When it rains, it pours.

 

It's been a rough few months since I last posted. It's hard to draw when the situation in my country is heartbreaking. The covid-19 pandemic has taken an extreme turn with this new wave - you need to turn on the news (preferably not Indian media) to get a picture of the suffering and despair. And it's getting closer and closer. 

My good friend at Sharktopia encouraged me to draw something to resonate with that pain. So I took a drawing I did at Christmas and made a sort of "how it's going" drawing. It seems like a bleak drawing but we've always found ways to see hope in the midst of storms, rain and floods. As much as people are disillusioned and apathetic, there's something about human suffering that brings out the humanity in us (except for the ruling regime). Blessings come in showers and mercies come in a downpour. I hope we see much of that soon. Pray for India. 

Happy New Hope!

After Carrie Fisher was critically ill, I came across quite a few tweets about how 2016 is the worst and that 2016 must not claim Princess Leia too. Well, the world had just lost George Michael and that reminded us of the dozens of other celebrities who died this year. Sadly, not only did Carrie Fisher pass away but so did her mother Debbie Reynolds. And needless to say, twitter was not feeling the holiday spirit.
But celebrities dying were not and could not be the worst about this year. Terrible things happened all around. Some accidentally but many deliberately. It's not okay to terrorise people and it certainly isn't okay to kill innocent children. What is the point of destroying someone else just because you are miserable? What gives someone the right to exploit a helpless person just so that they can gain pleasure or profit? Who says that being tolerant of their own beliefs but not those of others, gives them the right to dictate what prejudice is? We have become self-involved and impatient and intolerant to the point of misplaced fury. Our children are becoming insolent, uninvolved and unmotivated. And then we say that it's been a bad year. It's only going to get worse. If we think we can fix it, we're bound for disappointment. Millions of people thinking they are right isn't going to set things right.  But let us start with the basics like honesty, moderation, wonder, respect and then we will know what it means to hope.

A Shark AND a Pencil! Now that's scary, right?

I was really saddened by the Charlie Hedbo shooting. I can't believe that cartoonists were shot to death because of something they drew. People seem to get offended all the time these days. Since when did it become okay to end human lives over that? I mean, isn't everyone else expected to turn the other cheek if they are offended?

Nice article here.

International Day Of The Girl 2014

I just got an email from "It's a Girl" telling me that 11th October is the International Day Of The Girl. I had an idea of having the cutout paper doll and the original sketch had the shark smiling. But the truth about is not something to smile about. Too many young girls are missing all over the world and it's time this atrocity ended.
Also see "The Invisible Girl" Project.

Girl Arise: Safety Ideas #1

This was done for the "Girl Arise" safety campaign by Women of Worth. It's not fair that we need to take so many safety measures but sadly there are twisted people out there. And safety should never be an inconvenience. Do your best to stay safe and keep thinking up new ways to stay safe because the sick people out there keep thinking of new ways to make the world unsafe.

Raise the bar on safety today!

Shark-infested? Not as scary.

The Women of Worth are doing an campaign called "Girl Arise" to raise awareness and funds towards women's safety. This gets kicked off with a benefit concert+forum. If you'd like to know more, check out their facebook page. We'd love for you to help!

I've been seeing a lot of stories of rape, murder and abuse on the news lately and it's rather sickening. I don't know why people do what they do. They make a huge cry over a shark attack but at least the sharks probably had a good reason. What reason could man with all his "superior, evolved thinking" possibly have to commit such heinous crimes? It's time to realise that despite being about "self", selfishness affects everyone else around the "self".

How "human" is "inhuman"?

It's interesting how "Invaluable" means to have incalculable value (usually is a positive thing) and "inhuman" means to not show human traits (not really a compliment). But just what makes a human being cross over from being "human" to "inhuman"? Sometimes it seems that being "inhuman" is more the norm for humans than otherwise. Many humans seem to have it "in" them to be cruel or heartless and the depth of depravity keeps increasing in its shock value. Perhaps one day it will end up being almost an "invaluable" kind of shocking.
We can only pray for true change in the hearts of men and women.

(Every now and then, even comics need to address serious stuff and speak up for change. )

The Cove - Red Water

Ever since I heard about "The Cove" and saw the pictures of the horrid red waters because of dolphin slaughtering, I wanted to draw something about it. Please check Oceanic Preservation Society (OPS) for more information.

Say 'No' to stupidity and colourism!

Even though we don't like to admit it and like to keep pretending that we're a country of mosaic culture united in diversity, India is one of the biggest practitioners of apartheid in the world. There will be a multitude of people who will get all "offended" or "angered" by my statement and may get all hostile but that's how we tend to avoid issues. We get angry at those who point out the issue than at the issue itself. Whoever established this mindset has very conveniently allowed things like discrimination, low self-esteem and exploitation to go unchecked.
How else can a country with one billion skin tones continue to be the largest market for skin whitening creams? And a country where people actually believe these products work! You cannot change your skin colour from a deeper shade of brown to a paler version of pink. It just cannot happen. No cosmetic product can do that. Maybe if you tried acid?
There are people with actual skin problems who are in need of proper skin care; and in India, sun screen is probably a better product to sell. I'm shocked that they could package a mix of sun screen and bleach and sell it as a "fairness cream" - how blatantly offensive is that? Whatever happened to respect and allowing people to succeed based on skill rather than skin? At what point does skin colour go from being "successful" to not? Is there some logical cutoff shade with a pantone code perhaps?
"Dark is beautiful" is a campaign that talks about this discrimination against skin colour. They are currently campaigning against irresponsible advertising and propaganda that promote the idea that your skin colour determines how successful you are to be. Please sign the petition here if you believe that India needs to get over this so-called hangover we're still suffering from after The Raj. It's been over 60 years. Move forward.

