Four Mumbai citizens with niche expertise on why heritage conservation is a must

Vasudev Patkar Sculptor and plastererTwo ladies in Mumbai have Vasudev Patkar to thank Standing tall on the turrets of the Bombay High Court are the allegorical statues of Justice and Mercy Today both can boast of belonging to the newlyinscribed UNESCO World Heritage Site in MumbaiHowever about 20 years ago the statues needed a facelift They had started to bear the brunt of cryptoflorescence mdash typical white patches that appear due to waterborne salts in masonry which if left unchecked can break structures Justice and Mercy were nearly 130 years old at that time so they need attention urgently Patkar is a sculptor who worked with conservation architects Abha Narain Lambah and David Cardoz to restore the statues ldquoWe had to climb to the top of the towers It was adventurousrdquo says Patkar 59Brought the interiors of the Royal Opera House back to life PicSuresh KarkeraPatkar graduated from the Sir JJ School of Art in 1987 following his sculptor fatherrsquos footsteps ldquoWhile I studied sculpting and moulding fulltime I also took part time courses in architecture metal craft and fine art All these skills have helped me in my workrdquo says the Shivaji Park resident We can see his workmanship at the Royal Opera House restored by Narain Lambah and her team in 2016The culture and entertainment venue which first opened in 1912 used to have dainty boxes on the sides for VIP seating These were demolished and when the theatre was set to reopen after nearly 15 years Patkar was brought in to bring the Baroque boxes back to lifePatkar is also the man behind the maintenance for statues that dot the Oval Maidan area such as that of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar ldquoI love my restoration projects more as I do not want to see our heritage dierdquo he saysTehmi Ghadialy Porcelain and glass restorerBonesetters and orthopaedic surgeons will relate well to what 74yearold Tehmi Ghadialy does for a living In a corner of the bedroom of her Marine Lines home Ghadialyrsquos workstation is like a hospital waiting room for fine porcelain and glassware A cracked flowershaped vase and a broken bowl await their turns beside a tall vase that has just been restoredTehmi Ghadialy is an expert in the delicate art of restoring porcelain and glass objects PicSayyed Sameer AbediHousekeepers children and pets are our best friends she jokes when we ask her how these broken objects reach her She turns the pages of a photo album in which beforeandafter pictures of restored objets drsquoart are arranged ldquoMany of these have been with families for a long time and people are very attached to them she says But there are also those pieces that Ghadialy works on just for the love of it There is an instance of a tea cup that a boy bought as a Motherrsquos Day gift We suspect that the child was more shattered than the broken cup He was in tears and I said I would repair it for him Then with a laugh she shares ldquoSometimes I fall in love with the objects I restore and find it hard to part with themThe last photo in the album is a resplendent Satsuma vase Only itrsquos in 175 pieces The vase was restored by her father Dady Ghadialy whose craft the daughter now carries on My father started working as a teenager at his familyrsquos watch shop in Fort Rogerrsquos Watch and Co He was selftaught and greatly skilled in repairing intricate objectsrdquo says Ghadialy ldquoBut he never had to teach me how to restore porcelain I learned it by just observing him she adds fondlyLooking at the destroyed porcelain jigsaw puzzles come to mind Only we must remember that both Ghadialy and her late father did not have pictures of the original intact objects to compare with Even surgeons for that matter have a blueprint of the human body ldquoI once had to restore a statuette whose face had shattered It was nearly in shards I had to figure which parts of the face the pieces corresponded to and then work over the finished face I have to think a lot and talk to the owners in order to understand what the original object would have looked likerdquo she says pointing to photographic evidence The porcelain maiden has a fine nose job we think thanks to GhadialyMohammed Ibrahim Damani Antique clock repaireras Mohammed Ibrahim Damani opens the door of Sassoon Dockrsquos twoface clock tower he says ldquoI am not the kind of person who can deal with kitkit and permissions You canrsquot be waiting for an hour to get the key and then wait for another hour to return it to officials I prefer to have the keys to the clocks I am working onrdquoMohammed Ibrahim Damani Damani a 72yearold clock repairer is one of the few of his kind left in the city He knows how to expertly restore tower clocks and Sassoon Dock is one such in his repertoire As we climb the tower our feet landing softly on its 147yearold steps Damani narrates how