The satirical comic strip ‘Inedible India’ was created by Rajesh Rajamani. He chooses current political, economic and other situations and creates comic strips using famous paintings by Raja Ravi Varma as well as Mughal era paintings. He had always wanted to do a comic strip about the double standards and eccentricities in our country, but didn’t pursue the idea because he felt he couldn’t sketch. Then he saw an idea that gave him hope. “Recently, I got a chance to look at a web-comic series called Royal Existentials.
“I observed that Aarthi, the creator of this web comic format, had used Mughal miniature paintings to illustrate contemporary angst in a comic format. I liked the idea and created something similar with Raja Ravi Varma’s and Mughal paintings and shared it with my friends on Facebook,” said Rajesh and added, “One particular comic about death penalty went viral and after that, I decided to create an exclusive page for the web comics.”
Rajesh, who has done about 20 comic strips so far, chooses paintings based on the conversation sketch he has in mind. According to the gender in the initial sketch, he finalises different paintings. “Recently, I had uploaded a sketch about the dating site Tinder, and wanted it to be a conversation among women. So accordingly, I chose a painting to fit the sketch.”
The inspiration for sketches are news headlines Rajesh comes across. His recent comics were about the debate on death penalty, the porn ban and freedom of speech — all of which have triggered thousands of reactions and opinion from both the press and the public. “When I have an opinion to share on an issue that’s in the news or if it’s something that I have read elsewhere, I try to convert that into a conversation. Then I look for a painting to fit the conversation,” he said.
When asked if he consults any of his friends or family before uploading the strips, he said, “Initially, I used check with a friend or two for their opinion before uploading them. But doing this only confused me on the effectiveness of the strip. So I stopped consulting anyone.” Rajesh, who works as a banker, was offered the job when he was pursuing his studies at IIM Indore. His interest in comics started with Calvin and Hobbes. “Through my comic strips, I primarily hope to question conveniently-accepted public opinion and behaviour,” Rajesh adds.
