Ratish Nanda, CEO of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) in India speaks about the years spent working on Qutb Shahi Tombs complex in Hyderabad’s Deccan Park, over time, buried in neglect. He explained what it takes to dig them back out. At a talk organised by Sangat, a Hyderabad-based cultural initiative, Nanda spoke on the topic “Interpreting Heritage: From Humayun’s Tomb to the Qutb Shahi Tombs,” where he drew upon the organisation’s restoration efforts in Delhi and Hyderabad, moving between the 16th century and the present and the larger question of why any of it matters. Speaking about AKTC’s landmark restoration of Humayun’s Tomb in Delhi, Nanda said he likes coming to Hyderabad because of what doesn’t happen here. “There are no unnecessary obstacles, no one trying to block the conservation effort,” he said. The Telangana government had given the trust both support and room to carry out the restoration of the Qutb Shahi complex, he added.