The Dreamland: First book writing experience

“The Dreamland”  Captivating glimpses of most diverse district Uttara Kannada “ is a coffee table book showing the  Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka. The book is commissioned by District administration of Uttara Kannada to promote responsible tourism in the district.  It has 120 pages that come in   five  sections  Nature: geography, Nature: flora and fauna , Heritage, Culture and People.  Book also contains some interesting facts and quotes  that are unique to the district. Every effort has been made to show district’s  beauty and diversity through photos but this is not a complete guide for traveling  or an encyclopedia. I am  privileged  write the content of the book and edit the photographs. Out of 230 photos more than 120  photographs are shot by me over last 7 years and the rest of the photos were contributed by some of the finest  photographers of our times.

When  I was asked  to write and edit this book in last November  by my good friend U T Suresh of Flowergrafic  I straight away knew this is going to be a daunting task. I  accepted  the challenge  only because this is a coffee  table book on ‘my’ home district Uttara Kannada and I  know the district well.Then I embarked on a journey that I will regard as one of the most toughest but most exciting journey. Very first few days I realized that I do not know much about  my district! Then I realized my life time is not enough to make the ultimate coffee table book on Uttara Kannada. So I had to write and edit this book in the limited amount of time given due to various factors which i will not detail here .

I started reading books, met many people  to get some guidance . I referred many popular coffee table books for the design and details. Finally I made a presentation  how the content would look like and shown to Uttara Kannada DC S S Nakul and ADC H Prasanna . Between their super busy schedule they were kind enough to go in detail and with some suggestions and tweaks. We finalized the frame work for the book. Deciding quality physical appearance of the book such as paper, size, print style, binding style was also an important factor to make the book more complete and I think  U T Suresh of flowergrafic and District Administration of Uttara Kannada have done excellent job in that.

Next two months brought long sleepless nights, frequent visits to the district,  meeting variety of people such as  professors, journalists, photographer, artists, scientists . I spent hours on internet searching for genuine information which seemed difficult  task today considering the amount of information available out there. Photo-contributors were kind enough to quickly search their database and give their pictures . Frequent interactions with designer U T Suresh and DC office helped to fine tune the book in terms of design, arrangement,text content. Many people in the background such as  proof readers, designers, printers, people at DC office Karwar   worked hard  to complete the book .  District Administration office also contributed many photos in the book without which the book would not have been complete .

Thanks for every one who worked with me for completing the book . Soon I will write about  some of the important people who helped me to get this book.

Unfortunately the book is not for sale now but the second prints may be made available for sale. Only English version is available now but soon work on Kannada version might start as well. Few pages here as a preview of the book.