Dil Se… started as a hobby strip when I was working in CSC India Pvt Ltd, Indore. I used to copy cartoons strips from Calvin and Hobbes and post them on the Bulletin Board (News & Views) of CSC. This continued for quite long. People got a usual habit of seeing my copied cartoons. Then someone asked me to start making cartoons of my own, and this was the turning point.

I created a cartoon character which was very much inspired by Calvin, a creation from Great Bill Watterson. People suggested several hundreds of names for the character. By then I had already created the female lead for my cartoons and I gave her the name – ‘Sara’. Now I was looking for some name which rhymes with ‘Sara’ Thus, ‘Samar’ was the name that got finalised.

Later Cheeku, Samar’s friend and then the tyrant Manager came into existence. Initially the manager’s name was Dumbledore, but then it subsequently changed to SBS (Subramaniam Basu Singh).

I never thought that people would like Dil Se… so much. The tremendous response (positive as well as negative) from CSCians was inspiring. Since I was just a kid in the industry I did not know much about the happenings. People gave suggestions, ideas, and also critisized the cartoons, helping me to make it better and better. Initially the cartoons were very much CSC centric and subsequently I realised there are a lot of readers outside the company too.

I was growing from a kid into a little matured one and thus my cartoons were maturing too. Now only office mattters were not the target. Problems of real life also started getting into the strips and my triumph with Dil Se… went on.

There was a lull in making cartoons after I changed the company because of lack of time and motivation. Now there was no “News & Views” where people will demand for cartoons everyday. But then I got a call from one of the corporates for making cartoons for their e-mails. This sparkeled me again. I got into building a website for my cartoon series. I must thank the developer Mr. Ashish Kumar, Mohd. Rashid, and Mr. Sagar Agarwal for making such a wonderful website in so less time.

There are many more incidents coming into my mind right now, but those can’t be shared. They are the secrets to be guarded like like…ummm…like…. I donno.

I must thank all managers to do so much of ‘good’ works and say so many ‘wonderful’ things which give me ideas to make cartoons. Without them the cartoons wouldn’t have any spice. I must thank Megha Muchhal,H.R. CSC India (P) Ltd., who did not delete my old cartoons, instead she kept them in Archive of ‘News & Views’. I would also like to thank my friends who have me so much of support to make cartoons. I am grateful to everyone who forward my cartoons and give me a feedback. Special thanks to people who have give me ideas to make cartoons.

Thats all as of now. I and my cartoons are in very infant stage…just help us grow. Give your feedback, ideas and comments on the cartoons.

12-Feb-2010

Last full year I did not make any cartoon. I will try to be more regular this year. Lets see how much my sayings transform into being.

Apart from this, people have been saying that Samar resembles Calvin a lot so I tried to make some visible differences in Samar. The character will refine with time please bear with me till then

Nitin Srivastava