Mrinal's Grindhouse: My first comic book

Since the dawn of my intelligence I am having a penchant towards fairies, tales, stories, comics, and anything and everything that deals with one’s talent giving joy to many. When I was about 9-10 or may be 11-12 years old I was a complete comic maniac, however, more than the drawings, what used to interest me more were the stories. I was huge fan of Raj comics at that time and would not miss any of the comics of some particular characters, say Nagaraj, Dhruva, Doga, Ashwaraj, etc. My waiting for the next issues of comics of these characters was more to do with my enthusiasm at what’s going to happen in next comic. All these factors contributed in me developing my own fictional stories. Most of them used to have no head or tail, but some of them I still remember were really good

When I was 15 years old and was in 9th standard, I decided to write a book, containing some horror stories, a genre which has always excited me. It was a collection of 7 stories of ghosts, spirits, devils, blah blah, compiled into one book. I still have those diaries.

Last year, through a social networking site I came to know a few people who are genuine artists and one of them is Mr. Balakrishna Varma. Mr. Varma is an excellent artist and is professionally into comic book illustrations and drawing. Add to the facts that he is also a big fan of horror genre and an Arian too ! Despite of being so critically acclaimed he is very down to earth and always finds time to answer my queries. It was through him that I came to know about different methods and techniques and materials used in comic book type illustrations. I already know a little about how illustrations can be created using software but I wanted to know the basic hand drawn method.

I decided to illustrate one of those seven stories that I wrote around 7 years ago. This is a horror thriller and the characterization is inspired by Ram Gopal Varma’s film “Bhoot”. I am now done with the comic book and you can go through the comics by clicking on this link

http://www.scribd.com/doc/45102831/Bishop-s-Curse 

Now I’ll explain how I made this comic. On every page I followed the following procedure:

1. Pencil sketching: Nothing can beat the pencil sketching. First I draw the entire page with a normal HB pencil along with shadings, and frames.

2. Inking: In this comic book I have tried variety of methods of inking, in few pages I used black drawing ink and Crow Quill pen, in most of the pages I have used Rotring 0.4 and Rotring 0.8 pen that are used in architectural drawing. While inking I created basic outlines, frames and filled the shapes according to the shading

3. Erase the pencil lines: Then I erased the background pencil traces so that not a single mark of pencil is left.

4. Redo the shading: For shading, we can use ink-wash techniques or pencils again. I used pencils for shading.

5. Scan the page and put it on the computer: I scanned the image and uploaded on my laptop

6. Lettering using Adobe Illustrator: Using Adobe Illustrator, I did the lettering. Since I am not a professional in these types of works hence I used a normal readable font “Palantino Type”and have made lots of spelling mistakes in the lettering. I used the basic elliptical and pen tool for creating dialogue boxes. Going forward I would like to do the lettering in a more professional way, may be by hand or in Illustrator

I believe this is just the beginning, and as Mr. Varma says “Life goes on”. I’ll definitely go ahead and will try to sharpen my skills in this type of drawing.

 Before Lettering

After Lettering

Panchavati me Laxman by Maithilisharan Gupt

Presented here is a beautiful poem by National poet Maithilisharan Gupt. Its my facorite poem. It tells about an imaginary scene from Ramayana where Laxman is standing outside a hut gaurding Ram and Sita in a dark night. Gupt has written lot about Laxman and his wife. His poem "Sakhi wo mujhse kah kar jaate" about Laxman's wife Urmila is a marvel.

 (The sketch I did for the poem)

In "Panchavati", Gupt talks about the thoughts that come to Laxman's mind while gaurding his brother and his wife. He thinks about the materlistic world which believes that he along with Ram and Sita are leading a very harsh life in forest but, he says, actually they are much more comfortable while residing in the lap of mother nature. Its a beautiful poem with an excellent description about the beauty of nature. Please do find some time to go through this one:
 

"चारुचंद्र की चंचल किरणें, खेल रहीं हैं जल थल में,

 स्वच्छ चाँदनी बिछी हुई है अवनि और अम्बरतल में।

पुलक प्रकट करती है धरती, हरित तृणों की नोकों से,

मानों झीम रहे हैं तरु भी, मन्द पवन के झोंकों से॥

पंचवटी की छाया में है, सुन्दर पर्ण-कुटीर बना,

जिसके सम्मुख स्वच्छ शिला पर, धीर वीर निर्भीकमना,

जाग रहा यह कौन धनुर्धर, जब कि भुवन भर सोता है?

