The Shark Podcast: Episode 3

 

Annoying people virtually is simply not the same.  As much we love our own space, this pandemic has shown us that we are indeed social beings and going without human interaction for long does crazy things to our minds. All the zoom and FaceTime calls cannot match up to ten minutes at a coffee shop in person. 

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. 

We all belong.

I did this for my cousin's non-profit Special Sources last year.

A Shark Lover's Life

Don't get me wrong - I love it when people tag me in or send me shark videos and pictures. I do feel like I've reached some sort of life goal when that happens. For those of you who don't know Phil Watson, check out Shaaark!
I only realised after I drew the Fox that Pink Fong's Baby Shark version has a fox as their mascot. I first heard the Baby Shark song at a camp about 15 years ago. It was just as cool then as it is now. I still get asked why sharks every now and then. I'm working on the perfect response.

Valentine's day 2018: The Shark annoys valentiners

It's simply natural that the word "Sharks" comes after the words "I love". And it's natural to love sharks.
Valentine's day was cute when we were much younger. Then it got annoying. Now I wonder how it's still a thing. Yes, I suppose the companies that paid for all the heart designs keep it going but love really shouldn't need to be highlighted just once a year. Because then the day tends to be more important than everything else, right?
This Valentine's day, don't focus on the cards and flowers and gifts but be grateful that you have someone to call your own.
Also, love sharks.

Selfie adventures

I have not taken a single successful selfie till date. Perhaps with a selfie stick (or as I like to call it - an 'I-pod'). I am fascinated by how far the selfie has taken over the world though. They are almost worth a series of comics. 

Episode #1 - Make like a duck

Episode #2 - Ducks don't have lips either

Episode #3 - Selfie-Stick it to them

Episode #4 - The Invasive Species

Episode # 5 - The cheesy finalé

Chennai will rise again!

Some of you may not have heard much about the Chennai (Madras) Floods. I was mercifully spared from the worst of it because I had to leave the city a couple of days before the rains started. I heard from friends that the water levels were rising. Something like this happened in 2005 and we didn't have power for 2 days. But it wasn't as bad as this one. People had water levels reaching up to the first floor of their houses. Many of them didn't have power, food, medicines, transport or drinking water. There was no way to get out of their houses and soon communication devices died. This would have been a hopeless and miserable situation. Then something amazing happened. Everyone reached out to each other. Homes were opened up. Food shared. Amazing people braved the flooded roads to get people out. Stories after stories poured in about how every available resource for used for the victims. The 'victims' became volunteers themselves. When disaster strikes, the beauty of humanity gets the chance to shine through. And the people of Chennai grabbed that chance with both hands. I'm so proud of them. Chennai will rise from the waters.
I hope the cause for such destruction will be discovered and if man-made, they will fix it. I also hope that once the city is restored, the people will continue to strengthen the bonds that were built and that they will make the city even better.

Happy Valentine's Day 2015! Love, The Shark

Some people might even say that love hurts more. That's why there's a song titled "Love hurts" but none titled "Sharks hurt".
This is one way of making Valentine's Day a lot less annoying.

ps - In case you didn't notice, the chocolates are shark-shaped.

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.

My Incredible Super Phone

As phones become more than just phones day by the day, we probably shouldn't be surprised if our phones eventually have superpowers. For the time being, I'd be happy if my phone could do some of the above. Hopefully someday, our phones will be our avengers or dark knights but for now perhaps they will be the best phones they can be - and make top quality, reliable phone calls without interference, fade outs, disconnects or low volume. This is how we stay connected and safe.
This comic blog was drawn specially for the Indiblogger ASUS contest.

Better things to do - Part 1

There are times (oftentimes) when we aren't as quick to respond to social calls and excuses are made when we can't make it for a reunion or family gathering or even reply to a voicemail/email/text message/ any of the zillion communication methods we have these days. The standard excuse is that you've been busy and usually people accept that because they use it too. However, sometimes some people actually ask you what you were actually up to. They come to learn that "I've been really busy" is the socially less offensive way of saying "there were times we could have caught up but I had better things to do".
Of course, it's good to sometimes actually take the time to be social so that you don't end up being a sociopath but it's also good not to get offended if someone would just rather read comic books.

