Graphic Reflections

This graphic attempts to illustrate the life cycle of a littered PET bottle, as inspired by the shape of the bottle itself. With a substantial time spent in production, shipping and shelf display, its usage time is usually the shortest, often just a few minutes and if not disposed properly (like this one which I found in the midst of vegetation at Central Park, Jaipur), it can lie for months, sometimes years and decades, as nothing but waste…

Above is a random set of phrases that I found myself and some people uttering. Nitpicking (looking for small or unimportant faults in others, especially in order to criticize unnecessarily), seems to be a widespread human trait at the base of which, perhaps, lie the delusions of self being superior to other/s and of the world being a perfect place. How much time, energy and very often anger we waste (and sometimes spoil our relationships) over trivial matters is amazing, to say the least.

A book, gift-wrapped using Classifieds (one of the most colourful) section of a newspaper, stuck on which is the back side of a restaurant bill, acting as the name tag

While walking through the Jaipur walled city one evening, I came across a very small, dimly lit, one-man shop that specialised in repairing sewing machines. Some of the machines with him were very old, pieces of antiques in their own right. A walk through the old part of most big cities in India should reveal small repair shops / repair men who would fix anything from old blenders to radios to the oldest model of scooters. The not-so-well-to-do, the poor and many others in India do not (or can not) embrace the ‘throwaway’ or ‘upgrade’ culture.

As Indian cities go through a supermarket revolution, chances of you frequently coming home with cash register bills would be high The back side of most such bills is plain and makes for great reminder/handy notes.

Look closely at any city street drain in India and chances are you will see litter in it. Drains in India—meant to channelise rain water and some even to divert rainwater to rainwater harvesting pits—end up becoming extended litter bins some of which are not cleaned for months. People find it very convenient to toss waste in drains and many sweepers find it easier dump collected waste in the closest drain than to carry it to the nearest municipal waste bin. Flooding of streets in India after heavy rains is often attributed to drains clogged with litter and many clogged drains end up becoming puddles where mosquitoes breed. Street drains in India (well, look at it positively or negatively), seem to perform at least one more role than they were meant to!

These photographs were taken a couple of years ago in the city of Jaipur (Rajasthan) India. The one on left shows a wall from the historic walled city (also known as the Pink City). The one on the right shows a conglomerate rock located inside a city park. One major difference between these two is that the wall is less than 300 years old whereas the rock is estimated to be about 1600 million years old (yes!). Many (man-made) walls and structures in the Jaipur walled city are in a state of decay, some have crumbled, yet the rocks in the nearby Aravalli hills look as good as new! Isn’t nature’s ability to ‘maintain’ itself amazing?

This photograph of cows on a heap of garbage was taken at a busy street in Old Delhi, in March 2008. A sight like this, not uncommon in any city in India, could act as a reminder that India needs to address its problem of waste urgently. It shows that organic and inorganic waste is not segregated in India, that waste often lies like this at dumps for days creating serious health risks for those living nearby and more importantly, that the problem of waste disposal in India is largely ignored. One can’t even begin to count the number of big and small polybags and pieces of plastic this heap would contain and how many of them the cows would ingest! One could go on and on about the ills of such a sight…

This graphic shows the area in which a kitten born in our house lived for a couple of months, before consuming a dead rat and dying. In her brief life, this was her ‘world’, the only world she saw or knew.

This is one of my earliest graphics, created way back in year 2000. While I’m not sure if I completely agree with it, thought I’d put it up nevertheless because the design treatment is interesting This graphic is about some “must have’s” to climb up in society!!!