Childhood Memoirs...cartoons n comics

Till date i love to read comics and watch the odd cartoons! Now that doesnt necessarily indicate i am still a kid, does it? The effort that goes into creating a comic strip is in itself intriguing, and voracious readers like you and me feast on them (obviously you are one, otherwise you wouldnt be reading my blog!); oblivious of the art and time taken to create it. Some people may associate it to timepass!

As a kid, while all others of my age grew up watching walt disney (mickey mouse & gang), i was given the golden opportunity to watch arabic cartoons! In those days in muscat, cable tv was not a common phenomenon and my parents obviously didn't feel the need to watch Asianet or any other malayalam channels which capture the viewers through the never ending episodes and people end up shedding buckets of tears. Hence, by switching on the the idiotbox all you hear is a buzzing sound and lots of dots (like a stippling exercise) which indicates that you are in the wrong channel;the other option being Oman TV which has nothing but arabic and the NEWS in English in the evening! Two of my favorite cartoons yet were - Captain Majid and Voltron. Football was a passion and the only sport i knew to play in middle school. Second obsession was with robots! I still recollect the characters and will appear goofy in comparison to today's age of computronics,flash and animation. Arabic was certainly not my strong point though i still had to learn it for 2 years; but to greet a person only the following words were deemed necessary..."As-salaam alaykum"......and "Wa alaykum as-salaam" in reply.So while all other words of the language were as legible as 'swahili', the action kept me engrossed! After a few years of tormenting ourselves with the local language (the idea was certainly not to show appreciation or affection), we finally got cable television.

As i had mentioned earlier, robots cartoons were second in the list of favorites; so you can imagine me jumping with joy while watching 'Transformers'! Automobiles were my non-living pets - the 1:100 scaled models. I always used to have a miniature model of a ferrari or jaguar in my shirt or trouser pocket on going outdoors - heard of the term 'walk the car'? yeah...always go for the expensive ones; to own a true scaled one i would probably have to pull off 'the italian job'! I could never have imagined that the cartoon originally created in 1983 would actually be made into a Movie in 2007....would have thought of spielberg to come up with such a wierd idea...but it wasnt to be, from the depths of darkness into heights of fame rose a "mr. michael bay".

Comic Books were certainly an inspiration to laugh at odd moments just because at times you tend to associate what you see with what you have read. Its absolutely normal to do it even when among adults since you havent yet crossed the age of 12. Children in india grew up reading Tinkle, while i took a liking to Tintin. Asterix and Obelix came a close second. Hence there used to be quite a fight to get a hand on those comics in the class library (something you can relate to in the indian parliament). Later on, as i moved into high school the fights continued for 'The Hardy Boys' - crime scene investigators! I was an adventurous kid...Limited to books! what sort of an adventure can you look for in the desert?? - 'the case of the missing sand viper'...perhaps?

All through college though i never had the opportunity to read comics, but the caricature by R.K.Laxman on the frontpage of the Times of India paper always caught my eye; irrespective of the catchy but at times daft headlines! I am not going to be a cartoonist though i did try my hand at it once, not in this life....its better to stick to what you know best - reading!