Walks” [Sage Publications] talked about the concept of heritage walks with focus of their ability to exhibit cultures and offered suggestions on making a career and a business venture out of this activity.
“Heritage is not only built heritage like monuments but it is everything that defines culture,” Jafa said in an interview.
She takes people on curated tours across Delhi, Ladakh, Spiti, Sikkim, Central India, South India, Gujarat, Maharashtra and West Bengal.
Having trained in Kathak and being a concert artist, Jafa transfers her love for performance to her tours.
“During one walk I created a tour that I titled ‘Dining Opera’ in which a performance of living tradition was crafted while the audience was served a traditional meal,” says Jafa.
The art forms of ‘dastangoi’ [storytelling] and ‘bahrupiya’ [impersonation] in North India were displayed at the meal with Jafa bringing in people such as a bone setter, a wrestler etc to give an authentic feel of the ambiance.
In another walk she says she had taken the former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger through the narrow by lanes of Chandni Chowk on a rickshaw. “I even made him eat parathas there.” Jafa also creates walks and trust building exercises between India and Pakistan. “For a group of visiting Pakistani women I had designed a walk that took them to the dargah of Hazrat Nizamuddin and the Lotus Temple,” she says.
“I explored the commonalities in South Asia,” says Jafa. The author, a Fullbright scholar, says she was exposed to critiquing the politics of cultural heritage at Smithsonian centre in the US.
Navina Jafa, has for the past decade been turning convention on its head by being a “study leader” to select groups of people, which include leading global political dignitaries, and letting them discover India’s cultural heritage.
Jafa who specialises in walks has in her first book “Performing Heritage: Art of Exhibit Walks” [Sage Publications] talked about the concept of heritage walks with focus of their ability to exhibit cultures and offered suggestions on making a career and a business venture out of this activity.
“Heritage is not only built heritage like monuments but it is everything that defines culture,” Jafa said in an interview.
She takes people on curated tours across Delhi, Ladakh, Spiti, Sikkim, Central India, South India, Gujarat, Maharashtra and West Bengal.
Having trained in Kathak and being a concert artist, Jafa transfers her love for performance to her tours.
“During one walk I created a tour that I titled ‘Dining Opera’ in which a performance of living tradition was crafted while the audience was served a traditional meal,” says Jafa.
The art forms of ‘dastangoi’ [storytelling] and ‘bahrupiya’ [impersonation] in North India were displayed at the meal with Jafa bringing in people such as a bone setter, a wrestler etc to give an authentic feel of the ambiance.
In another walk she says she had taken the former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger through the narrow by lanes of Chandni Chowk on a rickshaw. “I even made him eat parathas there.” Jafa also creates walks and trust building exercises between India and Pakistan. “For a group of visiting Pakistani women I had designed a walk that took them to the dargah of Hazrat Nizamuddin and the Lotus Temple,” she says.
“I explored the commonalities in South Asia,” says Jafa. The author, a Fullbright scholar, says she was exposed to critiquing the politics of cultural heritage at Smithsonian centre in the US.
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