Vadodara People’s Heritage Festival to celebrate 507th anniversary of city

Vadodara People’s Heritage Festival will be celebrating National Heritage Week to mark 507th anniversary year of Baroda from 18th November to 25th November. The whole week will comprise of a series of interesting activities, informative exhibitions, heritage and nature walks, rickshaw tours, home museums, illustrated talks and film screenings.
The Heritage Week is completely self-sponsored and self-financed by like-minded people who share similar interests and love for the heritage of the city. And this year, the festival is been proposed forward by renowned MS University which will be providing places for exhibitions and programs.
Some of the events as part of the week-long festival are listed below
1. Natural and Heritage walk
There will be a photography and heritage walk where history enthusiasts would be taken to Pavagarh-Champaner. It is a fun-filled exercise along with a well-informed guide who’ll be giving valuable insights into the magnificent history of that place.
2. Baroda Heritage Building Tour
The city is known to have numerous historical buildings reflecting architectural fashion of rulering dynasties who had come here. The tour will be guided by a heritage volunteer Shri Jamadar who’ll be leading the tour in auto-rickshaw covering 15 buildings and explaining the importance of each one.
3. Tour of Sayajibaug trees
Botanist, Dr Jitendra Gavli will take nature lovers through Sayajibaug’s greenery. He’ll be explaining the importance of rare trees and other plants.
4. Exhibition of calligraphy and its tools
Old writing instruments like inkpots, quills, ink-nibs which were prevalent before the age of ball-point pens will be displayed in the exhibition with the live demonstration by Manish Soni.
5. Indian handwritten manuscripts and granthas
Harshad Kadia will be presenting his collection of manuscripts and granthas in Sanskrit, Pali, Marathi, Gujarati, Devnagri and in other South Indian languages. He’ll also be providing the history manufacturing paper and other writing devices.
6. Baroda Short Film Festival
There will be a screening of short films on certain places, events, activities, that have captured the spirit of Baroda. The films will also revolve around city history and its development over the years. People can also come forward and submit their films for screening.
7. Exhibition on Dev Ni Mori Excavation
The Archaeology and Ancient History Department of MS University will put a display of Dev Ni Mori archaeological remnants which they had excavated near Shamlaji. Dev Ni Mori is a Buddhist Site. They are putting up this exhibition for the first time for public viewing!
8. The Rudraksh Exhibition
Kishan Shah will be presenting his formidable collection of rudraksha for the first time for public viewing. The beads are a unique collection of this valuable fruit.

The festival is also holding a series of lectures by eminent personalities who would be talking about the history of Baroda’s monuments, the emergence of historic central library and cultural traditions.
The week-long festival will help the citizens of Baroda to embrace their historic culture and know more about it.