[Reader-list] First Post: Urban Stories

[Nirupama Sekhar]

URBAN STORIES:
A collection of graphic essays on the city of Mumbai

By Sanjay R. and Nirupama Sekhar

I'm Nirupama and I work in television production in Mumbai, as does my
co-fellow Sanjay. We are both graduates in Mass Communication and are
collaborating on Urban Stories.

I believe there are more dimensions to Mumbai city than I will ever
know of or experience. And it may safely be stated that there are as
many valid stories of the city as there are Mumbaikars. Urban Stories
is an attempt to visually capture some of these unique urban
narratives.

Urban Stories seeks to explore the myriad hues of the culture of the
city through a collection of stylized visual essays. Woven around
Mumbai, the graphic essays will address a host of urban issues from
the aesthetics of colonial architecture to the politics of postmodern
identities. A visual experiment of sorts, Urban Stories will employ
such diverse genres as collage and typography, illustration and
photography. The resulting collection will emerge as a unique visual
narrative of Mumbai, its pasts and presents. While a few essays will
view the city through the lens of the past, the majority of the essays
will present vignettes of the postmodern city by touching a wide range
of urban issues: globalisation, migration, the changing notion of
family, digital interfaces, power of the media, work culture, urban
sexuality, popular culture etc.

This exploration of the city and urban culture in the proposed graphic
essays is essentially through a kind of visual kaleidoscope of people
and places. This method has specifically been chosen in order to
consider how subjective narratives have become central to a holistic
understanding of contemporary Mumbai.

Research to this end includes extensive photography and literary/
media research about the city and its history. To gain insights into
personal impressions of the city, we are also  interviewing a wide
cross section of Mumbaikars.

Thats it for now!

Regards,
Nirupama
98207 28943