भोगी कुसुमायुध योगी-सा, बना दृष्टिगत होता है॥

किस व्रत में है व्रती वीर यह, निद्रा का यों त्याग किये,

राजभोग्य के योग्य विपिन में, बैठा आज विराग लिये।

बना हुआ है प्रहरी जिसका, उस कुटीर में क्या धन है,

जिसकी रक्षा में रत इसका, तन है, मन है, जीवन है!

मर्त्यलोक-मालिन्य मेटने, स्वामि-संग जो आई है,

तीन लोक की लक्ष्मी ने यह, कुटी आज अपनाई है।

वीर-वंश की लाज यही है, फिर क्यों वीर न हो प्रहरी,

विजन देश है निशा शेष है, निशाचरी माया ठहरी॥

कोई पास न रहने पर भी, जन-मन मौन नहीं रहता;

आप आपकी सुनता है वह, आप आपसे है कहता।

बीच-बीच मे इधर-उधर निज दृष्टि डालकर मोदमयी,

मन ही मन बातें करता है, धीर धनुर्धर नई नई-

क्या ही स्वच्छ चाँदनी है यह, है क्या ही निस्तब्ध निशा;

है स्वच्छन्द-सुमंद गंधवह, निरानंद है कौन दिशा?

बंद नहीं, अब भी चलते हैं, नियति-नटी के कार्य-कलाप,

पर कितने एकान्त भाव से, कितने शांत और चुपचाप!

है बिखेर देती वसुंधरा, मोती, सबके सोने पर,

रवि बटोर लेता है उनको, सदा सवेरा होने पर।

और विरामदायिनी अपनी, संध्या को दे जाता है,

शून्य श्याम-तनु जिससे उसका, नया रूप झलकाता है।

सरल तरल जिन तुहिन कणों से, हँसती हर्षित होती है,

अति आत्मीया प्रकृति हमारे, साथ उन्हींसे रोती है!

अनजानी भूलों पर भी वह, अदय दण्ड तो देती है,

पर बूढों को भी बच्चों-सा, सदय भाव से सेती है॥

तेरह वर्ष व्यतीत हो चुके, पर है मानो कल की बात,

वन को आते देख हमें जब, आर्त्त अचेत हुए थे तात।

अब वह समय निकट ही है जब, अवधि पूर्ण होगी वन की।

किन्तु प्राप्ति होगी इस जन को, इससे बढ़कर किस धन की!

और आर्य को, राज्य-भार तो, वे प्रजार्थ ही धारेंगे,

व्यस्त रहेंगे, हम सब को भी, मानो विवश विसारेंगे।

कर विचार लोकोपकार का, हमें न इससे होगा शोक;

पर अपना हित आप नहीं क्या, कर सकता है यह नरलोक!

मझली माँ ने क्या समझा था, कि मैं राजमाता हूँगी,

निर्वासित कर आर्य राम को, अपनी जड़ें जमा लूँगी।

चित्रकूट में किन्तु उसे ही, देख स्वयं करुणा थकती,

उसे देखते थे सब, वह थी, निज को ही न देख सकती॥

अहो! राजमातृत्व यही था, हुए भरत भी सब त्यागी।

पर सौ सो सम्राटों से भी, हैं सचमुच वे बड़भागी।

एक राज्य का मूढ़ जगत ने, कितना महा मूल्य रक्खा,

हमको तो मानो वन में ही, है विश्वानुकूल रक्खा॥

होता यदि राजत्व मात्र ही, लक्ष्य हमारे जीवन का,

तो क्यों अपने पूर्वज उसको, छोड़ मार्ग लेते वन का?

परिवर्तन ही यदि उन्नति है, तो हम बढ़ते जाते हैं,

किन्तु मुझे तो सीधे-सच्चे, पूर्व-भाव ही भाते हैं॥

जो हो, जहाँ आर्य रहते हैं, वहीं राज्य वे करते हैं,

उनके शासन में वनचारी, सब स्वच्छन्द विहरते हैं।

रखते हैं सयत्न हम पुर में, जिन्हें पींजरों में कर बन्द;

वे पशु-पक्षी भाभी से हैं, हिले यहाँ स्वयमपि, सानन्द!

