Graphic Reflections

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.

How time seems to fly when we have no time at our hand and drag when we have plenty of time! One wonders if this relative speed of time has got something to do with how much need we have (or don’t have) to look at time

For sometime now, during my day-to-day conversations, I have been taking note of things some people (myself included) hate. This graphic celebrates all that hatred.

Come October and a great many indistinct trees in the plains of India seem to start speaking! Warblers arrive from the hills and countries up north and set trees abuzz with their constant, muffled calls. One of the most common warblers to visit the plains of India in winters is the Lesser Whitethroat Sylvia curruca, the call of which has been portrayed in this animated graphic. Lesser Whitethroats continuously move and hop around the trees they visit and while at it, utter their call incessantly.

This graphic attempts to highlight the contrast between driving skills and driving ethics amongst a huge number of drivers in India. Learning to drive in India essentially means learning to drive or handle a vehicle, driving schools teach little or no ethics here and the stringent tests people have to undergo in western countries to get their driving license are almost nonexistent in India. The Indian Government, over the past several years, has made several policies and decisions to introduce a vast variety and number of vehicles on Indian roads, but did not bother to set up quality driving institutes or stringent education systems for drivers. The chaos that has resulted from lack of driving ethics is vividly visible on Indian roads.

One wonders if we ever realise that every Indian currency note and coin contains an image of the father of our nation. When we use, abuse or spend money incessantly or engage in corruption, do we remember the values Mahatma Gandhi stood for?

This graphic attempts to plot ‘highways’ used by two animals: Squirrel (yellow) and Cat (orange) and one bird: Dove (blue), as observed from a terrace in Jaipur, India. So busy and lively these animals and birds keep our surroundings, isn’t that awesome?

This typographical graphic seeks to portray the irony of water, the clear liquid that is essential for sustenance of all known forms of life, that constitutes 60% weight of the human body and covers approximately 71% area of our planet. Availability of water as we know it or fresh water, seems to be getting scarce by the day for myriad reasons!

This graphic attempts to illustrate what can potentially be done with one (A4) sheet of paper. For most uses mentioned here, the available real estate is double (the other side as well).

One significant difference between developed and developing countries lies in the importance they give to garbage (or municipal solid waste) management. Most developed countries have strict rules and procedures in place regarding garbage disposal and violators are fined heavily. Proper management of waste is a strong indicator of a responsible and developed society. To become a developed country in that sense, India has a long way to go! Today, in India, there is an urgent need of strict garbage disposal and waste management rules, procedures and related education. (Bottom right photograph: garbage collection in Sweden. Photographer: Niklas Johnsson, curtesy Stock Xchng. Top left photograph: a garbage collection bin outside a South Delhi neighbourhood.)