In a previous blog post, Sreyashi Basu described how she set up a TB education initiative, Joi Hok! in Kolkata, including a painted scroll that was used as a visual aid.  Here she describes the scroll and explains how it is used.

Sreyashi Basu writes:

The Patachitra painting is made by Swarna Chitrakar, a traditional scroll painter who hails from a place called Naya village in Medinipur District. She sings about different aspects of TB as she unfurls the large scroll painting to depict the sequence of events. The culture of Patachitra music (or Patua Sangeet) have been passed down for generations and unlike other kinds of music is performed acapella style.

Here I sing about TB in Bengali, and unlike Swarna, am accompanied by my ukelele:

The painting is reproduced below with an explanation of the panels (view image here):
Read more about Sreyashi and her Joi Hok! initiative here on this blog post. Sreyashi is a recent UCL graduate, and is now studying for an MSc at the LSHTM. Twitter: @SreyashiBasu2

I met Sreyashi Basu in mid-January this year. She’d dropped in to say hello to Prof Tim McHugh, who’d been a project supervisor during her UCL BSc course, which had finished the previous summer. 

I was amazed at how she had spent the six months after graduating setting up a TB initiative in Kolkata from scratch, coming up with an original idea, and working with laboratory scientists, local artists, charities, and schools to engage children and communities with information about TB. She’d also designed materials, produced videos and set up a website.

I was keen to know more, and over email, Sreyashi told me about herself, and about her project, Joi Hok! (which means “Let victory be yours!”).

Sreyashi Basu with scroll painter Swarna Chitrakar

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