Recognition is not by Chance
I am born in Mysore, a Cartoonist by Hobby for the past 40 years, enjoy drawing cartoons on various subjects / themes, any thing I see funny, would like to put it on paper in the form of funny or satire drawing.. I am practicing my hobby from college days to till date. Just like many other Kids I too was good in free hand drawing and aspired to become an Artist but had no opportunity to take it as profession. After my studies with a Diploma in Mechanical Engg., joined Bhilai Steel Plant and spent my most active part of my life of 35 years in Bhilai. The itching of cartoon drawing continued beside my hard work at the Shop Floor in a most tough environmental working conditions of the Steel Plant. However, I could contribute my cartoons/ illustrations work to our Company’s In house publications and for the local News Dailies and Magazines. I was too happy to see my cartoons in print in such publications. Mean while I acquired Diploma in cartooning from Raye Burns School of Cartooning ,(USA ,) New Delhi in 1965. I took two years to complete the course and this really benefitted me to know the skills of cartoon drawing and also enjoy the rare privilege of acquiring a qualification in Cartooning.
As I was not a Cartoonist by Profession there was no much opportunity for me to show my work to the public. I started drawing cartoons on various subjects in bigger size for a public show. I was given an opportunity by Kannada Sangha, Bhilai to put my first show of cartoons in 1980. The success of the exhibition was good for me to get more confidence in myself to go for more public shows. The appreciation from the cartoon lovers and encouragement from the Company motivated me to go for new ventures. Later, I could win many laurels at national and international levels in Cartoon Contests.
In 1987 viewing my interest in Cartooning I was transferred to Public Relations Department of my Company , thanks to the authorities of the Bhilai Steel Plant Management as it recognized my creative work and wanted to utilize my services in this creative field also. I could find more time for my cartooning and could create Cartoon Slide shows on Energy, Cost control, HRD etc. Conducting Cartoon Contests, Organising Cartoon Work shops. Cartoons for Hoardings, Cartoon Posters on Safety, Environment, anti smoking, wastage, Cartoons for Tech Journals….so on.. My 20 years experience working on shop floor helped me to create the work needed by the Company. And it gave me a lot of satisfaction too.
In 1996, I came to know about Inter National Cartoon Contests and my first participation was in Taejeon Cartoon Contest at Seoul, Korea. One of my cartoons got selected for exhibition and printing in the Cartoon Album. It was a great Day for me to receive the Cartoon Album and the Certificate. A great feeling that I was one amongst other top cartoonists of the world to be selected for this honour.
It boosted me to continue and participate further in international contests and to day I have the record of Most Awards 36 times ( 12 times from Korea itself ) while participating in over 60 contests in the past 17 years. And my cartoons were printed in as many as 30 Cartoon Albums brought out by different countries of the World.
Participating in the Cartoon contests became a craze. Well, I have been really lucky and it is God’s blessings that I kept continued without losing interest to participate in such contests and also organizing my own cartoon exhibitions. Now , myself get surprise to see my record 40 exhibitions which is a national record, conducted against many odds and hurdles during such a long period of time.
My Solo exhibition at Raipur was most memorable one as it was inaugurated by the then Governor of Chattisgarh.
These activities gave me publicity ,name and fame ( No money of course) more than that, a great satisfaction. The enthusiasm to continue to take part in Cartoon Contests and drawing for exhibitions has helped me to improve my skills in cartooning, learning new ways, updating myself with the passing time and also to build up my confidence.
Flip Book is a series of pages in which successive drawings are laid on top of one another in close register. In each drawing certain movement is created from beginning to end and flip the pages to see the fun. Generally Flip books are created in sizes over 4” x 3”. The Flip Books are not new which has the basics of Animation principles.
I was creating the Flip Book animation in my School days when I was a Boy of 8 years, when, even I didn’t know the word’ Animation’. I came to know about it only in college days. I used to create the illusion of motion by drawing stick figures in the corner pages of the School Books. I was in a small town and in those days there were no other opportunities or assistance for my creative art which generally available in cities.
During my School and College Days I could not get much time for my creative work and was interested more in sports, playing Cricket and Badminton. Creation of Flip Book started again only when I started my Service in Bhilai Steel Plant. I was a part of Company’s Cricket team for 12 years and a qualified MP state panel Cricket Umpire for 20 years. I had opportunities to go on tour to various places. I used to create Flip Books of size about 4” X 3” on Cricket and other sports and also draw caricatures of the noted players on the spot. Everyone used to enjoy my work and it was really a great entertainment.
Well, the Computer animation was not known much at that time and my itching to create animation clippings continued and I thought of attempting with VHS video camera…It was a crude method to get movement of cartoon drawings in Video format . I prepared over 600 line drawings on ‘Industrial Safety’ on Xerox paper like flip Book animation.. Thanks to my colleague and an expert Video camera man of our department. Our creative team could achieve to certain extent of creating the film but we kept continuing the efforts.
The routine busy, challenging , exciting work and stressful life sometimes continued with my Company’s work , Playing Cricket , Officiating Cricket Matches as an Umpire, and Cartooning for company’s in house journals, news Dailies and other publications plus attending my house hold work. Indeed 24 hours was not enough to attend all my activities.
