Beastly Tales from Here and There.

Published back in 1991, Vikram Seth‘s grinning collection of animal fable-poems, Beastly Tales from Here and There, was first illustrated by Ravi Shankar (whose pompous Hindustani fatfrog and sleek celebrity hare are most unforgettable). Now it has been reprinted by Puffin as a special big colourful book for kids, which I got to illustrate.

Vikram Seth’s cleverly crafted poems retell the old fables with a charming, slightly dark and very revealing perspective on things that happen to most of us. A lot of love and detail and numerous eraser rubbings were poured  into the book’s illustrations, over a large part of last year. The book was released on a pretty purple and white evening at Penguin’s Spring Festival this March, with an enthralling series of readings by the author.

So, after a long refreshing cup of tea, the tragopan and the elephant pulled out some of the illustrations that I think, define this edition of the book best of all. First – of course, the tea scene – tea for decision-making, for procrastination, for calming down ruffled feathers, for just being.

And then, the first illustration done for the book – where the hare and her psychedelic mushroom minefield decided what the other animals and people in the book were going to do. The hare is the most important one, after all.

Then there was Grandpa Monkay, him of the levitating mangoes – who the tragopan and the elephant would have gone to for help if only they could bear to disturb him, really. The elephant sighed, drank some more tea and tried to talk sense in the showdown at Bingle Valley.

There were the shy black bears who crept out of the mists – slightly costumed, silent guardians who made sure everything would be alright in the end.

The Dog has its Day.

Current Conservation magazine’s Vol 5, Issue 2 is finally out, with my barking pie dog cover!

These featured article illustrations are about the negative impact of the domestic dog population upon wildlife – dogs seem to prey upon, stress out, pass on illnesses to, and compete for resources with those already perplexed and not-so-populous wild animal species in the same territory.

This infographic shows domestic dogs and their impacts on ecology beyond their typical roles within and around human settlements.

 

Spring Day Kittehs.

Some say cat memes are a ditzy attempt to understand the process of evolution in those wondrous cat beings. It could be that people have evolved. The tools used to document the days and ways of them kittehs have only increased in complexity from bits of rocks to oil paints to film cameras to photoshop. More and more people are learning to read and write just so they can absorb and produce cat memes. Through all of this, cats have appeared to stay exactly the same – after all they do have nine lives and a ridiculously high level of self-satisfaction.

The Small Picture is best viewed in the newspaper edition of Mint, where it first appears every Wednesday. This piece was published on 6 March 2013.

 

Fish Kitty.

Fish Kitty on Tumblr started as a room with a large window where the kittehs went to sun themselves.

An orange cat called Lola was the first to know what the other side of the window felt like.

Then, there were long walks, enormous floating fish, flocks of birds and sudden surprising finds like mushrooms and books to read.

Some of their stories are here: http://fishkitty.tumblr.com

Two Feet Under.

The beagle, ever helpful, ever the problem-solver – did what he could for Mr Blue’s smelly feet problem. He took the socks away and buried them far, far down in the very bottom of the garden.

Ralfie Goes A-Fetchin’.

This is a Multiverse story that continued from the November issue (as the spacepuppy pinup) to the December issue (as a two-page interpretation of the Great Big Apocalypse) of Brainwave magazine.

Next Change.

This Small Picture story originated from a peculiar mix of a certain Pink Floyd song (gah! the whole movie), a strong opinion about Ujala and Robin Blue, bemused tales from friends regarding mass PT, and my Dad who reminded me that things aren’t so bad after all, really.

The Small Picture is best viewed in the newspaper edition of Mint, where it first appears every Wednesday. This piece was published on 05 December 2012. 

 

Nine Lives.

Nine Lives‘ first life was a neat little 140-word story by Nilanjana Roy for Bombay Mid Day. Now, it has pictures. Like so.

The Cat who went for a Walk.

You never really know if a lost kitty from a missing pet poster ever gets found. 

Just So Stories.

Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling, is scrumptiously full of illustrations done by the author himself. He has thought of everything: illustrated drop caps, spots, full-pagers – each with its own rambling caption-text as captivating as the stories. Here are some of Kipling’s illustrations. Seeing these in an actual book is the biggest treat possible – and ridiculously hard to photograph in its entirety.

The sweet folks at Rupa have just released a new hardcover edition of Just So Stories, with four double spread black-and-white-and-grey illustrations I did. Its so exciting to get to draw alongside Kipling’s illustrations! Here are some pics of my illustrations.