Article by Mehsum Abbas

On eve of the World Heritage Day let’s talk about Paris and Eiffel tower comes to mind, talk about U.S.A. and statue of liberty comes to mind. Talk about Rome and coliseum comes to mind.

Likewise talk about India and the first thing comes to mind is kings, their dynasties and their luxurious palaces of Rajasthan.

Out of all Udaipur, the then Rajputana constituency has kept its heritage alive with its soul. Today we have maximum number of palaces, forts and lakes which draws attention of many people and archeological societies around the world. From City Palace to Monsoon Palace, from Jaisamand Lake to Kumbalgarh Fort.

Udaipur today is an upcoming tourist destination with the best hotels to cater and the construction of these are based on the Rajputana styles of architecture which increases their texture and bring them on top among the best hotels of the world which again is a remarkable spotlight for Udaipur city. The people of Udaipur we have proudly witnessed the grand weddings time to time.

But here the attention of the same proud people is required about the bygone architectures of our city. Today the only places of tourist interest which are taken care off are either hotels or places with highest commercial interest; which provide the maximum profits.

Let us talk about the monsoon palace; monsoon itself is degrading its charm as no attention is paid to it. Kumbalgarh fort, birth place of Mewar icon Maharana Pratap, (on whose name International Airport is just named and kept maintained) is witnessing its ruining up every day. The Jagmandir is maintained but not adjacent Dudhtalai though Govt. grants are provided time to time.

And the most left over pieces are the Ayad, Sherkot and Siphon. There were times when they were the tough guardians and the best available irrigation system respectively. But today don’t know why the small fractions were left over to make more fun of the heritage than destroying it completely on name of urbanization.

Places of heritage with highest commercial interest will be often taken care by one or other. But as the responsible citizens of this heritage city is it not our responsibility to preserve all our heritage which has added value to our honored Traditions and Culture at some ladders of time in history despite looking at any return out it or do we have to always wait till it makes any commercial sense to a businessmen or the day when someone pays a petty grant to preserve it.

So on this auspicious event of World Heritage Day, before we lost all our forbidden heritage jewels, I invite every awaken citizen to plunge an oath of saving our valued heritage.