Vasu
Reddy From Chicago
I
have thoroughly enjoyed cartoons and caricatures since my childhood. The beauty of these creations for as long as
drawings have been around, represent a simple and often meaningful depiction of
current events and sometimes satire on something or the other that comes to the
mind of the cartoonist at a particular moment.
I still like Peanuts and Charlie Brown, and a slew of single frame
cartoons in the Sunday newspapers and often wonder how the imagination of the
artist continues to be so comical and inspiring despite the ages and ages of
creating the same characters and situational cartoons in a single frame. Often they remind one of some time on their
own life where they might have faced similar situation (dilemma) and often they
bring a smile on the face of the reader.
Most times looking at these cartoons is fleeting and often catches a
moment of personal retrospection.
For
many generations, individual characters have continued to explore the daily
life and/or human behavior, most times in comical and situational context. They are intended to be just that,
situational comedies and nothing more.
Millions of people, sometimes billions look at these comic strips as a
weekly (some times daily) dose of humor to help get through the trivia of
routine and often difficult life. These
pieces of someone’s imagination is clearly aimed to bring a smile to just about
everyone who gives a quick glance to them.
Nothing more or nothing less.
The
writers and cartoonists have to pick some real or imagined situation or
instance to come up with their daily dose of humor. Having been of the faith of millions of gods
and goddesses, I am not a stranger to someone within my own faith or outside of
my faith, constantly using the religious symbols to poke at or use them for
marketing or advertising. With so many
billions of us around the world and each one of us with our own unique and
personal issues to tackle and deal with every day, it is always great to look
at something and smile at. There is so
much misery and distrust among the people and various religions and races,
there is no further need for any more animosity.
I
also come from a small place where (I hope we still do) people of all religions
live together and live together well and with respect to all. Many names such as Hussain Reddy, John Mohan
Reddy, Dastagiri Reddy and so on and on are names with a combination of
multiple religious beliefs, and that too in a small community I come from. Each person, each festival, each function,
each event, and each activity of a small village never seem to have issues with
what religion you belong to, rather they all represent the village, and they
all are OK with who they are and they all live together and live well together.
In
the evolution of humans and then the evolution of religions and further
evolution of religious sub sects, caste, creed and whatever which we have
embraced over centuries of life on earth, we still are Humans, and we made the
religion as a part of our life well after beginning the human life.
Charlie
– Good Bye and god speed. While we can’t
bring you back to life, here is a NAMASTE my friend and may you and all your
associates have a great place with the man upstairs and may you be the team of
cartoonists for the safe place above us.
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