Of Illustrators and Doctors-Part 2

My Previous post spoke of doctors but got too long to speak of illustrators.

so here is the continuation of that post.

After my chit chat with the Chicago doctor , the next person to catch my eye was a bearded man at the corner table who was flailing his arms in animated discussion. I walked towards him and in the course of our discussion realized he was also the creator of graphic novels.

'Moonward' was his latest creation and he spoke of independent comics, a genre most people in India are probably unaware of. Independent comics are embraced by people who grew up on superhero comics but got sick of them at some point of time and hence started looking for something new.

"Unfortunately in India most people never had any access to comics for them to switch to Independent comics. Landmark is probably one of the few places in Bangalore where you get comics. I was in Paris a couple of months back and was walking down the river side and saw small boxes all through the length of the walk way. After a little late in the morning, these boxes opened up. They were all book stores and had every conceivable comic book, all written in french!"

In India it will take a while for this to probably happen. However George Mathan (probably the only independent comics illustrator in Bangalore) alias appupen thinks that at least by the time he reaches a humble 68 years of age, things should improve.

All of you can see his work at www.georgemathan.com

Of Illustrators and Doctors

My quote hunting sessions often lead to very interesting encounters with extremely fascinating people. Today I trudged out of office not really in the mood for any serious conversation to talk about the my perceived death of reading. "The decline of reading" is my latest story idea.

I walked towards matteo my regular haven for quotes where people with diverse opinions are a real easy find.

Matteo also being a coffee shop is a nice place to chit chat over some of my banal topics. My picks are usually the people who stand out and today at the center table I saw two guys who were definitely turning a lot of heads.

I excepted a complete 'get out of my face woman' reaction but was surprised as to how warm they actually were. Marc Anthony a doctor from Chicago and Kalim a hotelier entertained me quite a bit with their life and views.

Marc anthony a doctor was in town to complete his thesis about diagnostic techniques in Indian hospitals.

"We have quite a few journals stating that most deaths in developing economies are due to infections caused in hospitals."

I was fascinated by that statement and rather surprised when he said that his study was restricted only to private hospitals.

When I asked why he had not included government hospitals, he stated as a matter of fact that it would be just way too controversial and he might not get his thesis if he spoke against the government.

I found that very strange.In times when people are overthrowing governments why an academician is scared to state the obvious is beyond me.

However I too couldn't pursue the argument more as I was unaware of the situation in government hospitals.

It does make for a good story idea though and I am contemplating taking it up.

do people really read papers?

It is hardly the case when i am not on my toes at work.

However today has been a disaster from the start.

My work entails me to take opinions from all kinds of people about all kinds of things.

My stories include a diverse range of topics some interesting, others plain old ordinary.

People always told me about the power of the internet, how with a few clicks you could reach out

to the world.

I have always been a cynic. I personally never sat at length in front of the computer reading blogs. I was just grateful if I received a few comments on some of my stories published in the deccan herald website thanks to my employer.

I do not know why I have started a blog now, probably the hour long conversation with a European I met at an assignment triggered some belief in this medium.

He told me that in UK people dont really subscribe for the daily news as by the time it

reaches them, it most invariably is old news.

Random people I have met at coffee places always complain our paper is a wee bit slow in breaking a story. Half my friends do not read the newspaper.

Some of them probably do, to just to humour me and say "hey i saw your article today"

All this has left me rather sad.

Another reason probably is because of the fact that some stories never truly reach there end, because of this horrible thing called a deadline. So this space hopefully will talk about things I am generally not allowed to write about or cant voice a strong opinion about.

All in all it will just talk of how I perceive the world.