Christmas, made in India
I was a guest at the Madras Gymkhana Club last month.
The Gymkhana’s 125 year history has many quaint anecdotes , such as this one about Santa Claus coming riding in a cycle-rickshaw to the Club’s annual Christmas party :
I dare say this must have been a particularly delightful turn of events when it happened, with someone first requisitioning the Club Committee (in triplicate) for funds to hire reindeer and a sleigh for the celebrations. And the Committee ,after much deliberation over many a sitting, deciding to go with Selvam and his rickety old rickshaw instead.
The image ( especially Selvam’s shirt ) was formed in my head long before I put ink to paper ; when I did sit down to sketch it last week , it drew itself.







Love it! Would make a great T-shirt too.
Really nice sketch..
Brilliant one Jai.
@Vishal: Yup! this would definitely make for an amazing Tee. Infact the ‘Autorichshaw-Fu’ one would too. So what say you Jai. Doya? i know this one guy, who knows a guy, who knows a guy who can get this done! … consider it done
awesome
This guy would have been the world’s first dripping-wet-soaked-in-sweat Santa(nam)!
Nice one Jai!
ai! shantha claus! (like how my lovely mummy-maami says.)
lol, though I must say that the rickshaw drew itself into a nice wide cushy size to accomodate portly Mr. Claus?
This reminded me of school days, when we would have Santa coming on a rickshaw on the last day before the winter holidays! Lovely.
Haha! localization in action! How about an “aappil laptop” in Santa’s goodie bag? (possibly an old ‘Made in China’ 486 rock like notebook with the red fruit stuck on the backside of the display using tape)
Super toon… and funny comments!
The shirt drew my attention too. What colours did you have in mind for the checks though? Red and white?
Umm, these days I think in grayscale, so no red and white checks for me.( And this image is from the twentieth century when everything was in black and white anyway, right?)
Aah, of course!
Except for the brand new nose that Selvam got in 2009!!
Absolutely brilliant..
May you visit all the old & heritage establishments, buildings and offices..
And recreate the bygone era for us through your magnificent sketches.
Too awesome
Aiyyo! Selvam the red-nosed reindeer is wonderful. Very nice, Jai Ho Ho Ho.