Chandigra, The Punjab
Richard had warned me about the Punjab roads, essentially just an A road but with up to 5 lanes. Bikes / carts on the outside, cars, buses and lorries next and then overtaking down the middle - or more likely the other side of the road. Having large Tata lorries hurtling towards you, knowing their brakes wont be in good working order can be tense at times. Arun who is our driver, got us there safe and sound. Chandigra is India’s equivalent of Milton Keynes and thank god they didn’t do it as well. It is well organised and very clean compared to Delhi and just alot calmer. But I guess that is the capital city effect.
We’re here following the Hannah Foster case, her parents are here to make an appeal for the murderer’s capture. He fled the UK back to the Punjab 16 months ago and has dissapeared.
Find the hotel Picadilly which we were booked into - hmm perhaps one night only. That done we head off down the street and settle on Singh’s Chicken for dinner where they don’t serve beer. The manager sends out a rickshaw to the local offy or us. When he comes back the beer is served from a water pitcher so no one else knows - though it does spell like beer.
As my second piece from India, let alone with out all my own equipment, another long story, it doesn’t go too badly. Getting back into editing on the Avid is OK, after a few more stories I’ll be back up to full speed. Getting used to the new camera is also taking a bit of time as well, not having tape stock is strange and does take more management.. Just logistical stuff thats not really needed here but I do need to get my head around.
Biggest drama is the fact that to feed our package (1.5 mins) back to Delhi from the ANI office here will take half an hour. After that it gets fed back to Sky for airing. When I get all my kit this will be so easy - and without having to rely on other people as well.
Its been decided that we are going back to Delhi in the morning so I’ll be back in time for the families arrival with a clean house at least.
