Ahmedabad- the city of flavors and colours, celebration and pomp, a city which has every reason there is to be curated. Precisely why the second book in The People Place series is People Called Ahmedabad. The city has myths and legends, stories and narratives, people and places, a perfect blend of their narratives and histories. The city of Ahmedabad is weaved together with stories and every moment a new thread of story is weaved into the city. We at PPP tried our best to capture as many threads of stories as we could and create a book on this artsy city.
People Called Ahmedabad was launched for the first time on the 21st of January 2017 at Hutheesing visual art centre, CEPT, Ahmedabad. It was the first time that most of us from PPP were meeting the writers and their protagonists. We were super thrilled to interact with them and meet them and listen to them speak about the book.
The event of the launch started with a press release where the curator of the book, Nisha Nair Gupta spoke about the book, the authors, the stories and about Ahmedabad. This was followed by a photo exhibition where photo entries on Ahmedabad sent to us by various people were displayed. The actual book launch event began after the photo exhibition. Nisha introduced the book, spoke about the authors and it was well known Gujarati writer, orator and columnist Mr. Jay Vasavada who inaugurated the book. He himself spoke about the book and everybody loved listening to him speak.
The authors who were present for the launch individually spoke about the book, how was their experience writing the stories, their inspiration, their view of the city, how is it that they look at the city and everything that relates them to Ahmedabad. The authors continued with some book readings as well. Shriti Das from the PPP studio hosted the launch event, spoke about the PPP studio, talked about our narrative mapping exercise and also engaged in a brief question- answer session with the authors and the curator giving the audience interesting insights into the process and efforts that went into curating People Called Ahmedabad.
The event came to an end with the authors being felicitated with a copy of the book and a sketchbook of People Called Ahmedabad. We had another activity running simultaneously – that of a book exchange wherein people coming for the launch event or the photo exhibition could bring along a book and we exchanged it for a copy of People Called Ahmedabad at a discounted price. The books collected from the people were then donated to Aasmaan Foundation for the underprivileged children.
Capturing Ahmedabad in a book opened up new windows to look at the city and a chance to interact with the authors, their protagonists was an unforgettable experience for everybody at PPP.
The launch brought together several like-minded people bound together by their love for the city, curiosity for the city and love for reading and photography.