he came into this business At 17 he worked with his father at Eastern Watch Co in Fort ldquoOne day my father asked me to repair the Sassoon clock or never come home That was the first time I repaired itrdquo he says his memory a little fuzzy on the dateThe Sassoon Dock clock like several others in the city needs regular maintenance and as it happened it stopped for good Damani doesnrsquot remember when it stopped ticking again for in those years he was working in Kuwait repairing toasters In 2014 the Mumbai Port Trust commissioned him to repair its iconic timepiece that has 42 partsDamani in the belfry of Sassoon Docks clock tower right PicsBipin KokateDamani has also been sought out for other tower clocks in the city such as St Thomas Cathedral Magen David Synagogue and Christ Church ldquoI often look at them and say ldquoInshallah I shall make the bells ring againrdquo he tells us as he agilely moves around the clockrsquos machinery in the belfry Overhead hangs a bluegrey bell cast by John Warner and Sons a famous bell foundry in the UK He points to the green pendulum and the two weights that are suspended from the machinery ldquoThese weights will reach the first floor through the week Every Wednesday the clock has to be wound up and the weights will ascend Thatrsquos the way to maintain itrdquo he explains He then checks his mobile phone for the time mdash he doesnrsquot wear a watch mdash and says ldquoLetrsquos wait for 20 minutes for the clock to strikerdquoBack outdoors Damani confesses he has his eyes set on the Rajabai Clock Tower Its mechanism far more complex than others fascinates him and the keys to that tower is something hersquod love to possess Will his children continue his trade ldquoI donrsquot have children I am looking to marry but no woman signs up for merdquo he says wistfullyItrsquos four minutes past noon and Sassoon Dockrsquos bell rings Damani notes the delay ldquoIf I hold the pendulum steady for four minutes then the clock will be perfectrdquo he says his job far from doneSwati Chandgadkar Stained glass restorerFrom working with words to playing with light Swati Chandgadkar has seen it all In 1995 while she was a faculty member at Ruia College teaching English literature she did a short course at a studio in the USA ldquoI realised this was my vocation and changed my career to become a stained glass artistrdquo writes Chandgadkar from Singapore where she is on a work visitChandgadkar centre inspecting a stained glass window PicsThe glass studioHer interest in stained glass however dates back even further It was sparked by a trip to Europe as a college student ldquoI was struck by the immensity of medieval stained glass windows where the figure of Christ at a height of more than 100ft from the ground was so distinctive in features and expressionrdquo says the 61yearold The memory from long ago is what led her to employ the same method while fabricating lifesize figures of eight goddess in the Jivdani Mata Temple in VirarldquoWhatrsquos most exciting about stained glass is that itrsquos lsquokineticrsquo and looks different in different phases of the day It is also the perfect marriage of art and craft in that itrsquos structural mdash hence called a window mdash and imbibes designrdquo she says Her expertise in this niche area has made Chandgadkar a noted name in architectural restoration Through her label The Glass Studio she has restored stained glass windows in the Afghan Memorial Church St Thomas Cathedral The Royal Bombay Yacht Club and Shri Chandra Bhagwan Jain Temple It would seem that stained glass and light have united the many spiritual sites in the cityThe altar windows of St Thomas Cathedral restored by Chandgadkar in 2003Currently Chandgadkar is working on the centuryold stained glass windows of the Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue known locally as The Blue Synagogue in Kala Ghoda These windows imported from England by the Sassoon family depict Jewish imagery such as pears and pomegranates ldquoThey are in a fairly good state except that they have become victims of aging and pollution They will need to be dismantled and fortifiedrdquo she explains adding ldquoOne must understand how much to restore within a window There is a tendency to overrestore I am more of a puristrdquoChandgadkar has also worked on several secular historic buildings In 2007 she was invited by the Preservation of Monuments Board Singapore to make a report on stained glass in 10 of their National Museums and to write the technical guidelines for the conservation of stained glass windows But ask her about her most challenging project so far and she picks Juma Masjid in Kalbadevi ldquoI had to design and make new windows for an old historic mosque for which I needed to study calligraphy design and understand the structurersquos adaptation in the medium of stained glassCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates