The Animation Workshop to recreate Verrier Elwin as the Presenter of the "Tales of the Tribes" animation series is moving forward at Centurion University in Bhubaneshwar, Orissa.  On Saturday 27th August, the team that has come from Delhi, Ahmedabad and Guwhati receive two visitors who had come to know about the project and were interested to see the action for themselves as well as to interact with the creators.

In the morning, Ghani Zaman, who is known for his photography on the one hand, and for developing bamboo products on the other, dropped in at the Autocad Lab, where the workshop is taking place.   Ghani was fascinated to see the character of Verrier Elwin in animated form;  he told the team that he had always enjoyed animation but that he could not comprehend how such magic could be done.  Ghani, originally from Shillong, Meghalaya, recollected how he had seen Elwin in person as a child; Ghani had been a schoolmate of Dr Elwin's sons at St Anthony's in Shillong, and he recollected that at the time, Elwin's stature had made a big impression on him.  He also told the animators that it had been Elwin's smile and friendly countenance that  won the tribal people over and made it easy for him to integrate and become a part of their daily activities, and that his philosophy of love had also made it possible for Elwin to cross the cultural divide.

In the evening, Surya Shankar Dash, an independent film-maker and activist visited the young artists. Surya was also able to provide some information about Verrier Elwin, explaining that anyone who has studied anthropology in India, or who has worked for the social welfare of the tribes would know about the earlier corpus of work by Dr Elwin.  He then went on to detail  the tribes that Dr Elwin had researched in Orissa; these include the Bonda, the Langia Saora, the Gadeba and the Kondh. Unfortunately his books on these tribes are largely out of print, and therefore unavailable for purchase, or in the Central Library of the University.

Surya began as an advertising film-maker, but on finding out more about the situation of the tribes in his own home state of Orissa, he instead began to make films to raise awareness about the tribal cause and the need to preserve their natural resources.   Surya's work has been inspiring to the young animators. They were able to see The Lament of Niyamraja and a short animation entitled Shot Dead for Development at the evening screening event, and in the interaction that followed, Surya explained the advantage for Adivasis to make their own films and tell their own stories, and how their involvement gave the end product more meaning for them.