Vincent D'Souza addresses the Fort Walkers.(Picture: Bhuvnesh Mutha)

Admiralty House, where Robert Clive once lived.

The special staircase in Admiralty House (Clive House).

The cannons of wars past.

What costume would I choose to wear if I was to lead a Walk inside Fort St. George?

Andrew Cogan and Francis Day’s waistcoast and breeches? Did they wear this when they landed on this strip of sand to found a new warehouse that went on to grow into a fort that led to the creation of this city and started an empire?

Imagine me stuffed up on a Sunday morning when the temperature climbs to 33 degrees by 9 a.m. Temperature notwithstanding, I did two Walks in the Fort recently – on a Saturday evening for children – my first of the kind – and a Sunday morning one, open to all.

Inside St. Mary's Church. (This picture and the three on left are by Vijay Sriram)

I love to go back to the Fort again and again, having done the first walk some 13 years ago to mark the launch of Madras Day, the celebration of the founding of our city. The most recent walks were to celebrate the completion of the nucleus of the Fort.

Sunday mornings are perfect. The ghosts have retired, the securitymen are groggy and few, applicants, Secretariat staff, ministers and power brokers are taking the day off, and the music from St. Mary’s plays on between soaring prayers and passionate supplications.

I hold the Walk because people are discouraged from exploring the Fort, fearing security blocks, and because we all want the Fort to be ours and to become a heritage stie.

This time around I extended the networks to communities who can gain access and come back with their own groups and visits can multiply like the bats which haunt the King’s Barracks. So we had invited the Photo Walkers, the Bloggers and the Weekend Artists to join us.

And since the ASI was an enthusiastic collaborator, we used their Museum space to host a drawing event for the children and a quiz for the city.

I am hoping there were a few teachers in the weekend crowd – imagine hosting history lessons in the Fort and then letting the children handle the rotating cannon and palming 3D coins of yore.

In the open spaces, groups must open up. Reach out.

One Walk participant from South Chennai is now offering to car-pool and it has inspired me to do so also.

And an alumni from Queen Mary’s encouraged some students to attend the Walk so they could think of being paid-guides for the next season.

Open up, if you are a group activity member. (Courtesy: Mylapore Times)