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I grew up with Ajit Ninan’s cartoons, admiring their simple, slapstick and action-oriented humour. As luck would have it, we became colleagues, first at India Today, where my brother Jayanto worked with him, and later at The Times of India.
Those days, India Today group had a magazine named Target. Ajit bhai’s character Detective Moochwala was one of its star attractions, and it inspired Jayanto and me to start our own comic series, Gardhab Das, for Target.
Ajit bhai used to tell me the power of cartoons lies in the drawing. The viewer should connect with them without reading the caption. He had a knack for seeing politicians’ faces in objects and animals. During elections, he turned them into railway engines, toads and whatnot. “What we see and what they are,” he would say.
From Target, I moved to TOI while Ajit bhai joined Outlook magazine. Some years later, when we worked together again at TOI, we created cartoons, illustrations, and much more. They were fun years, with Ajit bhai always by my side. He often helped me sell some of my notorious ideas to the editors.
Ajit bhai was always one for detail. He once told me, “If not a cartoonist, I would have been an engineer doing technical drawings.” His habit has rubbed off on me and I also try to make detailed drawings of the objects appearing in my cartoons.
It’s my belief that I don’t make cartoons, cartoons make me. This idea also came from Ajit bhai’s advice. He was all for the power of thought and told me to spend more time with myself and my thoughts.
Now, he has left us. Go ahead, Ajit bhai, fill heaven with laughter!
Those days, India Today group had a magazine named Target. Ajit bhai’s character Detective Moochwala was one of its star attractions, and it inspired Jayanto and me to start our own comic series, Gardhab Das, for Target.
Ajit bhai used to tell me the power of cartoons lies in the drawing. The viewer should connect with them without reading the caption. He had a knack for seeing politicians’ faces in objects and animals. During elections, he turned them into railway engines, toads and whatnot. “What we see and what they are,” he would say.
From Target, I moved to TOI while Ajit bhai joined Outlook magazine. Some years later, when we worked together again at TOI, we created cartoons, illustrations, and much more. They were fun years, with Ajit bhai always by my side. He often helped me sell some of my notorious ideas to the editors.
Ajit bhai was always one for detail. He once told me, “If not a cartoonist, I would have been an engineer doing technical drawings.” His habit has rubbed off on me and I also try to make detailed drawings of the objects appearing in my cartoons.
It’s my belief that I don’t make cartoons, cartoons make me. This idea also came from Ajit bhai’s advice. He was all for the power of thought and told me to spend more time with myself and my thoughts.
Now, he has left us. Go ahead, Ajit bhai, fill heaven with laughter!
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