करते हैं हम पतित जनों में, बहुधा पशुता का आरोप;

करता है पशु वर्ग किन्तु क्या, निज निसर्ग नियमों का लोप?

मैं मनुष्यता को सुरत्व की, जननी भी कह सकता हूँ,

किन्तु पतित को पशु कहना भी, कभी नहीं सह सकता हूँ॥

आ आकर विचित्र पशु-पक्षी, यहाँ बिताते दोपहरी,

भाभी भोजन देतीं उनको, पंचवटी छाया गहरी।

चारु चपल बालक ज्यों मिलकर, माँ को घेर खिझाते हैं,

खेल-खिलाकर भी आर्य्या को, वे सब यहाँ रिझाते हैं!

गोदावरी नदी का तट यह, ताल दे रहा है अब भी,

चंचल-जल कल-कल कर मानो, तान दे रहा है अब भी!

नाच रहे हैं अब भी पत्ते, मन-से सुमन महकते हैं,

चन्द्र और नक्षत्र ललककर, लालच भरे लहकते हैं॥

वैतालिक विहंग भाभी के, सम्प्रति ध्यान लग्न-से हैं,

नये गान की रचना में वे, कवि-कुल तुल्य मग्न-से हैं।

बीच-बीच में नर्तक केकी, मानो यह कह देता है--

मैं तो प्रस्तुत हूँ देखें कल, कौन बड़ाई लेता है॥

आँखों के आगे हरियाली, रहती है हर घड़ी यहाँ,

जहाँ तहाँ झाड़ी में झिरती, है झरनों की झड़ी यहाँ।

वन की एक एक हिमकणिका, जैसी सरस और शुचि है,

क्या सौ-सौ नागरिक जनों की, वैसी विमल रम्य रुचि है?

मुनियों का सत्संग यहाँ है, जिन्हें हुआ है तत्व-ज्ञान,

सुनने को मिलते हैं उनसे, नित्य नये अनुपम आख्यान।

जितने कष्ट-कण्टकों में है, जिनका जीवन-सुमन खिला,

गौरव गन्ध उन्हें उतना ही, अत्र तत्र सर्वत्र मिला।

शुभ सिद्धान्त वाक्य पढ़ते हैं, शुक-सारी भी आश्रम के,

मुनि कन्याएँ यश गाती हैं, क्या ही पुण्य-पराक्रम के।

अहा! आर्य्य के विपिन राज्य में, सुखपूर्वक सब जीते हैं,

सिंह और मृग एक घाट पर, आकर पानी पीते हैं।

गुह, निषाद, शवरों तक का मन, रखते हैं प्रभु कानन में,

क्या ही सरल वचन रहते हैं, इनके भोले आनन में!

इन्हें समाज नीच कहता है, पर हैं ये भी तो प्राणी,

इनमें भी मन और भाव हैं, किन्तु नहीं वैसी वाणी॥

कभी विपिन में हमें व्यंजन का, पड़ता नहीं प्रयोजन है,

निर्मल जल मधु कन्द, मूल, फल-आयोजनमय भोजन हैं।

मनःप्रसाद चाहिए केवल, क्या कुटीर फिर क्या प्रासाद?

भाभी का आह्लाद अतुल है, मँझली माँ का विपुल विषाद!

अपने पौधों में जब भाभी, भर-भर पानी देती हैं,

खुरपी लेकर आप निरातीं, जब वे अपनी खेती हैं,

पाती हैं तब कितना गौरव, कितना सुख, कितना सन्तोष!

स्वावलम्ब की एक झलक पर, न्योछावर कुबेर का कोष॥

- मैथिलीशरण गुप्त"

A day full of learning

Its been a long time since I have written for my blog. I keep listening to Ghalib's sher:

 "आते हैं ग़ैब से ये मज़ामीं खयाल में
ग़ालिब,  सरीर-ए-ख़ामा नवा-ए-सरोश है"

 which means "sometimes I just have some weird thoughts that the sound of scratching made by moving a pen on a paper is actually the sound of an angel" and moving pen on paper obviously means writing. There have been lots of changes in my life in past couple of months and I was hardly finding time to write.

It seems that God felt pity on me when He read that Valentines Day post of mine. I am engaged now and yes life has changed drastically. I have also joined a new company and now am back in north India. The work schedule is bit hectic so even though thoughts come to my mind but i dont get time to jot down. I have also purchased a new Nokia E series phone (and its pretty cool!). This post is being written through my handset so pls ignore typo errors.

