My friend, colleague and calligrapher Pradnya Naik and me were invited to be a part of Typoday 2017, Sri Lanka. We were conducting a Tact-Type workshop combining everyday materials and local scripts. Typoday is a design conference which is a celebration of Indian typography, calligraphy and font design. Designers, students and agencies from all over Asia and beyond come to attend this conference. After completing the 3 day conference and workshop hosted at the University of Moratuwa, Colombo. We explored different parts of Sri Lanka, staying with local families, traveling by public transport and depending heavily upon Google Maps. The tear-dropped island of Lanka is surrounded by the sea on all sides, making it a coastal land, with scenic beaches that have clean water and beautiful marine life. But as you move towards the centre it becomes forested, and densely green with plush hillsides, tea gardens and old English towns. We travelled from Colombo to Kandy by train, made a days trip to Dambulla and Sigiriya, then headed off for Nuwara Eliya by a local bus and then drove down to the Akurla beach near Hikkaduwa in Southern Province, Sri Lanka. A muggy weather, with spicy local seafood, warm-hearted families, clean but traffic-filled roads, neat urban architecture, different car models from China, Japan and Europe, and peace-loving friendly people. Most of Sri Lanka follows Buddhism and hence the influence can be seen in the architecture, across caves, monuments or temples.
