Calcutta Style

A look back at a zine-making workshop that I facilitated for students of publication design at the National Institute of Fashion Technology (Bangalore), which was focused on documenting and sharing street lettering from the neighbourhood of Ulsoor.

2023 was an exciting year: I received a small grant from the Bangalore International Centre (BIC) as part of their B•LORE programme to make a short film about street lettering in Bangalore’s M.G. Road. The film was screened at their annual festival, where I also got the opportunity to mount an exhibition.

Announcing the first batch of India Street Lettering zines, featuring signs from Panjim, New Delhi, Noida and Hardiwar, which are bound by the common thread of using tiles as a material for signage.

Last year in June, I was invited to give a talk about this project at the Bangalore International Centre (BIC).

Organised by the Bangalore International Centre, I conducted an updated type walk in M.G. Road in June.

Last autumn, I found myself in Bangalore and spent a few days in Indiranagar, a neighbourhood I called home just a few years ago.

For the uninitiated, Connaught Place is a commercial and shopping centre in Delhi, that was built as part of the imperial capital of New Delhi by the British.

Over on Paper Planes, I wrote about the very personal story of how I began looking out for and documenting the decrepit signs of single-screen cinemas in Delhi about five years ago, and about some of my favourites from the lot. I also drew an illustration of the now-lost façade of Paras Cinema. Read my…