So 19th Century

That’s when the optimistic imagination of Tasneem Mehta and her team at the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) came round. ‘‘In 1996, we came to see this museum as a possible option where we could make a conservation lab. It was derelict but it was easy to see how wonderful it must have been,’’ says Mehta.

Designed by municipal engineer William Tracey and completed by Scott McClellant and co., the museum opened as the Victoria and Albert Museum (the name was changed to Bhau Daji Lad in 1975) in 1872. It was built with contributions from the city’s most successful and benevolent businessmen as a testimonial to the life and times of the Bombay Presidency. The grand ambition was ‘‘science and art in the service of industry’’—an institution for organic learning and increasing trade awareness.

At its best, the grand Palladian building has more than two dozen cast iron pillars from Scotland, Minton tiles, etched glass panes, terracotta exteriors and extensive gilt work. But money problems plagued it even then. The fortunes of the museum were tied up with those of its chief financiers, so that when some of the merchants lost their money, the pilasters in the foyer were forsworn for plaster of Paris.

More than a century later, it took Mehta years of shuttlecock negotiations with sponsors and the bankrupt BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to get the gold leaf back on. ‘‘It was karmic. It took a long time but our final sponsors approached us with an offer,’’ says Mehta. The final kitty was funded by the Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation and the BMC, making it a grand total of Rs 12 crore.

Despite the money in hand, trying to imagine a monochromatic room in Victorian technicolour requires a dangerous level of imagination. ‘‘We had almost nothing to go by, there were some old record books and a few black and white pictures,’’ says Mehta. The V&A museum in London invited Mehta and her team to tour Victorian museums in the UK to get an understanding of what the final product should look like.

Plaster of Paris and finishes are a way of life for 50-year-old Dawood Mual. The mason, from Rajasthan, spent the better part of the last two years working through every inch of wall, bracket and column. This is his recipe for replastering: Jaggery water, methi, brick dust, lime and jute (in case of water proofing). ‘‘We used the old materials and I decided beforehand what I should touch and what I shouldn’t,’’ says Mual. Of course, with a few modern twists like a PA system, smoke detectors, an elevator and ceiling fans.

The yellow’s gone. In its place, is a very Victorian Caledon green and magenta—the efforts of restoration experts Premier Constructions, and the gilt’s been pressed into place. ‘‘We’ve put in almost Rs 50 lakh worth of gold on the walls,’’ says Mehta.

In a sunlit room, left of the stairwell, 27-year-old Madhura Joshi and 28-year-old Anant Shelke quietly scrape the layers of neglect off the wooden statue of a soldier of the Punjab regiment. He’s one of 4,000 objects that make up the museum’s collection. Like a trade fair presentation, there are large tableaux of Bombay life and tradesmen, the costumes of different communities, old maps, 150 miniatures… the index runs on. ‘‘The collection was taken to Europe to show people what life in India was like. It was meant to increase trade with the colonies,’’ says Mehta.

Decades ago, it taught the Europeans a little bit about India, now the Bhau Daji Lad museum could teach us a little bit about ourselves.