A HOT day in May. A jeep wends its way out of Ahmedabad. An hour later, a small blue sign appears at the edge of a dusty road. ‘Lothal’, it reads. But it doesn’t quite prepare the riders for the greatness that lies ahead. ‘‘As we approached the site, we were disappointed to see the broken-down fencing that marked the beginning of the site,’’ says Mumbai-based conservation architect, Abha Narain Lambah. The site museum with its colonial patio and iron park benches hardly does justice to the relics of India’s first urban civilisation that it houses. But that is set to change. Since that day in May, Lambah and her team have been frequenting the site to piece together a document that will underpin India’s first museum dedicated to the Indus Valley civilisation. It contains data on recent digs, site maps, photographs and historians’ analysis of the Indus Valley. At 34, Lambah is the quintessential multitasker—she’s a member of the Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee and the Kala Ghoda Association, which have an ongoing campaign to preserve Mumbai’s Neo-Gothic and Art Deco buildings. She also spearheaded the Maitreya Buddha Temple conservation project in Ladakh. Balancing her vivacious daughter on her knee, Lambah fields calls and nods an okay when an assistant brings recent images of the site. After a quick coffee at her flat on Carter Road in Bandra, she’s ready to rush off for another conservation mission. But not before expressing her views about the significance of the Indus museum project. ‘‘After years of focusing on museums abroad, the spotlight has finally swung in Asia’s direction—about time, too,’’ she says heatedly. ‘‘I have no issues with foreign funding, as long as it is put to good use.’’ Besides Lambah, the Dream Team includes architect and designer Charles Correa, whose other projects include the Gandhi Museum in Ahmedabad and the Crafts Museum in Delhi. Correa was hand-picked by Jeff Morgan of Global Heritage Fund—which is funnelling $2 million—to make the Indus museum more approachable and viewer-friendly. This is the first time Lambah and Correa are interacting, and clearly, both are looking forward to it. ‘‘The challenge of this unique museum is to breathe life into a civilisation which existed 45 centuries ago,’’ says Correa. ‘‘Although there are no huge pyramids or Sun Temples to make the viewer gasp, the Indus Valley was an advanced civilisation,’’ says Lambah, adding, ‘‘It was a planned, egalitarian city and we hope to bring that out through 3D reconstructions and models that have more than a vague note saying ‘Pottery from Indus Valley’.’’ However, instead of elaborate signs, visual walk-ins, audio guides and informative touch screens are planned. The museum will also be accessible to the handicapped. ‘‘Information has to be interactive, and there is no harm in having little replicas of the objects out there for children to touch and play with,’’ says Lambah, citing the Louvre in Paris, which has successfully incorporated interactive toys. INDUS CREED • The Indus Valley civilisation dates between 2,600 and 1,900 BC • It was one of the first democratic civilisations • It is spread over 1,600 km of land east to west, and 1,100 km north to south. • In the 1850s, British General Alexander Cunningham discovered Harappan artefacts in the Sindh basin • 200 Indus sites have been unearthed in Gujarat alone
