The Caricaturist faces the love-assassins and beats her Rival-in-Love!

Hi Folks,

I’ve been missing. I know that there’s no point telling you where I had been, because you’ll snigger and say, “Oh yeah? Really?” But then that’s something that I’ve been hearing all my life, for everything that I ever do, so…go ahead and snigger. I’ll tell you exactly where I was – you may do what you please.

I was, my friends, in the beautiful land of Love and Romance. I was in a place where the trees had leaves and flowers had petals that were shaped like little hearts; where love-notes and beautiful pink envelopes rained from the sky, and where a sweet little dove took my love-messages to my sweetheart.

But then you know that no fairy tale is ever complete without a villain, and so there was a villain too. This woman, my rival in love, was a beautiful witch who wanted to win the affection of my sweetheart! Now any cartoonist or caricaturist will vouch for the veracity of this convoluted statement o’mine – “It isn’t easy for us artists to find someone who’d love us. Oh, we fall in love at the drop of a hat, but to have our love reciprocated is a mammoth task. I mean, who in his right mind would fall in love with an unkempt, shabby person who buys dresses that are at least four-sizes too big, and whose lone lipstick also doubles as highlighter?”

So, when this beautiful but unethical witch fell for the only guy who had ever tried to look beyond my hopelessly wild exterior, into my sweet though slightly critical soul – things got slightly out of hand. She had money, you see. Tons of gold and silver, and so she recruited these love-assassins to stop me from writing to him! But then, I am not the kind who gives up easily, especially in the matters of heart. So I fought back. I fought this long war, which was made of 54 battles; and in the end, I won!

You don’t believe me, do you?
I can see you sniggering. You think that such a place doesn’t exist. You think that the Land of Love and Romance is a figment of my imagination? You think that a caricaturist cannot compete with a beautiful witch, and win the game of love?
I’ll tell you more about this place when we meet next. By then, if the witch has given up, and my love is returned, I will make those caricatures that I promised I would.

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Valentine’s Day, Google Doodle, and a bunch of roses :)

It’s Valentine’s Day today. I happen to have spent two years studying at the most prestigious Fashion School of India (don’t ask me the why and the how of my being there – artists are crazy – and they do stuff that won’t make sense to any left-brained individual,) and it was there that I first realized that there was indeed a festival that celebrated love – an emotion that should be experienced to be understood. Unlike anger, sorrow, happiness, and many other emotions, love can exist without expression, but when expressed, it flourishes. This day is about expressing your love for another being…doesn’t matter how.

So that brings us to the Valentine’s Day Google Doodle, which plays a sweet animation, in which a boy tries to win a girl’s heart by giving her a rose followed by an array of gifts, but he fails – and then he realizes that it was really a lot simpler. All he had to do was skip a rope with her. He realizes that…

• He didn’t have to order a glass of wine worth $6000 (of course, there’s a diamond at the bottom of the glass),
• He didn’t have to gift her a car,
• he didn’t have to buy her an iPad or an iPhone,
• He didn’t have to buy her an apartment,
• He didn’t even have to buy her a teddy,
• or even a rose…

all he had to do was find out what she liked doing and tell her that he cared for her enough to understand her.

Yet it was all the way backwards for me today. Today, I celebrated my first Valentine’s Day.

We had gone to the market to buy regular stuff – a diary, a few folders, a couple of books, and grocery – but I, who wore a steel-plant helmet and would receive hand-crafted ceramic earrings made of refractory bricks from him when we had first met…today after spending two decades of his life with this cartoon girl and caring for her every day of their lives together, he gave her roses! We never celebrated this day, because we thought that being in love was celebration enough – but this Valentine’s Day shall remain etched in my mind forever, because when he gave me those roses, I realized that traditions become stronger when celebrated with symbols.

I wish all my visitors and readers a Very Happy Valentine’s Day 🙂

And yes, for the Love-Cynics…

Here are Romeo, Juliet, and the… … the extra!