KAAK

Kaak - a profound name among the designers and artists who made this way through lines of mechanical engineering to the cartoon world. Born on 16 March 1940 harish Chandra Shukla is a visionist with skills. His vision for the world is well defined as KAAK DRISHTI, when asked about his pen name the 81-year-old cartoonist shared his logic behind it. KAAK is taken from the sound of a crow the lowest and the unpleasant among the birds. But the crow is known for his ghostly strange ability to smell odd and expose it with a screeching and squeaky voice. The unpretentious scavenger is asserted to be the smartest and most observant of his kind.

Kaak's first cartoon came out in the Hindi newspaper 'Dainik Jagran' on 6th July 1967 and appeared in numerous magazines later on some of which are - Dharmyug, Dinman, Shankar's Weekly and many more. He worked as an editorial cartoonist with Jansatta and Navbharat times.

Belonging from a family of freedom fighters, Kaak has a strong opinion for political scenarios in the country, which is valid. His character and vision for politics as a common citizen was unique and a bold step.

Trained as a mechanical engineer his lines took a drift toward cartoons and characters. Earlier being an artist who scribbles and makes cartoons wasn't considered a decent job. He worked as a mechanical engineer for 2 decades but never gave up on his enthusiasm for cartooning and ended up marrying his pen and characters.

Even after being awarded many times and having the limelight in his journey, he denied the luxury. He says if he had all that in his life earlier he wouldn't have been able to design the characters for which he is being awarded. When asked about his character designing and the process behind his compositions Kaak said - one needs to see everything around them as a character, building an atmosphere and recognising are three milestones of the end product. Being a cartoonist brings you responsibilities as one is supposed to be very cautious when working with political scenarios or anything of public interest.

One needs to devote their entire self when making characters because one will always have an essence of his personality in his or her work.

When asked about his characters the cartoonist says as he said all his characters are inspired by the people around him. 'Budhau' and 'Bhauji' are the most well-known from newspapers - both were inspired by the locals around him, one from a barber who lived a simple life, another from a witty aunt who spoke savagely.

Everyone around is a cartoon character including yourself - KAAK. The 81-year-old artist is still full of life and hasn't stopped sketching his visions, having him with youngsters was an interactive and spirited session, the enthusiasm and fire in his soul for cartoons still burns. He is a motivation for numerous and KAAKDRISHTI will be set on everyone.

The following Q&A session with Kaak further highlights his jovial personality and his passion for sketching cartoons.

Q. Where did you get the inspiration for your characters? Were any of them based on people from your life?

My characters are a mixture of all the people that I meet, some of it is based on my father, he was a big inspiration. I remember in my childhood, my father would make my siblings and I read English newspapers to learn conversation and he taught us to be concise, say a lot in few words. He wanted us to be learned people.

Q. Today, a lot of reporters are shut down for speaking people’s truth, even with cartoonists when you focus on the people’s plight. So, are cartoonists scared or are they being threatened in some way?

[laughs] What newspaper even puts out cartoons anymore? To scare cartoonists you need cartoonists right? We are a dying breed it seems. More than that, we need support, if the management and the advertisers decide cartoons are not relevant anymore, we are put out to pasture.

Q. Of course, back when cartoons where still popular, things even the opposition couldn’t say were said by people like you, it made room for open discussion.

I completely agree. People would say you are in the opposition’s pocket but no, criticism was the same for all. Its also not that only the cartoonist is smart, we also have our limitations and its not very easy trying to appeal to the masses, it’s a balancing act that comes with experience. This was all when we still had a platform, now we don’t even have that. Social media is not made for people like me, we have to constantly be aware of what we put out, I have heard so many times of these things beign taken down by the social media.

Q. Sir, what was your process while deciding on your characters? You also have a distinct style that was consistent through the years, how did you arrive there?

Characters aren’t bound by anything, they’re mostly only created for the purpose of one maybe two comics and then they’ve served their purpose. You just know when you’ve perfected something, your discipline, your experience and your passion are the most important in this purpose. You can tweak some things or not, you can change a design or not, its up to you as an artist to make that decision. See, what is right for me may not be the same for you.

Q. what are some essential qualities that a cartoonist must have? How do we find what we are lacking in?

See, its all about having a positive attitude towards your work. Yes, sometimes some cartoons may not have the same punch as others, instead of being dejected, you get to work and figure out what is lacking. Maybe the expression is off, the background is too busy or the clothes aren’t working out. Whatever it is can be changed, its just a matter of figuring out what and how. Sometimes less is more.

The key to becoming a cartoonist, is the life he or she lives, the surrounding they engage themselves with, whatever a person observes, is what they can create. Perception and social reality are both part of caricature. Mr. Harish, and his cartoons have evolved from the time of Indira Gandhi to the era Rajiv Gandhi. He has seen the entire era of newspaper to the times of television, while the signification of cartoons have not gone down, but, due to digitalization, many artist who work on paper today find it somewhat difficult to come onto the digital platforms. What Mr Harish say about this, is that cartoonist are not untouched by time, time will allow old and next gen cartoonist to catch up to the digitalizing of art, and find a way to win over social and economic challenges.

Cartoonist have access of two worlds, one journalism and art, both are part of social conscience of the larger public view, cartoon is a natural expression for people as we all see a caricature in our daily life’s. In simple words, caricature is the other side of our world, the simple side of the complex human events. In Mr. Harish words, everyone is essential a cartoonist.