Sahasi Arjun - Kannada Comics

I was fascinated by Sahasi Arjun when it appeared on a Kannada Weekly Taranga. Artwork is ok-ok. But the story line is what impressed me.

This comic was created by T.G. Shetty and was printed from 1st Sept 1991 to 31 Jan 1993. Only two stories were printed by Taranga.

According to this comics, all the mythological stories (Ramayan, Mahabharat etc) are true and they were actually super humans. Earth had a huge earthquake+flood. They left earth and settled in a very distant solar system called Apoorva. Here their race grows to occupy multiple planets in their solar system.

There is a war going on in the Apoorva Solar System and the good guys are loosing. The princess of the good guys sends a robot, Wamba-2c, to earth to recover a Vajra. Wamba-2c is accompanied by Oshira's (a yogi) spirit. The Vajra (diamond) belonged to their leader Indra, which they had to leave behind when they left earth. This Vajra had enormous power which can help them to win against the bad guys. Wamba-2c lands on earth and meets Arjun. Wamba-2c, Oshira's sprit and Arjun hunt for the Vajra.

I had never heard of T.G. Shetty before or after. I don't know who this cartoonist is, how many comics of Sahasi Arjun did he create or if he created any other comics.

I was very dissapointed when the comics suddenly ended. I don't know why. Probably the idea that all the gods and mythological characters were highly advanced humans rather than gods itself was not acceptable. Or maybe T.G. Shetty ran out of ideas.

I had saved most of the comics pages out of Taranga. Here is the first clip out of it:

My mother bound all the pages into a book. I lost the book in my mother's collection of compiled books all these years. I recovered it a few months back and read it again.

I'm still impressed by it!

Aesthetic Pollution

What is Aesthetic Pollution?

Spoiling the visual beauty. Its also called Visual Pollution.

Advertisements on buses, bill boards, overhead wires, buildings etc, cause Aesthetic Pollution. Its hard to define what causes Aesthetic Pollution as beauty is in the eyes of the.. err. spectator .. observer.. .. whatever. Ask the company which put up the bill board and they'll definitely tell you that the bill board is adding to the Aesthetic Beauty. Of course, its the money speaking. Isn't it always the money which is speaking? How many businessmen (or customers!) have ever heard of Ethical Business Conduct?

I remember there was a plan to build a larger building next to Taj Mahal. It came up in the news, became a controversy, some blame games and then all news channel fell silent. The point raised was that it'll spoil the beauty of Taj Mahal. Valid point. Apparently the project was dropped.

One of my friends recently visited Badami. He says, as you enter the town you can see the beautiful and ancient caves and buildings along with three mobile towers in the background! That totally spoils the beauty. No photos taken!

Why don't we think of beauty being spoilt in our city or in our neighborhood? I was just reading another news: São Paulo has banned outdoor advertising. Many other cities around are considering the same.

Can we do that in our cities as well?

Well, we don't even have decent roads or footpaths. For the last one week, Times of India has been showing pictures of bad roads all over Bangalore and nothing is being done. We have garbage dumped all around the bins. Nobody throws wrappers in the dust bins. I don't see a sense of cleanliness itself.

I saw an ad of a property developer which said something like "are your neighbours spoiling your happy moments?". The accompanying picture has a cute little girl in a fairy dress posing for a photograph and somebody is fixing a dish antenna in the balcony of the flat of the adjoining building in the background.

People take a lot of care of their house, their personal looks, their cars, their 'happy moments'. Its just a mater of extending the same concept a bit more....

We have to first understand the importance of Aesthetic Pollution. Its a new concept around here and it'll take some time before people accept that its not a nice thing. It'll take even longer to take any action.

We definitely have a long way to go....

Deepawali Crackers

I'm against crackers. Its over 10 years since I burst any crackers. Reasons are not very difficult to guess: Noise pollution, air pollution, soil pollution, dirty roads, child labour, unhealthy and unsafe manufacturing practices, careless bursting without any considerations for others.... Thats enough reasons I guess?

Apparently not!!

I just read the news about 7 children dying at an illegal cracker factory in Hyderabad. Another news said forced child labour is used in many such factories. The prices of these crackers are sky-rocketing! Surprisingly, so is the demand for them!!

I have told my friends why I'm against crackers. Everybody agrees with my reasons. But nobody is ready to give up bursting them!!

We celebrate Deepawali every year. Its one of our major festivals. We do pooja, hang up the Deepawali lantern, decorate the main door and mainly light up the house with diyas!

Why can't we celebrate Deepawali by showing some social responsibility?