In 1984 when I just sent a letter about my activities and achievements to Delhi Door Darshan, and to my astonishment I was invited for an TV interview. My TV interview was recorded and I appeared in TV in Jane Anjane programme.
Hundreds of cartoons were published in Hindi Dailies like Desh Bandhu and Dainik Bhaskar, Nav Bharath etc.. As I was knowing good Hindi I could post Hindi captions too for my Cartoons.
In January 2001, to my pleasant surprise I was one amongst other 10 ‘Non Hindi speaking persons’ to be felicitated by the Raj Bhasha Samiti of Chattisgarh for my contribution of Hindi Cartoons to various Hindi publications.
After my VRS in April , 2001 from my company I settled back in Bangalore. I was nominated as President, Karnataka Cartoonists Association. The 4 year term Honorary Post kept me very busy in organizing functions and getting new experience, contact with new Cartoonists and many dignitaries. The job was really challenging and It was a great satisfaction to deliver my services as the president of the Cartoonists Association .
After my tenure as president I have been keep going with my hobby. Drawing Cartoons for the news dailies and Publications, participating in Inter National cartoon Contests, conducting Cartoon work shops, and operating my own created different blogs on internet posted with cartoons on various subjects.
I have learnt a bit working in Photoshop in PC and trying to get used to upgraded technology. In fact, scanning , editing and colouring in PC has benefitted me to produce quality work , also has made easy to send it by e mail to Contests , News media , posting in web sites etc.
Learning Animation using Macromedia flash animation, creating my own animation clips for learning and for fun has given me a satisfaction. Earlier, just I had to be content with only creating flip books. To day, my animation works have been posted on web galleries.
Being the only hobby cartoonist in the Country to get Most awards at National and Inter National Cartoon Contests and conducting record number of one Man show of cartoons, I applied for my claim for India Book of Records and subsequently to Limca book of Records.
Really, I was thrilled when my claim was approved and got entry in both the Record books.
Next, new idea came to my mind creating a very small Flip Book , just for record.
Creating the very small size Flip Book using Cricket playing characters was not that easy what I initially thought of it. Even though I had an experience of over 30 years in creating usual size flip books, I tried to work out in all possible easy ways to create the smallest size but in vain. It needed lots of skill and patience. Ordinary Xerox Paper were used and were cut in to small pages by a sharp cutter trimmed it for its smooth crisp movement. Several books were discarded as the finished one was not up to my requirement.
When the book was ready as I desired I started creating images of stick figures on each page as I used to create earlier in bigger size books. The difficult part of it was that holding every page of tiny book properly and draw the movement correctly. Well, animator must know the correct action of movement of the character for the outcome of
its smooth and natural illusion of movement. Here, in this small size book if one image gets a wrong action, the drawing cannot be corrected or the page be replaced, the whole book is required to be made again to start drawing again.
I created two similar small Books, one of size 1cm X 1.5 cm with 65 pages playing Cricket and another one of size 1cm X 1.7 cm playing Foot Ball with 75 pages and submitted them and I was happy to know that the books to India Book of Records and I was very happy to know that the books were approved for the entry in Record Books.
My creation of Flip Book size 0.5” X 0.75” were got selected for entry in Limca Book of records -2011, World Amazing Record -World Record India –
My addiction of creating Records continued and my new creation of Smallest size Desk Calender 2012 with Environment cartoons got entry in India Book of Records 2012 and in Limca Book of World Records - 2012
Breaking my own earlier record I newly created a tiny Flip book of size 0.5 cm X 1.3 cm with total 54 pages which has got entry in to Assist World Records -2012 and Unique World Records-2012
As I was thinking to utilize my artistic skill and animation knowledge to continue creating records I got the idea of creating biggest size flip book animation. I wanted to get the credit of creating both smallest size and biggest size flip books.
The creation of biggest size Flip Books( 20.75”X 13”) was not easy.. Choosing my favourite theme of cricket and a person diving in to water of a swimming pool I worked about 5 hours a day and completed two Flip Books in about 20 days. It was really a tiresome job of drawing about 170 similar animated characters correctly to get the smooth action when these big pages are flipped.
I am glad that my hard work has been recognized by India Book of Records and Assist World records which gives me a great satisfaction.
It has been astonishing for me that the flip book which I was creating for fun and entertainment would get in to national record and world records one day. Now I am really happy with these recognition, even though my boy hood aspiration to become professional in Art field was not fulfilled.
The internet browsing, opportunity to create our own websites, social net working are a boon to me. As a hobby cartoonist , my cartoons over 3000 have been published on various subjects, and I have my own websites posted with over 200 cartoons, keep going with social net work like Face Book , Orkut etc.. which are all these has helped me to share my creation, my achievements with others and also see others work to improve myself.
My achievements getting recognized in India Book of Records four times , in Limca Book of Records 4 times, as well in World Records India, Unique World records and Assist World Records gives me a great satisfaction. However these achievements were not by chance. It’s the result of long dedication, hard work and sustained efforts for long years. I am happy that being a hobby cartoonist I am the first person to achieve this distinction in the country.
I must be thankful to my wife for her support , my children who always cheerfully appreciated my passion and the well wishers all the time.
It was a most memorable day when both my wife and myself were on the dias and I was felicitated with Life Time Achievement Award by Dr Shri APJ Abdul Kalam at Cartoon Festival -2011 at New Delhi.
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