A Beautiful Mind

It’s been almost a week since I last blogged.. Many batchmates have been asking me the reasons for this blogging-hiatus.. I’ve just been too busy this week, being engaged in the most creative endeavor of my life.... I have written previously that this year, “Prerana” enters uncharted territories.. Today, I can unveil 2 things that have been my obsession for the last 2 months- “MastishK” and “ARBIT Choudhury”

“MastishK” is the online management games extravaganza which takes place as a prelude to “Prerana” this year.. I need not elaborate on that further, as there’s a separate blog dedicated to MastishK-and the minds behind it.. All I would say is that it is a dream that many of us have been living all this while.. A dream that is just about to become reality....

I’ve have been part of the MastishK think-tank since the very beginning, when Nikhil initially came up with the idea on Online Games... And been privy to the evolution of “MastishK” from the outset.. My role has been that of a “Creative Consultant”.. generating, refining and transforming ideas.... I have tried to provide whatever little creative inputs that I could from time to time....

My full scale involvement began about a month back, when Hemant came to me with the idea of launching the 1st ever B-school comic strip during “MastishK”.. I was hooked immediately.. Being rather infamous in the batch for being a pungent punster, this was a chance for me to channelize my talent towards more productive pursuits....Tthe 1st and foremost task was to conceptualize the lead character for the comic.... As we are targeting the B-school community, I decided that the lead character wud be a B-school student, and the strip will deal with daily goings-on in a typical B-school.. This done, I embarked on the toughest part.. i.e. generating ideas.. It took me almost a month to cook up ideas good enough to be incorporated in the comic.. For days, I did nothing but think, think, and think.. At times, waking up in the middle of the night to discuss my latest brainwave with Hemant and Nikhil.. Finally, a host of ideas for the various editions of the strip were ready....

The next task- locating a cartoonist to draw the sketches.. We approached batchmates, juniors, professionals, but to no avail.. We could not find anyone who could deliver the desired quality within the given time limit and under the resource constraints we were under.. Then one day, I said to hemant, “Let me do it.”.... This was a huge decision for.. Sketching has always been my hobby, and I had done lots of cartooning in my school days.. I simply loved sketching figures form Tintin comics.. Ihad even made some cartoon strips of my own.. but I had never attempted anything remotely of this scale.. I just had to deliver.. I simply could not take a chance of coming up with a sub-standard product, because my own neck was on the line.. But then, when you’ve fallen into the sea, you have no option but to try and swim....

for the last 5 days, my room has been transformed into an artist’s studio.. with me cartooning away all day.. the drafts came out better than i expected.. all those who have seen them have appreciated my work.. after the drawing part was over, we scanned the cartoons and colored them in photoshop..

Just when everything was finally falling in place, the biggest dilemma surfaced.. You guessed it, it was about the title of the strip.. We had initially thought of the title as “A Random Choudhury”, with the lead character representing a random b-school student.. When some people expressed concern that the title appears to be a spoof of Arindam Choudhary, I had some serious rethinking to do.. The fictional character bears no resemblance in any way with the real person.. But I decided that it wud be better to change the title rather than risk the generation of negative vibes.. So I came up with another title- “ARBIT Choudhury”.. by this time, Hemant was hooked to the earlier name and was very reluctant to change.. After much debate, in typical MBA fashion, we decided to ask some sample customers what they want, asking our batch as to which title appeals to them more.... After a poll, “ARBIT Choudhury” won hands down…

So, tomorrow, on the 5th of September 2004.. “ARBIT Choudhury”- the 1st ever B-school comic strip hits the world.. in the Informalzz section of “MastishK"...

meanwhile, here is a sneak preview--

for more, goto http://mastishk.nitie.net/