I say "part 1" because I can think of many more and maybe if people sent in their excuses, I'd use a few of those too.

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".

Redefining Beauty

People shouldn't have the right to dictate what’s “good” when it comes to beauty because they get bored with anything they call beautiful today and set new standards and everyone is expected to keep up with it. And it’s not fair when the expectations are unrealistic. Everyone’s different. Some claim to be “differenter” or want to be “differenter”. But at the end of the day most people want to fit in or belong and if they’re given vain criteria to do so, it ends up hurting them on so many levels.

It's sad that the idea of beauty has been distorted so much. It’s not surprising though – humans have a great knack of taking any good thing and warping it into an “anti” version. Then they crib about how awful everything is and come up with other warped up ideas as attempts to make things better. Like the whole system of dark skinned people not being as good as lighter skinned people – now they’re actually coming with products to “help” the darker skinned people become lighter skinned so that, you know, everything can be better.
So, which is easier to change - The Heart or The Skin? They’re both organs. They both are prone to disease. But in some way, the heart seems to make people behave a certain way or help convince the brain that certain things are right or wrong. It could be the heart that convinces people that its fellow organ, the skin, doesn’t define a person as much as the heart does. It’s the deceptive heart that tells you otherwise. Which brings us back to the question – do some people really have to change their skin just so that the rest of them need not have a change of heart?

Cartoon and post done for Women of Worth (WOW) as part of their "Redefining Beauty" campaign. 

Comic Con India - highlights

So, I had my first Comic Con experience at the Bangalore Comic Con. It was quite interesting. It was also really exhausting.
I had one of the smallest stalls there but had the most number of friends helping me which was such a blessing. We sold books, posters, art prints, mugs, t-shirts, badges and stickers. It struck me that the whole event was more commercial than comic art related. I expected to see more individual artists being showcased but there was only a handful of those and more of the bigger/famous comic/pop culture merchandise.
Here are some of the highlights from the event. I wish I could show my friends who helped but I don't even have comic characters for most of them. The best part of the event was that there were some people who really cared about individual comics and supported them. There were some people who'd actually heard about my comic (a big thank you to everyone who shared!) and others who asked really interesting questions and seemed genuinely interested in sharks. It was worth it just to meet all these people.
As much as I love tigers, I couldn't understand why everyone was more surprised at a cartoon shark than they are about cartoon tigers. I mean, the chances of us Indians being killed by tigers are probably higher than being killed by a shark, right? The villagers in the Sundarbans would probably ask the question "But why a tiger?", huh?
I bought a shark hat on ebay which was what everyone was interested in. Even the ones who were surprised at the shark theme or didn't even notice the shark theme.
Many people didn't know about shark finning at all. I hope we could get more people to see how amazing sharks are and how rare they're becoming.

The "Social Obligation Smile"

About five years ago, I wrote a blog post titled "The 'Social Obligation Smile'". I'd written the title down in my sketch notebook to remind myself to someday do a sketch about it. Re-reading my old post shows me just how cynical and sarcastic I used to be (I'm definitely mellowing down). However, I still believe that this is a highly useful skill in societies/cultures where social interactions are strangely superficial and yet extremely fundamental.
Also, this could probably help the sharks with their public image, right?

Conspiracy theories and ideas to rule the nation: Population Control

Today's post is of a grave nature (despite being made to look humorous). It took me a while to draw, write and think about posting it for fear due to what I've said on the last panel. And before you accuse me of portraying my country in a "bad light" to the outside world, allow me to say that this message is for us, my fellow country-person.
Anyway, I hear so many complaints (and contribute to the complaining) about various things that are wrong with the nation but it just seems to be getting worse and I'm starting to think whether maybe this is the plan after all.

Road accidents cause a huge number of deaths in our country. I'll get you the exact figures.
I've heard of 2 cases this week of people falling into manholes and dying.
I've heard numerous poorer women cry about their drunken husbands beating them up and spending all their money to drink more. This last month one of their husbands died because of this.
Still not something to be concerned about?

ps - more such theories to come
pps - if I'm killed or thrown in jail, it's because I care. So there.

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.