In this very exclusive relaxed chat with Anita Barar, Ajit Ninan told that his uncle the well known cartoonist Abu Abraham, encouraged him to enter into cartoon drawing. He used to hid his sketches under the pillow and would show to uncle whenever he visited home.
Ajit gives full credit for his love of art to his early hostel life which for one or other reason encouraged him to draw. He fondly remembers those hostel days and school days when he used to watch animation films and also how the school provided the rich source of all kind of material.
Ajit Ninan's column ' Just like That' in Times of India Source: Confluence - A festival of India
Talking about his career as political cartoonist, he says that no country in the world can match up with India with facial features. We have such a cross cultural feature. For a cartoonist, it is just right., he said.
So has he ever struggled to caricature a perfect face?
"Oh yes, Rajiv Gandhi. He was such a good looking beautiful human being. He put all of we cartoonist in great stress as we just couldnt do anything with his face. Perfect eyes, nose … everything looked just right. It was becoming really difficult" Ajit said.
So what did cartoonist draw during his time?
Ajit said, " You see, Rajeev Gandhi started developing a bald patch, so R.K Laxman did the magic. He made it Rajeevs bald patch as a helipad."
He added, "… the second difficult person was our Prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. Because, the three forth of his face is religious"
Ajit Ninan's Cartoon column in Times of India Source: Confluence - A festival of India
He further explained , … a cartoonist has to be careful and socially responsible too. Also one must remember and respect the limitations too. Like we cant play around with our map, our national symbols, national bird, our president. So one must respect and always remain socially sensitive.
So did he ever get in trouble crossing that 'fine line' of culturally sensitive boundary?
"… Yes few times ", Ajit replied.
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Does he get restless when he wants to do a certain story but cant due to these limitations?
Ajit said, "…I am irreligious. I am atheist.
I get nervous in social Cartooning. We have to be extra careful specially when you do social stories.
There were so many times, I was excited to do many stories…like the wedding scene.
But I restrain because you could heard religious social sentiments."
"If you look at the cartoons anywhere, the women are always respected.
So no one makes fun of women."
Ajit Ninan with Anita Barar of SBS Hindi Radio at Australia India Institute event on 26th Sept'2016 in Melbourne Australia. Source: Anita Barar
His advice to parents, "... there must be a visual dictionary so that children know whats around them. They should be able to question and analyse. For example, observe Igloo. Why it is like that. There has to be reason, so children should know about it. Parents should do this ..."
In the end he couldnt resist talking about the power of Black and white cartooning.
He narrated the incident when Mother Teresa had passed away, and how India Today came out with an edition- Black and white!
And this also brought the memories of most respected cartoonist of India - Mr. R.K. Laxman.
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Another thing which Ajit Ninan was very concerned was that now days people don't work with their hands / fingers.
The writing by pen/ pencil has now been replaced by keyboard / typing.
"… everything has gone so mechanical. We dont write but type. You see, one should never stop working with hands. It is very important. … if you look around, we have our beautiful architecture, our scripts … all hand work…"
Mr Ajit Ninan was touring Australia for Confluence- A festival of India. A few of his cartoons were exhibited exclusively at RMIT University Melbourne.
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