Archive for November, 2009

Graphic novel writer Tony Lee and crime / historical fiction writer Jake Arnott meet in Kolkata during their Lit Sutra visit to India.

 On November 15th the road safety NGO, Arrivesafe, held an event as part of the United Nations World Day of Remembrance for victims of traffic accidents. The British Council teamed up with Arrivesafe in Chandigarh as Woodrow Phoenix delivered a presentation on his graphic novel about road accidents, Rumble Strip, and judged entries in a competition to design a road safety awareness poster. Read more about the work of Arrivesafe here.

day six – mummies, ninjas, ponies and bob the alien

The reading area of the Hyderabad British Library is set up with 120 chairs facing a screen and a flipchart. Children aged from 5 to 14 from three local schools are going to be playing the storytelling game with me, just as I did with the other group in Chandigarh. Two characters, one setting, some likes and dislikes. Go. This time we draw an adventure with a ninja (who hates pink) and an alien called Bob (who likes kissing). Read the rest of this entry »

day five – intellectual property in hyderabad

After the relative calm of Chandigarh, arriving in Hyderabad is like being plucked from a tub of yogurt and plunged into a hot bowl of minestrone soup. The continuous day and night honking of every kind of car horn, bus horn and truck horn reminds me of Car Horn Symphony, a composition made for 30 cars by Dennis Bathory-Kitsz. He could make his ultimate version here but he’d need five hands to transcribe it.

http://netnewmusic.ning.com/video/car-horn-symphony-no-2

Read the rest of this entry »

day four – arrive safe

My last morning in Chandigarh. From my window all I can see is grey fog so thick I can barely make out the trees ten feet away. Everything is drained of colour. Wolfman or Dracula could be looming out of this old fashioned black and white pea souper to claim another victim. An hour later it's starting to lift. I am just beginning to eat my cornflakes in the restaurant when the manager of the hotel comes over to my table, looking preoccupied. He introduces himself and just as I wonder what I might have done wrong he breaks into a big smile and tells me he saw my picture in the paper. Did I need anything else? An omelette, some coffee or tea?

We drive to Sukhina Lake. It's a beautiful man made lake set in parkland in the centre of Chandigarh that attracts thousands of people every weekend. So that's why it was chosen for an event to mark the United Nations World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims 2009. Read the rest of this entry »

 

Well… I've been back a day now and I'm still playing catchup, but it hasn't been so busy that I can't post up the video diaries that I took while I was in India, especially as the Internet issues of Bangalore meant that there were no updates while I was there. They're not the best quality, having been recorded in a higher resolution that YouTube takes, and therefore lose resolution for the upload, and the camera I used (not primarily a camcorder) has an annoying click it makes as it tries to auto focus on me every now and then, but you'll get the general gist and taste of everything…

So, without further adieu, here are the YouTube links.

DAY ONE: KOLKATA

1. Arriving at Kolkata (Calcutta) Airport with Jake Arnott. (0.36 minutes)

2.The 'Hello Alastair' I prepared at Starmark, Kolkata. (0.15 minutes)

3. The End of Day One recap. (3.52 minutes)

DAY TWO: KOLKATA

4. Walking through the Tanks-filled Jadavpur University. (0.24 minutes)

DAY THREE: PUNE

5. The End of Day Three recap, the flight, the drink with friends. (4.28 minutes)

DAY FOUR: PUNE

6. The End of Day Four recap: British Library Talk. (2.26)

DAY FIVE: BANGALORE

7. In the car leaving the airport. (0.47 minutes)

DAY SIX: BANGALORE

8. The start of the day discussion and end of previous day recap. (5.40 minutes)

9. Final day recap and conclusion on visit to India. (5.03 minutes)

 

Read media coverage of Woodrow's Lit Sutra visit in the Indian Express, Indian ExpressBuzz, and Tribune.

Follow Woodrow's photographic adventures here

Tony Lee with Dr.Debanjan Chakrabarti, Head of Intercultural Dialogue, British Council East India, at Starmark bookstore, Kolkata

Jake Arnott interviewed about his "life, love and more" in the Kolkata Mirror.

Photo: Dipanjan Ghosh