Kolkata

From a small Swabian town to a metropolis in an up-and-coming threshold country, from a provincial paper (in the best sense of the word) to India’s largest English-language newspaper – will that be a culture shock? I will soon find out for myself. Our newspaper and I have been chosen for the Goethe-Institut’s “Close-Up” project.

For the project, Indian and German journalists swap workplaces at different times. For me, that means I will be boarding a plane to Kolkata on Monday. When Aditi Guha, my young colleague from the Times of India (our partner newspaper in West Bengal) will come from the Ganges to the Neckar has not yet been decided: sometime in the spring. Perhaps we can work it out for our national holiday in Nürtingen, May Day, and make this centuries’ old festival popular in India, as well.

An Internet blog with the latest impressions

That has yet to be clarified. First, we will go in the opposite direction, from Swabia to West Bengal. From a people constantly in fear of dying out to a nation that is growing faster than most any on the planet. From the home of Friedrich Hölderlin, who was not revered until after his death, to the city of Rabindranath Tagore (the Bengali call him Thakur today), who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 and was popular in Germany during the Weimar Republic. All of this need not be contradictory. “We are looking forward to having you as part of our team,” wrote Bob Roy, for example, who manages the editorial office of the Times of India in Kolkata, “I am certain that your experience and your deep insights into our profession will be very valuable to us.” On the other hand, it will be very interesting for a German colleague to become familiar with the workings of an Indian newspaper.

That is true by all means. And we are, of course, very delighted that our paper was the first and so far only small newspaper to be selected by the Goethe-Institut for the “Close-Up” project. The other four are the Berliner Zeitung, the Frankfurter Rundschau, the Hamburger Morgenpost and the Leipziger Volkszeitung; quite illustrious company we are keeping. We also consider it a sign of appreciation for our newspaper.

The Goethe-Institut itself describes the objective of the project as follows: “The participating reporters’ investigations will focus on “Close-Ups.” During their stays, the journalists work at the local city desk of the partner paper. They are involved in the everyday journalism work on location; investigating, observing and setting their sights on a foreign culture that is new to them. The Close-Ups are near to the respective locations. As they would at home, the reporters will seek out interesting stories from urban everyday life. Yet, since they are exploring unfamiliar terrain, they have a different perspective. In this way, articles from Germany and the world sharpen our eyes for everyday situations, but also deal with topics that are not heard about very often.”

This way, we can practically test in real life how far apart and close together Kolkata and Nürtingen actually are. We agree to this absolutely. For not the highly theoretical disquisitions reveal the character of a country and its people to us, but rather the minor details and direct encounters with those who live there.

Since cooperation with our readers is very important to us, we not only wish to print articles in our series “Zur Zeit Calcutta”, but also enter into a live dialogue with our readers via the Internet. Starting today, the so-called “blog” has been activated on the World Wide Web. In it, I will report on the latest that I am up to in words and pictures. It would be nice if you, dear readers, would ask me questions and give me ideas. I will then do my best to inform you extensively. In addition to that, it will allow me to breathe in a little bit of the Neckar air alongside the great shores of the Ganges.