I sometimes wonder what the next generations will know about the place their ancestors lived. Unlike Europe, every place in India gets a makeover every year. We hardly value heritage. But then how to go back to timeline to see where we were once upon a time?
That is why there are so many people whose efforts I value. They record the time and preserve it for future. With modern tools like Facebook and many other avenues, they can keep it cheap and digital. But they still have to sweat it out. There are many whom I know but the very fact that I chose to write this musing today on this topic is because the most recent meeting I had was with Vincent D Souza who runs a very local newspaper called Mylapore Times, a free, English weekly launched in 1994 for the neighbourhoods of Mylapore, Mandaveli, R A Puram, Alwarpet, San Thome, Abhiramapuram with a circulation of 30000 and published every Saturday.
But more than the newspaper, Vincent puts small bits and pieces in his facebook page which I think is very informative. Local news is what makes the content more lively and which slowly has died down. Plus the information and the pictures keeps it for the future generations to freeze time forever. There could be many Vincents around the country. May be I should make an effort to know and compile them.
