“I did my schooling in Shivamogga and engineering from Bagalakote. Just like any other engineer, I started working in an IT company, mostly in the Telecom field. I relocated from Shivamogga to Bangalore and from Bangalore to Boston, I was there for 8 years there. I was always scribbling on the side but it was never serious. In 2018, I had to let go of my job though I had offers from other organizations, I decided to come back and start doodling seriously and decided to give myself a year for this.”

“Doodling started out with a need for space for my creative expression. It was loyally on the sides throughout. I even tried both Graphic Designing and Cartooning; one to limiting & the other too seriously. But for me, doodling was a happy medium. It felt great to dabble with different ideas and even better when they churned out quickly.”

Why political doodling?

“My involvement in the IAC movement opened my world view on politics. I was then exposed to politics more than ever. And I knew if I had to spend time on art, it had been purposeful. Along with my creativity and sense of humor with respect to politics, this was the way to go for me. I haven’t had any backlash in terms of threats but there’s always an inflow of trolls, though they somehow motivate me every time they do it (Haha). I sure try to be as sensitive as possible while maintaining a humorous streak.”

The change

“I was warming up my wife and kept on telling her that I want to settle down in Bangalore. More than anyone, it is her that I should convince the most. We never knew when it was gonna happen but when my job got affected, we were happy. Probably the first couple to be happy. But yeah, on a serious note I told my wife that I will not be earning the way I was, we will be economical and quite content. She was supportive of it.”

“I remember an illustration from this book called ‘Electronics made simple’. An illustration of how a transistor works in layman’s terms. I wondered, if a hard subject like Electronics was taught in illustrations like this, we all could have become better engineers. That book sort of opened me up in a lot of ways. I am Aravinda Tegginamath.”