[size=I feel compelled to give you my friends and family an in-depth (as I can make it) look at my time so far here in India. As it is, my feeble attempts to keep a journal have failed and so if I don't write you something now, the details of this trip could forever be lost in the dark backward abysm of time.]
[size=It's now been 6 weeks since I arrived in Chennai. It's been a dicky thing at times, intriguingly fascinating at others, but always a 'good thing' and a very educative experience. Fortunately, I've had good people around me at all times, and the work has now, after a slight judder, come good, with some exciting prospects. ]
[size= ][size=I live in a flat in West Mugappair, just on the western border of the city. This doesn't sound captivatingly involved to begin with, but is a serious bonus given the nearby location of the office and the distance between ourselves and the treacherous waves of smog and dust and other general nasties of a city that's far too big for its own good.]
[size= ][size=When I say 'us', I mean to say the group of 5 others that accompany me both to the offices of the New Indian Express and who live in our compressed flat. (The flat itself is fine, but just slightly infested, and we are competent enough only to subsist just beyond the borders of squalor). Most of them I'd met before at the well organised Changing Worlds pre-departure course, ]
[size=The work is, as I said, really taking off now. The first week we weer here saw a front page dedicated to myself and the other interns - "Kanuun Pongal [a local harvest festival] through their eyes" Where we started we have since continued in an upward, though not always steady, curve. I did find myself slightly disillusioned with what to find and where after a couple of weeks, as did we all, but I've left that mole hill well behind and am the better for ploughing through it.]
[size= ][size=We now average 3 published articles a week for either the City Express Supplement or its Friday entertainment counterpart, Indulge. Where the others have started to find their niche interests in various areas, I am today (20 minutes away in fact) having a meeting with the Sunday editor with the hope of having some longer and more creative pieces in her edition. I actually wrote the three samples I've given to her well over 3 weeks ago, but there was a slight 'will she-won't she' resignation wobble. Thankfully that is now resolved and she has agreed to see me.]
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[size=The City Express articles have been 250 word reportages and I have a 1,500 word assessment of UK universities in Thursday's Education Supplement. I hope that Mrs. Sushila Ravindranath of the Sunday Express will say yes to my 1 thousand plus investigations into the rock music scene here, my trip to developing India and something about history. Actually, I'll go and find out from here now...]
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[size= Back! Encouraging is the answer. The first, on my moving over here, us, understandably, not usable. It was actually written for my local paper in the UK anyway so no loss there. For the second, a report into the rock scene, she has referred me to the people at Indulge. And the third, exploring the concept of an historical novel, she will take on, though with a few adjustments. This is good news. I need to tune it more to Indian taste and include some popular examples, and I'm there. This is good news, particularly as the Sunday paper is national, and the readership runs into millions... I also just spoke to her about researching and commenting on the bus network here, which I think could do with some basic but fruitful improvements.]
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