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Preeti Yadav's avatar

With this above write up - You touched a string in my heart that aroused childhood memories. What a refreshing topic - with your words I could almost visualise your DNA tree - it would have been as pretty as the drawing of the fairy. I am super happy that all 3 kids have a love for comics. :)

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Nidhi's avatar

Comics the one way we stay in our "childhoods" - life is too serious anyway!

Thank you for your support. Appreciate it.

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Arpana Sant Singh's avatar

Very beautiful. Even i remember the love we had for comics but the fact that you preserved the memories and expressed it so beautifully is so great. Really an interesting read!

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Nidhi's avatar

Thank you so much. Memories are like our DNA, invisible but make up our identities. I am happy that this brought back some memories for you too.

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Amita prasad's avatar

Really impressed Nidhi on how you ve woven your facts with information.These comics were source of joy and subtle messages too.Your diaries are intersting.

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Nidhi's avatar

Thank you for your encouragement. Very nice of you. 🙏🏼🙂

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Neerja Rajkumar's avatar

Extremely well written; lucid, nostalgic and full of depth. Nidhi started to draw even before she could write her first alphabet, which was very early. The first drawing was a puppy running with ears flapping. Somehow a single drawing managed to convey puppy, movement and joy. Love your writing, your illustrations and your drawings. May your creativity continues to flow like this and may you delight all of us with many many more works in future. BTW, you got married only a decade and a half. So, probably decades is not accurate. Love you.

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Nidhi's avatar

Thank you mama, for your comments and for doggie memory. Dogs and horses were my favorite subjects for years, decades.

Speaking of decades, many of the comics we have are comics we have saved from as far back as our early teens. In some instances, as adults we bought copies of titles that we read as children, some of my ACK comics are a case in point. That is why decades would be truthful. Thank you for pointing that out, in case any of my other readers were wondering.

Love you too, ma.

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PB's avatar

I love this - just really enjoyed reading about the influence of comics on your art! I think Bill Waterson has an incredible impact on the millennial generation - like Goscinny/uderzo did on an older generation. I would extend the influence to shows like Looney Tunes as well - growing up I only read the comic book version of Bugs bunny - and upon landing in the US and seeing the show was for me the most magical thing about US! SpongeBob is right up there as well for me. I wish you great joy in reading the comics with the kids. BTW, the kids used to adore the aspect of India where they got to sit in a beautiful bookstore and devour Asterix comics, while I walked around gathering books in my shopping basket like groceries ...

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Nidhi's avatar

Oh! Yes! Book stores! The first store in India that encouraged reading books in-store (when I was in India) was a bookstore called Full-Circle, in Khan Market. As a student the purse-strings were tight, too tight for Khan Market, but a coffee in Full-Circle was an occasional treat. I recently read that they had to pull down the shutters after 20 years because of the pandemic. Sad!

And Looney Tunes!! My favorite is Daffy Duck. Daffy Duck as Daffy Duck, as Duck Dodgers (of the 24th and 1/2 century), and my all-time favorite, Daffy Duck as Robin Hood/Friar Duck (also starring Porky Pig as Friar Tuck)!! There are so many to name and I had to really pick and choose.

Thank you for your comments :)

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Nidhi's avatar

A correction: Full-Circle was the first bookstore that I came across that encouraged in-store reading. I doubt if it was the first ever.

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PB's avatar

My shoutout to Odyssey and to Hingginbothams in Chennai - they had sofas and chairs - in my brain that means in-store reading is a-ok!

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