One day I was having a discussion with my fiancee whether people should sleep to take some rest during the day or not. I was opposing this practice as I hardly sleep in the afternoons. She was putting her point strongly (and she indeed is quite good in that ;)). Then that day went like any other day. But something happened today at the office which made me think what I am going to say now.

I am a strong beliver of the thought that world is filled with teachers. What is required is will to learn. If you want you can learn from even a small baby but if you dont want then you wont learn even if God  Himself come and teach you. There are few guys in my team about whom I had some perception that they dont possess certain knowledge about a particular domain. But something happened today which made me feel that there is indeed something to learn from these guys too. May be you dont want to be like them but you can always appreciate the fact that they know what their job is.

Actually that is what is required from everybody. I remember that in my childhood days we had a chapter in our hindi book in which a line was written which means: "if the captain of a ship knows how to make the ship sail in strong tides then it doesnt matter if he is drunkard or a flirt".

The same logic applies to everybody. All of us are here to do our job and inturn teach others something if they want to learn.

What I figured out from this analysis is that everyday is full of learning. Each day should be targetted in learning which in turn enhances  either of these five things (or all of them): Devotion, Love, Karma, Character and Knowledge. And in the entire day you find numerous reasons to learn when you meet different peole. A day spent in solitude and without interaction is a day wasted, Right from the time when Sun God starts the clock of learning till the time He sets, we should not miss a single chance of learning because we are nothing. We are as special as everybody else in this world. So if we sleep during the daytime we would necessarily miss some chance of improving ourselves, dont we ? (wow, I got another chance to argue with her !!!)

If you didnt understand any of the crap that I have written then never mind,  just enjoy this latest sketch of mine of a recent hollywood flick "Machete". 

Love is always arranged, marriages may or may not be

Two of my friends got married (to each other) last year. They knew each other since their graduation days. They did graduation and then post graduation together. I often visit their place. Once when I was talking to them, the wife suddenly said “Mrinal, now you too should get married..” Now thats a disadvantage of having got your close friends married. They want all others to immediately follow them and join the league. I replied that “I’m ready. But the thing is that I am not as lucky as you guys were. You already had the major part of this marriage project done, which was, to find a suitable mate. I, on the other hand, have to start”. To which next question came “there were so many girls in our college. You didnt find any one there?”. I was puzzled, a “No” would surely put me in the line of idiot morons. I hesitated for a while and said “but see.. We came to study there.. didnt we..?”. Now it was the turn of the husband. He said “Yaa.. We know how much fronts you have won in studies...” thank God, they did not discuss about my grades.

But that meeting left me puzzled. Seriously, what was the reason that left me ignorant of nice girls throughout my academic life ? Of course, it was not study.

But I can answer that. I did 7 years of my schooling in a Boys School and I believe that while in Only boys school or Only girls school we learn more bad things as compared to good things. I first time studied in a co education in My Engineering College. But there too, boys were happy in their own circle and girls in their own. And those (guys) who used to dwell between the two circles were utterly despised by other crowd of boys. And unfortunately I have always been follower of crowd. Thats why I followed the crowd and went to do MBA. And it was only during my MBA course that I came across the real co-education thing. There were not one but many nice girls. But unfortunately Murphys Law was applicable and “all good ones were taken” and “for those who were not taken there was a reason”. We could daily see couples waking down from the academic block to the canteen and back forth and having a nice walk and talk in the night too.

It was there that I recognize that girls too can be good friends, if not something else. Jokes apart, I made a nice friend circle and there were many girls too in that circle.

Last month 2 of them got married. One was a Bengali and other Assamese. The bengali had an arranged marriage and the Assamese a love marriage. I attended both the weddings but it was the Bengali wedding which made me think what I am going to write down now.

My friend dressed in the attire of a Bengali bride looked beautiful. There was a different spark and a completely unfamiliar radiance in her eyes. She was really happy. She was excited. When her husband arrived, there was a ritual in their culture which was then carried out. The bride was lifted up by few of her uncles and with her face covered with leaves she was brought close to the groom, I should say face-to-face with the groom. And there was a sheet which was spread over their head. After chanting of some appropriate mantras, she was asked to remove the leaves and to show her face to the groom.

