This Mumbaikar quit his corporate job to help people discover heritage in his city
Bharat started Khaki Tours to help people discover the nooks and crannies that make Mumbai.
There’s more to the city that never sleeps than the skyscrapers, endless nightlife and the metro. The rich culture of the city of Mumbai comes from the blend of the heritage passed down by the Maratha rulers and the East India Company’s trade ties.
Exploring this very part of the city and many other untold stories, Bharat Gothoskar, a 41-year-old from Mumbai set up a platform called Khaki Tours to explore the city through heritage walks.
Untold stories of Mumbai
Bharat, who had had an interest in the history of the city since his childhood days, was very keen on understanding the heritage of the city and began researching about it—purely out of curiosity—and continues to do it to this date.
Even as a project during his MBA days, he had chosen to propose a marketing plan for promoting heritage. The activity of hosting walks is something that he has been doing for the past 10 years. However, back in the day, Bharat took it up on the request of friends and relatives. As time passed, Bharat found himself involved in heritage walks and Khaki Tours came into being.
Today, the Khaki walks have become a medium for Mumbaikars to fall in love with their city all over again and appreciate the heritage that can be found in its nooks and crannies.
Khaki Tours came into being in 2015 when Bharat posted an event on Facebook for a walk around the Banganga Tank. After receiving a huge response, requests started pouring to have open walks in other parts of the city, covering other interesting spots of Mumbai.
On the name ‘Khaki Tours,’ Bharat says, “The name 'Khaki' came with the vision of showing around the visitors of this city in an open-air jeep. The jeep in mind was a typical military jeep with the khaki colours on them and hence the name 'Khaki Tours' was born.”
Although the walks did generate a lot of interest, Bharat and his team faced quite a few challenges in the beginning. Challenges have always remained in reaching out to people and having them be a part of the walks.
“While social media has been a helpful instrument in reaching out to the masses; it is such a dynamic medium that keeps updating itself after a few weeks, we have to keep up with the changing trends as well. The intention is to make heritage relatable to the ones attending it and hence history has to be looked at from multiple angles to create the 'wow' factor to it,” says Bharat.
From Khaki Walks to Urban Safari
On any particular walk, the team usually looks at a precinct and helps people see how it has evolved over the years. Khaki Tours helps people understand how a particular heritage site/monument/place of historical importance has contributed to the city or the country.
This is usually done with relevant photos, information and insight from heritage experts or historians. “Most walks have surprises that stun people, for instance, the ‘other Gateway of India’ which was part of the GamdeviWalk or the two-metre-high Shiva statue from the fifth century, during Queensway Parel walk,” says Bharat.
Bharat and his team launched ‘Urban Safaris’ in November 2016, which are open jeep rides that span over 2.5 hours and cover different parts of the city such as Fort, Byculla, Bhuleshwar and Malabar Hill. The food walks are ‘Khaki Chow,’ which focus on the unique food items found in select parts of the city and the heritage associated with it.
Currently, Khaki Tours has a total inventory of 15 walks, which are divided into long walks, which span around 2.5 hours, and short walks, which take about 1.5 hours. Team Khaki has about 15 members who help in different aspects like content generation, hosting, and volunteering. The team has conducted about 200 walks and 100 jeep rides till date.
The team has also had a couple of outdoor trips to Alibag and Kulaba fort, which take an entire day.
