I was brought up in a family where reading English newspaper was a part of our culture. My dad, mom, brother and myself had the habit of reading the latest newspaper early in the morning everyday. When I was small I would read newpaper to know maximum about what was going on in the cricket world at the national and international levels. Today I don't read even a word about cricket and hence am totally ignorant about who's who in international and national llevel cricket today.
I developed interest in lournalism when I was doing Jr. BSC (14th std) at Sathaye College. I would read books which taught how to write for newspapers. I would read many English newspapers which got published in Mumbai those days. I simply loved to read certain columnists. Among the columnists I liked most were Busy Bee (Behram Contractor), Shobha De and Bikram Vohra. Busy Bee would write for Midday which had a special corner in its last page reserved specially for him He would write regularly. He would write around 400-600 words every day. He had his own style of writing which I simply loved. He would write very lucidly and effortlessly and he would always end his column with a punchline that would not fail to make me smile. I would read Busy Bee practically every day. I too have been writing my film columns for News Band newspaper since last more than three years practically everyday. I was inspired by Busy Bee and Busy Bee alone to become a regular columnist. There are hardly any columnist in the world who write columns practically everyday. They either write once forthnightly, once a week or twice a week. So I feel proud to say that I'm one of the few columnists in the world who had been writing columns practically every day since last three years. My idol, my inspiration was none other than late Behram Contractor or Busy Bee. Another columnist I liked was the great Shobha De. Shobha has done India proud today by becoming the only prolific Indian novelist. She is compared with great American and British female novelists. When I read Shobha De for the first time I fell in love with her. I would try not to miss any of her columns since then. She has a style of writing. She has a sophisticated style of writing. She is an excellent speaker too. I've heard her talk quite many times on TV and video film in the computer. She was a model initially who later became a columnist and then the editor of magazines like Star Dust, Socieity and Celebrity. After that she became a author. I read somewhere that today she is occupying the top position in Penguin Publications. If that is so then I would like to congratulate her for having another feather to cap which is already full of feathers. Bikram Vohra too was my favourite as far as writing a column is concerned. Bikram Vohra would write every week humorous columns which would never fail to make me laugh. He would also do compering for Quiz shows for Doordarshan those days. But he was in the limelight only for a short time after which he disappeared from public view. God knows where he got lost. Another writer whom I admired was Russy Karanjia. He was the editor of Blitz which was in the tabloid form and which would come out once a week. Karanjia had an attacking style of writing. He would use strong language. He was a delight for readers like me who loved reading sensational pieces. So these were the Indian writers who inspired me to beocme a writer too although in a small way.
Now I'll tell you how I fell in love with cartooning. When I was very small I would read comics like Phantom and Mandrake. I adored these two heroes. I had a huge collection of Phantom and Mandrake comics. Those days I would attempt to sketch my heroes by referring to the comics. That is how I discovered my drawing talent. After I grew up a little I got hold of a cartoon book by the famous cartoonist of those days who was none other than Shanker. That book contained a huge collections of Shanker's cartoons based on Nehur Era. I would not only enjoy watching the sketches but relish even the punch lines. After that I became the fan of cartoonists like R K Laxman, Mario Miranda, Sudhir Dhar, Vikas Sabnis and so on. It was R K Laxman who inspired me to become a regular cartoonist. And for last three years I have been making cartoons based on the characters Alooramji and Puno almost regularly for Newsband newspaper. Before that, Newsband was a weekly called 'In New Bombay" for which too I would draw cartoons practically every week. Today I got the collection of more than 2000 published cartoons of my own and I owe this success to the above mentioned cartoonists without whom I would never learn the art of cartooning. The number of published articles I got to my credit are more than 1200. Today I really feel that I've done something worthwhile for the society. I feel really great and nice. I'll stop here and I'll pass on to you still more interesting information as and when I get inspiration. Till then, bye!
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