A Happy Flowering of Discontent

I wrote a few months ago about the general lack of good Indian politically charged, satirical, webcomics. There was of course Crocodile in Water, Tiger on Land that one could look forward to every Monday. But the heart wants excess of it.

magine my surprise when I found an article about a happy flowering of discontent on Jabong of all places. I'm not complaining, I just didn't expect it to come from such a platform.I It obviously mentioned CWTL, and Appupen's newly created Rashtraman. I had seen the work on newslaundry (Full disclosure: I'm a proud patron and subscriber of News Laundry),

Image Source: Appupen

Then there was Sanitary Panels that has been featured on The Ladies Finger. So you can say I was generally aware of it but not really following it.

Image Source: sanitarypanels

Another one there was The Royal Existentials. Again I had seen an image or two floating around on the social media but it didn't occur to me to follow the trail and find the source. 

Image Source: The Royal Existentials

The one that was absolutely new to me was Inedible India. This is similar to Royal Existentials in the sense that they use older paintings, but they don't restrict themselves to miniature paintings.   

Image Source: Inedible India

Both Inedible India and Royal Existentials remind me of Wondermark by David Malki who uses illustrations from old books and newspapers to make his bizarre and wonderful comics. Some of these are just Facebook pages, others are blogs and websites. It's great to see the wide variety of expressions that are flowering. 

Afternoon Birdsong

Soaring on the score
Of Poplar leaves swishing
In a summer afternoon's warm breath
The incessant crow holds forth
Hopping from branch to branch.
Birds I never learnt to name
Call back, counsel, correct, comfort -
In a variety of tongues
We generically call Birdsong.

Pray, would you care for some tea?

I just read this Brain Pickings post that talks about Gorge Orwell's 1945 essay, A Nice Cup of Tea. He starts off by saying 
"Anyone who has used that comforting phrase ‘a nice cup of tea’ invariably means Indian tea." 

Image Source: scroll.in

I found that intriguing, because just today I read this Scroll article that says we have British Propaganda to thank for our national obsession with tea. I'm particularly fond of this sari-and-shoe clad tennis player, enjoying a tea break. I think she represents beautifully what it means to live in a post-colonial world. How we take something very British and make it our own. Some would argue cricket is the best example of that, but I'd go back to tea.

Orwell's essay ends with these very specific instructions
"Lastly, tea — unless one is drinking it in the Russian style — should be drunk without sugar...how can you call yourself a true tea-lover if you destroy the flavour of your tea by putting sugar in it? It would be equally reasonable to put in pepper or salt."
Me thinks the people of Western UP (where I am right now) would just laugh on his face and then pour him a cupful of diabetes-inducing tea. And he'd have an aneurism if he realizes that we drink tea not only with sugar, bit some people will add salt, ginger and that masala chai can have cloves and pepper and all manner of spice.

My personal favorite is the one my friend makes with ginger and anise seeds. It's really refreshing and hot and cooling at the same time.

So long Gorgey boy!