CHENNAI: Madhu Vottery is a renowned name in the department of Telangana Tourism. At an informal event with the conservationist, held at Egmore Musuem, history buffs and aspiring architects listened to her with rapt attention. Madhu began working on Hyderabad’s heritage in 2004 when she moved to the city from Lucknow. As part of her PhD thesis, she documented the heritage economics of some of the historic monuments in the city. The first place she visited was Malwala palace.
“The building was in shambles and required a restoration project. I was asked to map these historic landmarks by the government. I mapped 73 sites. After which, through private funding from two organisations I pursued my research. The officer from Hyderabad Urban Development Authority asked me to go ahead with the project. I covered more 275 places,” says Madhu.
She was the only delegate to get selected from South Asia by the US consulate in 2012 for a cultural exchange programme. Madhu soon started organising heritage walks and talks in Hyderabad. “This is one way of engaging the crowd with our own culture, especially children. However, the pay differs. Every job has its challenges. My family stood by my decisions,” says Madhu, who won the excellence in tourism award in 2018.
She took three years to author her first book A guide to there heritage of Hyderabad: The natural and the built in 2010. The second book Heritage of Hyderabad: From children for Children was released in 2014. Her next book Magnifying the Miniature with 60 miniature paintings will release in 2019. She also hopes to write one on Warangal and its monuments. Madhu has translated a decade of her research work on heritage pockets of Hyderabad into an Android app that will be released soon. “The idea is to keep pace with the fast-developing community that is more connected through a mobile application than through books,” says Madhu.