Delhi-based illustrator Vishwajyoti Ghosh documents Indian life in a series of postcards Three years ago,comic book artist and illustrator Vishwajyoti Ghosh placed an advertisement in the Sunday edition of a local newspaper. I wanted to sell my car,but nobody responded, says Ghosh. I realised that while I had written a good,conventional copy,classified ads have their own language. He soon rewrote the ad,keeping it short,using suitable adjectives and abbreviations and,voila,the car was sold. Buoyed by his success,Ghosh got interested in classified ads and soon began collecting them. The best of these have found their way to a postcard collection cheekily named Times New Roman & Countrymen (Blaft,Rs 295). The collection consists of 25 postcards that Ghosh has specially designed,based on the chosen advertisements. The ads range from looking for yoga and meditation services to propelling a passive libido; from looking for fair brides to fair game. While the framework of advertisements is brief,the linguistics evokes much laughter. Be prepared for family drama in I ,Subhash Khanijoh declare that our elder unmarried son Rahul is out of our control and sincere friendship requests in No Fake,No No Fake Commitment. There are so many services that I did not know of. They werent there in the India I grew up.I have illustrated them with the visual influences of my childhood and formative years, says Ghosh,who has used film posters,educational posters,Raja Ravi Varma prints and calendar art,creating a kitschy,humourous effect. The best part of the collection is that if you dont want to use it as a book,you can tear out each postcard. The rationale behind the postcard book is to make it usable and interactive like the ads themselves, says Ghosh,who rues that visual or concept books have been terribly niche in India. Kaveri of Blaft Publications agrees: The Indian book buyer is now open to experimental,funky stuff and,most importantly,all things Indian. This is not a picture book to be quickly flipped through. Visual books like this should be closely read and re-read. Times New Roman & Countrymen will hit the stores this week