To view the commercial click here - it's sad when such influential celebrities promote such an idea. This ad agency needs some real creativity and some integrity.

Independent, are we?

Yes, we Indians sincerely love flattering other people's ideas (read: imitating). Today is our Independence Day and I wasn't really going to do a post but then I was reminded to pray for my country and thought "hmm, what needs to change?". I'm probably too much of a coward to say everything in the politically incorrect terms I thought them in but here are some of them. I feel that a country that fought so hard to win freedom and has the kind of resources it has, ought to be a super-power by now. But it seems far from it and our biggest obstacle is ourselves.
We simply don't care probably because we don't see change overnight and then get discouraged. We may not see change in our lifetime but we're still supposed to do everything that is right for each other and for the land we call ours. Then we can extend it across the globe and we'll be one united world fit for war against the aliens.

Completely fair?

This is the second strip I did for the "Beauty beyond colour" campaign by Women of Worth. (My earlier strip can be found here. )

Sometimes I wonder why the Great White shark is called that when it is white only on its lower side. I guess it's because the poor little seal sees only a flash of white before it becomes a sealwich. hahaha.

Okay, onto the issue at hand.. most adverts today are so utterly nonsensical that I think this sort of lying needs to be made illegal. "Microbeads", "oil pearls", "Active fresh power cells" and such fictional ingredients go into consumer products telling people that their very real problems will be taken care of if they use their miraculous products. 

They can't even truly fix damaged hair or make people age backwards or cure dandruff. So how did they manage to convince people that their products can change really dark skin into shades lighter? Don't they feel bad when they see people buy fairness creams/masks/sunscreens in hopes that they'll become more popular or super stars? 

Why can't they tell people to aim for healthy (not "healdhy") looking skin instead? (Didn't we learn in school at some stage that the melanin in our skin protects us from harmful UV rays?). There are people out there who find different shades/ features attractive and that's why it is UNfair to treat certain shades as beauty norms. 

How about we first demand that ad slots not be more than 2 minutes? These companies seem to have enough money to throw at airtime and don't care about my our TV watching time. 

Fairly Lovely Ad

My friends at the Women of Worth (WOW) have this campaign on called "Dark is beautiful - beauty beyond colour" and asked me to do a sketch for it. India is odd in many ways - one of them is that despite being of one race, we're all of different shades. Instead of flaunting this variety filled shade card, society has (as usual) found a way to make something nasty out of it. Numerous people are differentiated and discriminated not by their personalities or skills but by something that is not in their hands. 

Although, both men and women face this ordeal, I must admit that it is more strongly felt by women. I mean, women who are one shade darker than almost-caucasian are termed as "having less colour" (here, the less colour you have, the darker you are - yes, it doesn't make sense which is why this is still an issue). And yet, men who are darker than dark are hailed as superstars and heroes. It's okay for extremely dark-skinned men (also now termed as "wheatish")  to demand for "fair" brides but rarely the other way round. 

Anyway, the point is not to say one is beautiful and the other is not or that one is better than the other (more about the campaign here). But I must say that it is ridiculous to continue to believe that one can do things better or become more popular if only they became shades lighter. First of all, it's not really possible with fairness creams and second, if you're going to have attitude issues even if you're Snow White, you're going to lose your job and your popularity.

Personally, I'm extremely bothered by the distastefully ghastly fairness cream adverts out there that basically tell people that creative agencies must think they're so stupid to buy this crap. I know (thanks to ad agency experience) that these products don't work and that they simply play on people's insecurities. If you want to use them anyway for their advanced skin healing technology, go ahead but don't do it because you think that guy/girl will like you if you do. 

ps - You can also check out the Facebook page for "Dark is Beautiful"

pps - Don't miss the "Fairly Lovely" product. I won't be surprised if a fairness cream company actually made an ad like this.

Shark finning makes sense (sensibility being relative)

Every now and then I'll point out things like human rights violations and shark finning issues.  Talking about serious stuff in comic strips does not make light of them but it's done in hopes that all medium will resonate with awareness of what needs to change.
I'm not always in tune with the latest news so I'm not sure if everybody was good to everybody else today (the cynic in me says no). If they were and my strip was pointless, then I hope it stays that way.

Child Sexual Abusers should be eaten!

This is supposed to be Child Sexual Abuse Awareness Month. I'm a bit late!
In a country that is on fire for fighting corruption, this would be a good time to recognize that child abuse corrupts the souls, hearts and minds of our child and if this is allowed to continue, India will never be free of corruption.
I'd talked about this issue several times on my old blog. You can read it for a more in-depth/ less "censored" opinion.
I pray that this cause will be taken up and that no sex offender/ pedophile will be allowed to hurt our children ever again.

ps - The whole cuckoo-cannibal bit of the conversation actually happened. My father was telling me about how cuckoos are rude birds with terrible social manners and they do happen to taste great so you feel pretty good about eating them. So I asked him if maybe that's how cannibalism started. He found that amusing and maybe even plausible.

Maybe this ought to be taught alongside Physics.

I'd done this one some time before Women's day - I think Dowry's still an issue in India despite the laws against it. It takes more than laws to change the minds of people. I've heard school boys saying it's okay if they bum around because eventually they can just live off their dowry income. I've heard people saying they want brides from certain communities because the parents of girls from there compete with each other to give more money to whoever will take their daughter. Yeah, it's simply amazing how so many things have been manipulated from being beneficial to women to being against them.
Anyway, I'd helped out at a Women's day event with the Women of Worth and they had this "Wall of Change" where anyone could write about things women have accomplished or things that needed to change. There were several notes about getting rid of the dowry system. I know that more and more people find it disgusting (yay!) but we still have a long way to go.