On foot ana off-roading

Mumbai through its poets, Bengaluru before techies took over, Chennai made magical through stories. Heritage walks are exploring brave new paths

- Christalle Fernandes

Participants on Bombay Poetry Crawl's walks range from media students and filmmakers to citizens curious about their favourite poets.

Anyone who's been on a heritage walk in their own city knows how stories can hide in plain sight. Familiar façades become portals into history, dusty corners reveal colourful pasts, shop signage tells stories of creativity as much as commerce, everything ordinary is turned forever special.

It takes a special kind of tour guide to do this. And for more than two decades, local historians and enthusiasts have been working out new ways to join old dots. They now bring in poetry, anecdotes, surprises and memories. Some tours cost as little as 350 for a 90-minute amble around a neighbourhood. Others charge close to ₹6,000, for stops at cafes, bakeries and bars. Either way, organising it is no picnic. Take a look.

Saranya Subramanian, 26, a poet, writer, and city archivist, started Bombay Poetry Crawl in 2020 to share anecdotes about Mumbai via city poets such as Arun Kolatkar, Meena Kumari and Eunice de Souza. "People in a city live literary lives -they're the protagonists or antagonists of their own worlds," Subramanian says. "You see the same characters in these poems."

Subramanian charges 600 per person and takes participants to spots in Bandra, Worli, Lower Parel, Kamathipura, Kala Ghoda, Sassoon Docks, or even on local trains. It's a slow walk (hence the Crawl in the title), with everyone from media students and filmmakers to general poetry lovers attending. At some spots, the participants are encouraged to recite poems and talk about what it means to them.