Summer Heat and a Pile of Comics

While scrolling through my twitter timeline casually in the morning I read about the death of Pran Kumar Sharma, India's popular cartoonist better known as the creator of Chacha Chaudhary. Soon there were obituaries; people remembering their comic reading days, their favourite Pran characters and comics. I couldn't stop myself from revisiting the good old days of summer holidays spent reading the pile of comics, again and again.

I grew up in a small city where foreign comics like Archie, Hardy Boys, Marvel etc. hadn't penetrated the market yet. We grew up on a steady dose of Diamond and Raj comics. More of former than latter because of the pure innocence of the characters and stories. Parag, Champak, Nandan, Samrat and Tinkle made for perfect children’s magazines. 

It was an ideal summer holiday which started with buying a stash of Chacha Chaudhary, Billoo and Pinky comics or even better, renting them out from the local library. Even in my Nana-Nani’s village, where we’d go to spend a month, there was a shelf dedicated to our comics and books. I would read them repeatedly, year after year.

The comics that Pran wrote weren’t complicated. They didn’t include flying heroes or dark villians, except Raka. His characters had their traits and well defined ones; Sabu’s anger which made volcanos burst or Chacha Chaudhary’s mind which worked faster than computer. Pinky’s knack for notority was lovable and her neighbour Jhapatji’s frustration was real. The thieves always had black stripes on their faces and Bajrangi Pehelwan would always wear a checkered lungi.

The jokes were silly but I still loved them. The stories linear but kept me interested. It was all a part of my growing up years. And then, I grew up. Moved on to international comics, Calvin and Hobbs and Harry Potters. But a part of me still wanted to go back and read those comics. A part of me still wanted to know about Sabu’s family on Jupiter, see Billoo’s face behind those hair and whether Raka will finally die or not. I guess it’ll remain a mistry now. RIP Pran.

Mumbai Diaries - Part I (The big hunt)

An article in a newspaper few days ago took me back to my early days in Bombay. I was an outsider (technically I still am) and had no relatives in the city, not in the suburbs at least. Having survived 4 years in hostel (3 in Pilani and 1 in Chandigarh....Mohali actually) I was in no mood of staying in a women's hostel, so staying as a PG was a natural choice...scary but natural. But I had a friend from Mohali for company. So I just had to adjust with the landlady who in this case was a 75 year old lady and stayed alone in a 2 BHK in Andheri and gave out one room for paying guests. Her daughters finalized the deal and we had to shell out 2500/- per month each. In return we got a box for a room, 2 train berths for beds and an Almira. and coz we used her kitchen too, we had to divide the gas bill (it was a pipeline). Her cooking however used more fuel but never mind. At least we had an access to her television (after she slept of course) where we got our daily dose of Sex and The City once she was done with her kyunkis and kahanis. Our room had a small balcony (a 2 by 2 square place) where our landlady kept her tulsi ka paudha. Every morning she used to bang violently on our door (to keep a diya in tulsi).....we finally had to leave the door open in the night.

After a couple of months my friend's sister came to live with us and we graduated from the box to a 1 BHK. the house was bigger, each one of us had a whole; small but whole cupboard for ourselves, there were no beds but we had mattresses and the kitchen had a small dining table. we paid 2500/- per person for all of this. Electricity and gas bills came in separately. All this looked good, too good to be true actually. But it wasn't our happily ever after. Providing so many facilities and owning a house made our landlord and his wife think of themselves as demi gods. Well, that's the attitude every landlord in Bombay has....I guess. So, we had a huge list of rules, dos and donts. No boyfriends, no guys, no loud music, extra charges for a guest, no flushing the sanitary pads in the toilet (no I m not kidding, we were actually told not to do that), no hanging undergarments on the window, reason? you know uncles from neighboring flats watch, it doesn't look good...hah! are you sure auntyji that they watch our lingeries? cos I am not. On top of all of this our landlady barged into our flat whenever she wanted (she had an extra key), no knocking, no ringing the bell.....even while we were inside the flat.

Well, this continued for few months till we finally found a rented flat. the owner lived far away and visited only once a month to collect the rent. We stayed there with complete freedom till my friend/flatmate went back to her hometown. There was a whole new kind of struggle after that but I'll save that for the next time.

The lost stardom

So, there i was, about to fall into that deep deep slumber and the phone rang. I picked it up thinking that since it has disturbed me it should be at least worth it, may be its a call from Vividh Bharati for the training schedule.(was expecting a call from them) But it was someone I wouldn't have thought of in my wildest of dreams. A call from, lets call him 'Mr. Filmy'.

Me: Hello.....
Mr.Filmy: Hi, is it Shirin Mehrotra? (with a heavy and totally FAKE US accent)
Me: Yes....
Mr.F: This is Mr. Filmy from so and so media agency. How are you?
Me: I am good (yea rite...thanks for waking me up u lil...!@#$)
Mr.F: Shirin, are you an RJ?
Me: Yes, I am under training with Vividh Bharati. (wow...could it be a job offer for radio jockeying?)Mr.F: Shirin, do you want to mold your career to be an RJ do you wanna be an actor? (aha...sounds like a hot chick,lets show her some starry dreams)
Me: Sorry?
Mr.F: What are your goals in life?
Me: I am an animator and graphics designer.
Mr.F.: Don't you wanna be an actor?(omg,not one to be trapped easily,ill have to try harder...)
(the fake accent kept getting annoying)
Me: NO (what the !@#$ ???)
Mr.F: Why? acting can give you fame and money. (c'mon why arent u falling for this one??i was told chicks would fall head over heels for this)
Me: But that needs struggle,n im very lazy (back off dude...i mean it !!)
Mr.F: Not these days. If you know the current trends of bollywood you can be a star in a very short time. (am i smart or am I smart?)Me: (So here comes the eternal gyan 'Trends of Bollywood') But i am not interested in 'Bollywood and stardom' (even i threw an accent this time)
Mr. F: But why? are you scared of struggle and meeting a lot of people?
Me: (God he's getting on my nerves) I got my own studio to struggle for.
Mr.F: Where are you from? (time to get a little personal ;) )
Me: Bombay
Mr.F: But your name says mehrotra?
Me: ??(Alright alright you nosey sonofa!@#$) I am from North india.(lets see where he goes with this)
Mr.F: which part of north India?
Me: Lucknow
Mr.F: Do you live alone in Bombay? (Potential shikaar)
Me: No, with my husband (haha googly)
Mr.F: Oh, that's good. (wtf)Me: (oh really, is it?) i know
Mr.F: Anyways, I'll email you. If you have that 5% instinct and dream in you of becoming a star give me a call. (still trying hard)Me: Sure

Phone disconnected......
Me: Asshole.....
Mr.F : !@#$%^!@#$^&
What.................? did I miss out on a prospective chance of becoming a star?........... u bet.