BOOKS

Seaboard satire

Fernandes’s new book of cartoons has alluring observations about seaside towns

68-Paul-Fernandes Sketching Life: Paul Fernandes at his a Paulogy gallery, Bengaluru | Bhanu Prakash Chandra

Paul Fernandes starts his day by smiling at the sun. The cartoonist calls his plants by name and talks to them. Occasionally, he fights with his wife, Renu, but makes up soon after. A responsible pet parent, he walks his dog Jaggu.

Jaggu plays a crucial role in Fernandes’s creative life. While working on Coast Line, his upcoming book, Fernandes would put all his cartoons on the floor and walk around them to pick the best of the lot; Jaggu would follow him and make sure his voice was heard.

Coast Line is full of delightful cartoons, inspired by Fernandes’s travels along the western coast of India. It juxtaposes Mumbai with Goa. Mangaluru is a cartoonist’s paradise, says Fernandes. In Coast Line, he offers glimpses into Mangaluru, with depictions of everything from elaborate Catholic weddings to overcrowded buses and buffalo races.

Coast Line, just like his previous work Bangalore: Swinging in the 70s, is a heady mix of humour and history. It takes readers on a guided tour of Mumbai landmarks like Flora Fountain, Eros Cinema, the Gateway of India, Rhythm House and the Jehangir Art Gallery. “Mumbai is full of life,” says Fernandes. “If you go to a restaurant, you find dozens of different kinds of people eating simply, happily.” The new face of Kamathipura presents a stark contrast to what it used to be, he says. “Brothel owners are selling out to property buyers; madams and their ‘wards’ are moving out,” he says.

It took Fernandes 12 years to complete this mammoth project that required extensive legwork. He would set out early in the morning with a pair of “tried-and tested walking shoes”, a pencil and pad and a curious mind. “I spent a lot of time on footpaths, watching the world go by,” he says. “I would make small sketches and mental notes. The sketch would tell me what time of the day it was. It would define the colours of that drawing and even tell me what the place smelt like.”

His trip to the coastal towns in Kerala was eventful. He rode pillion from Kochi to Thiruvananthapuram on a borrowed two-wheeler. “Two days on a bike. That gave me the insight for these drawings. I got a sunburn. But, I loved the experience,” says Fernandes.

The way our cities have changed upsets him. “The change is very rapid. We are building bigger stronger structures, and the beauty is not looked after well enough,” he says. “But, let us not dwell on it. We have to go on.”

Fernandes was no accidental artist. When he was a kid, his parents had to clad the house walls with stucco stones up to four feet high, to stop the boy from drawing on them. While in school, he would impress his friends with humorous drawings of teachers. Once he got caught and was sent to the principal’s office. “I got six tight slaps,” he says. Another time, his Hindi teacher got furious on seeing his doodle of her and failed him in the exam.

Caning became a regular affair, and finally, Fernandes took up art so that he could draw freely and fearlessly. He went to Baroda to study commercial art, which exposed him to sculpture, painting, art history, film making, wood cutting, and techniques of cartooning and illustration.

It has been a tremendous journey, and even at 60, Fernandes is full of life. He loves spending time at aPaulogy, his gallery in Bengaluru, which showcases his works depicting old Bangalore, when things were laid back and relaxed. “Many people of my age find it nice to come here and remember those things. The younger lot, too, love to come here to see how their fathers behaved when they were younger,” says Fernandes, bursting into a guffaw.

The man who can make anyone laugh, however, feels vulnerable as he finishes his cartoons. He keeps worrying whether he has done enough.

A cartoon from Coast Line A cartoon from Coast Line

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