The physical culture home or gymnasium at Parekh Street, established in 1940 comprised 900-strong members who played a crucial role as an evacuation force, guiding nationalist leaders, agitators and volunteers from the hotbeds of activity to safety, before they could fall to police custody during India’s independence movement. About their growing relevance, gallery co-director Mortimer Chatterjee said, "These photo series work on two different levels. The first level is of course the visual aesthetic that Philippe Calia's lens deftly captures, but apart from that, they also preserve and re-tell stories that, if not, would have been lost. They are micro-histories hidden from our view; they don't make headlines. For the culture home, we were interested in the bit about gymnasts doubling up as security guards for nationalist leaders, and how that comes together to give us a larger picture of the time."

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