A news report in this paper on the state of affairs of a beloved landmark in the city must have had a lot of us shake our heads in commiseration. The building of the Asiatic Society of Mumbai is probably the second most recognisable visual of Mumbai after the Gateway of India, thanks to its photogenic facade. Yet, for countless Mumbaikars, the place offers so much more.

Before the pandemic hit, there was not a single day when you would not find people inside poring over its rich offerings. Rare, ancient tomes that contain invaluable information for projects, essays and dissertations, research material for books to come, rare coins, and a vast collection of maps and manuscripts. The library is so possessive of its treasures that it turned down the princely sum of a million pounds back in 1930 in exchange for the rare original manuscript of the Dante’s Divine Comedy, a poem written on parchment in the 14th century.