REVIEWS OF THE TRAMJATRA BOOK?
"exhilerating"
- The Age
"sets out to map ... the collective consciousness of tram users and workers, the system's reflection of the life and image of the city, and hence the actual thought and art it fosters"
- Bibio: A Review of Books
"makes trams a cultural experience"
- Hindustan Times
"an intersection where public transport and public art ... connect, and so too artist and audience, driver and passenger"
- Art Monthly Australia
"a unique initiative"
- Hindustan Times
"tram global, feel local"
- The Age
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"The most remarkable thing about Tramjatra is that it happenned. For Tramjatra is the name not just of a book but of a movement. The proponents of Tramjatra have seized on the neglected truth tht an urban transport system in not simply a mechanical means of ferrying citizens from Point A to Point B. It is a social construct, a means of urnban bonding and a catalyst - if not an active ingredient - in the cultural life of a community. The book sets out to map this social and cultural hinterland; the collective consciousness of tram users and workers, the system's reflection of the life and image of the city, and hence the actual thought and art it fosters, from the naive art of the Medinipur patuas all the way to the deconstructive subtleties of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. The book ... will be a collector's item not only for transport buffs but for all students of popular culture."
- Sukanta Chadhuri, Biblio: A Review of Books, May-June 2006
"Kolkata's (Calcutta) fight to keep its trams has inspired this exhilerating, bilingual public art project that takes the reader for virtual and intellectual rides through Melbourne and Kolkata by tram. One of the collaborators on the project, Debasish Bhattacharyya, argues that in the age of the automobile, tramways are a living artwork that tunes people to the rhythms of their city. Given that more than 10,000 people die annually in Kolkata from air polution, trams also save lives. Melbourne's tram fight was a battle for the 'connies' and against privatisation of the tramways in the '90s. An array of writers, artists and academics reflect on the significance of trams in both cities with their striking cultural, economic, and lingustic differences. A lively and thought provoking series of tram-inspired and sometimes 'tramsgressive' and 'tramsexual' encounters."
- 'PICK OF THE WEEK' , Fiona Capp, The Age (29 April 2006)
"a small book which, not unlike the way tramlines criss-cross Calcutta, weaves the various notions and sub-notions that makes trams a cultural experience in both cities."
- Hindustan Times (Delhi, 25 Sept 2005)
"a unique initiative"
- Hindustan Times (Kolkata, 11 Sept 2005)
"like a dream"
- Nabaneeta Dev Sen (at the book's launch, Calcutta Club, 8 Sept 2005)
Sanjay Mitra reading ...
Posted by tramtactic at September 7, 2005 04:34 PM