Bangalore’s Cartoonist Paul Fernandes
By kamla bhatt • May 4th, 2012Category: Bangalore, Books and Authors, Featured, India, People, Video
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Meet Bangalore’s cartoonist Paul Fernandes, who found that he could not stay away from the city even if he wanted to. There is something about this “city of pubs,” “pensioner’s paradise,” “garden city” that keeps him grounded and happy. It is the many moods of that happy, delightful and lazy charm of an old Bangalore that infuses his cartoons and illustrations (video link).
Born and brought up in the cantonment area of Bangalore, Paul is happiest when he is driving around the neighborhood in his familiar bike. These trips let him soak in the old charms of Bangalore and notice those tiny details about life and people, which he then files away carefully in his cupboard of memories. When the time is right he sorts through his cupboard of memories and highlights them in his work. Embedded in his work are Bangalore icons like monkeytop houses, BVR, Koshys, Plaza Cinema, St. Joseph’s (his alma mater), Commercial Street and Taj Westend. Dogs, cars and bikes are a constant and recurring leitmotif in his works.
PG Wodehouse meets Mario Miranda is the thought that flashes through your mind when you look at the series of happy and humorous illustrations in his gallery aPaoulogy. His work is a homage to a “swinging Bangalore” of the 1970s and it captures a city that no longer exists except in the minds and works of old Bangaloreans like Paul.
After working in the advertisement industry for years Paul hung up his hat and is now focussed on running his gallery Apaulogy.
Paul has illustrated a number of books including Peter Colaco’s Bangalore and On A High Note as well as his own Shine Board Arts.
Kamla Bhatt is the host and producer of an Internet Radio show where listeners can find stories about the new and emerging India and the global Indian community. As a pioneer of 'internet radio' format in India Kamla started her first show News about India, followed by TalkNewsIndia in 2005. In 2006 she premiered her new show: The Kamla Bhatt Show: Life, People and Ideas. 
[...] Colaco’s book Bangalore: A Century of Tales From City and Cantonment with illustrations by Paul Fernandes makes for a delightful read, and introduces you to an old, forgotten Bangalore. This books is a [...]
I was just Googling ” did Mario meet Wodehouse” and what should I draw but your phrase on this site ! I have just returned from Goa and have witnessed Mario Miranda’s great art in a museum there. Been fascinated by the intricacy and obvious irrepressible humour embedded in his cartoons, since his Illustrate Weekly days, when I was a kid. And being as good a fan of Wodehouse as can be, I was kind of getting conscious of the fact that Mario had almost the same effect on my funny bone as PGW. Which made me wonder if they had ever met…having shared at least a good 30 years of their work lives as comtemporaries, though on opposite sides of the globe! So glad to stumble upon your website and also to learn of another funny cartoonist called Paul Fernandes. Though still curious to know why the thought ” P G Wodehouse meets Mario Miranda” flashed through your head ? Did Pauls’s imagery and water colours remind you of Ionicus who used to illustrate the covers of PGW books ?
Thanks Venkat for stumbling upon my website and this interview with Paul. You raise a very interesting question. It’s quite likely that Paul may have been influenced by Wodehouse. Must ask him the next time I meet or talk to him.
Now, did that thought flash through my mind? I guess it did for a brief moment when I looked at the various sketches of Bangalore with a great sense of humor…
Have you visited his gallery Apaulogy in Bangalore?
Kamla