Sep 08 2026 to Sep 08 2026 6:30 p.m.

Where

Bangalore International Centre

7 4th Main Rd, Stage 2, Domlur 560071

Event Description

The Kolkata Restorers have one goal: to turn the historic, forgotten buildings of the city into celebrated heritage through facade illumination. This conversation will explore how light, restoration, storytelling and citizen participation transformed Kolkata.

Indian cities, Kolkata in particular, have architecture that carries the stories of generations. Many of these stories have gradually disappeared into darkness, neglect and urban indifference. Facade illumination is a powerful instrument in the transformation. By lighting historic buildings, domes, columns, arches and ornamentation, architectural details that often remain under-visible by day are highlighted after sunset. What was once simply old becomes dramatic; what was overlooked becomes a landmark; what belonged to history becomes part of contemporary Kolkata.

This event is part of BIC’s Beyond the 9 to 5 conversation series, featuring people pursuing ambitious, unusual and meaningful projects outside their student and professional lives.

Venue: Auditorium
Speakers

Mudar Patherya
Activist & Illuminator of heritage facades
Mudar Patherya is a garbage picker, heritage building photographer, Urdu enthusiast, butterfly-chaser, bylane walker, stock picker, social activist, façade illuminator, gravestone cleaner, and writer who also works behind a desk for a living. He has illuminated 114 heritage facades in Kolkata, Darjeeling, and Amritsar, and led the cleanup of Kolkata’s urban water bodies, including the Santragacchi Jheel and Rabindra Sarobar. He inspired the founding of Kolkata Gives, a philanthropic NGO that mobilized nearly Rs 100 million during the pandemic. He began his career as a sports journalist before founding Trisys, India’s oldest agency dedicated to producing financial annual reports.

Arun Pai
Founder, BangaloreWALKS
Arun Pai is a Bengaluru-based civic leader and urban innovation practitioner known as the city’s self-appointed “Footpath Mayor.” An engineer and management graduate, he holds a Mechanical Engineering degree from IIT Madras and completed his PGP at IIM Bangalore in 1993. In 2005, he founded BangaloreWALKS, which has since conducted over 1,500 heritage and city walks, and has worked to fix gaps in pedestrian infrastructure between traffic police and tourism officials. He is a recipient of the Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Award, has been featured by BBC, The Wall Street Journal, and The Guardian, and was recognized in the Prime Minister’s Mann Ki Baat program (2026) and by IIM Bangalore’s Distinguished Alumni Award (2026).