Wednesday, July 30, 2008

A Sense of Humour

I think that Pawan is one of the most accomplished cartoonists in Bihar. His themes come from life around him and his focus remains that of the common man. His unashamed use of the vernacular makes his work all the more interesting.

My own association with Pawan dates back to about 1995 or thereabouts, when he was still a gangly youth... very young whose talent was spotted by the then editor of the Times of India Patna edition Uttam Sengupta. he would bring his stuff written in Hindi, and we would translate the captions into English.

We were thrown together once again by the UNICEF as part of a child rights campaign in 1999-2000 when he worked on a delightful book of CRIGHTOONS -- comments on the status of kids which were paired together with articles from the convention on the Rights of the Child.

Pawan's rustic sense of humour brings a unique flavour to his work.
[the woman says: Why haven't you delivered milk for the past two days?
The milkman answers: Can't you see the the water level? Should i turn her upside down and milk her or what?]

We hope to enjoy his work for a long time to come.

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

A Matter of Pride


The end of June marks the beginning of the gay pride campaign
And of course, this year, the New Delhi Pride Parade took pride of place
Upstaging dear old Calcutta [or Kolkata] as she is now called
Anyhow, Calcutta has pride of place for taking the first tentative steps
Way back in 2000, I think.
As for me, I missed the event again.
Anyway NEXT year I’ll be there in solidarity
With everyone… gay, straight, kothi, panthi, hijra, bi-, bicurious,
Or just HUMAN….