I was there at that time. I saw when she removed those leaves and her face was very close to the face of her man, she was blushing but she was very happy. There was a little naughtiness in her eyes that time which were captured in the camera.

So what if she could not meet this man in her campus. So what if she has not spent 15 or 16 years of her academic life without this companion. So what she never had a nice walk and talk in the night with this guy in the college campus. All these things did not matter to her. Such thoughts might have occurred to her before that day, but, at that time, it was sheer happiness.

And her happiness in someway gave me the answer of my questions. She knew that she will have a beautiful life with the guy whose face was too close to hers at that time. She will spend the rest of the life with this man and she will enjoy much more than what the couples had enjoyed in the long relationships they developed in the academic life. Her love has been permanently arranged, not just marriage.

Arrange love marriages are often described as full of compromises. But I believe that if you see in that way even a life long relationship, which starts from the foundation days of life, say schools, is subjected to more types of compromises. When the two persons are not yet matured but they develop together, they evolve together, on each stage of life they are trying to adjust according to the comforts of others.

Once I used to think that people who get life partner by God’s grace in early days of life are luckier. But now I realise that it makes no difference. Love is the most beautiful thing in this world. And it is arranged for everyone.

I want to be 4th Idiot !

Better be an idiot than being a stupid. Yes, Rajkumar Hirani’s 3 idiots has redefined these offensive terms, and that too in such a way that people actually “want” to become an idiot!

Here “idiot” signifies people who defy the norms, question age old practices, try to innovate, try to explore, and those people who want to follow what their heart says. Just after the moment when I finished watching this movie, I was repeatedly asking ‘why this film did not come 7 or 8 years ago?’ it could have reversed the fate of lots of people including me.

Though the concept of the film and the story line appeals to all youngsters, but true enjoyment belongs to those who have actually studied Engineering. I am one of those fortunate souls. Fortunate, not only because I too am an Engineer, but also because, I am one of the subject of interest for people like Hirani/Chetan Bhagat.

Its true that life is usually taken by students as a race. I am not saying that parents are the ones who think that life is a race and their child should run fast to win. Sometimes, or in my case, most of the times it is the child himself who thinks that life is a race. It happens when the child grows in an environment which is unaware of what is happening outside. It happens when society does not know or never acknowledges that every kind of interest that a child shows can be converted into a potential career path. Peer pressure is also a factor. I am saying so confidently because all these factors contributed in my case.

And we were not fortunate enough. We never had any perfectionist like Aamir Khan in our times, who first tries to stress that imagination and creativity within a child knows no bound in “Taare Zameen Par” and then later, does a Rancho, and tells that “Aaal izz well”. With the portrayal of Baba Ranchhod das, Aamir has proved that its not just popularity, style, talent or hard work, which makes somebody a perfectionist. Its also a feeling of responsibility which makes Aamir Khan ‘the Aamir Khan’. Around 21 years ago, we saw him in “Qayamat se Qayamat tak” playing a guy who has just passed out from college and now after 11 years, we see him playing a guy who has just entered college. And we don’t see any change in the appearance. Yes makeup does a lot of work but its actually the energy level of the actor which helps him displaying such a portrayal. Hats off to Aamir. With movies like “Taare Zameen Par” he has also shown that how much sense of responsibility he is having.

And it is not just Aamir. Its also the work of the director. Hirani has shown his heart touching and inspiring story of ‘Munna Bhai’. 3 Idiots is another name in continuation. In Munna Bhai, he showed the necessity of emotions. In that film Boman Irani was the antagonist for such thought and in 3 Idiots too, Irani was seen rejecting every idea of the visionary Aamir. There is some interesting thing about the character of Irani. Veeru Sahastrabuddhi was given the getup of Einstein. He was a hypocrite who used to led a life imitating simplicity of the genius Einstein (like riding a bicycle instead of car) but inside the heart he was stubborn and non receptive to the innovative ideas for which the genius is best known for. Boman Irani’s portrayal was as amazing as always.

On the ending note I want to say that people like me can find their answers in movies like this. But please always remember that no movie is made for giving any message. Movies are made at the best to promote and highlight the idea and conceptualization of the director. In some cases the directors’ thought resonate with those of the viewers so well that we feel that this film was intended to give any learning. In fact in “3 idiots” we don’t find any learning, but we see “how to learn…”