It came as a bolt from the blue. “My mother took me around Colaba; there I was also shown this place called Leopold Café that had bullet marks from one of the terror attacks that happened in our city many years ago. Is that also our history and heritage?” This unsuspecting missile was launched at me by an 11-year-old during question hour at an interactive session centred on my book, H for Heritage: Mumbai. Schoolchildren (mostly middle schoolers) formed a huge chunk of the audience.

On the day, I was in the middle of discussing the city’s heritage and history with those 30-odd students, their parents and teachers, and most of the questions were predictable until that particular question made me halt, take a moment and spell out my answer without seeming as if I was on the back foot. So, I replied, “Of course, it is history. The terror attacks constitute the local history of our city, post the year 2000, and yes, the bullet marks are part of the heritage of that café, and by default, our city’s heritage.”