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By
Lavina Melwani |
The
smart asses behind the weekly desi cartoon strip.
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By their
own admission, they are a couple of
“smart asses” — so
you are never reeeally sure when they’re
being funny and when they are deadly
serious. They are the Badmash guys,
the creators of perhaps the first Indian
American comic strip on the web, which
turns every crisis and concern of the
South Asian community into funny fodder.
Indians generally don’t like to
laugh at themselves, but the threesome
from California is trying to change
that.
Badmash, of course, means scoundrel
or a naughty child in Hindi, and this
comic strip too stirs things up, poking
sacred cows and taking on just about
every desi peeve from culture shock
to spelling bees and pushy parents to
Bobby Jindal to racism.
On their website, they trumpet the virtues
of Badmash, as if it were yoga or ayurveda:
“Thousands
of years of profound introspection have
led us to the understanding of this
higher plane of existence.” And
they even flash an endorsement from
a Badmash practitioner, Jebediah McCallister:
“Using the techniques you taught
me, in just a few short weeks I feel
more comfortable around brown people
of all ethnicities.”
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Indeed,
Badmash wears the color brown like a badge
of honor. Their comic strip goes into
your inbox if 1. You are a brown person.
2. You are a friend of a brown person.
3. You are an individual who has spoken
to someone who is brown. And that just
about covers the globe!
The three
writers behind the comic strip are all
in their 20’s and were born in California
although their parents trekked to the
United States from different parts of
India. Sanjay Shah’s parents came
from Kachchh in the 60’s for school:
“They met each other at a Dunkin’
Donuts in Poughkeepsie, New York,”
he says. Sandeep Sood says his father
came to study at Stanford and be a hippie.
Nimesh Patel’s parents immigrated
in the 60’s to Texas where his father
did his masters in engineering and later
moved into the franchise business.
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Not surprisingly the offspring of these
immigrants all got roped into higher education.
Sanjay did his undergrad at Berkeley in
economics and also graduate work in public
policy; Sandeep did economics at Berkeley
and Nimesh graduated from Wharton Business
School, and a BS in economics from the University
of Pennsylvania.
So how did these brainy
people get into writing a comic strip?
“I first became interested
in writing simple statements in preschool,”
says Sanjay. “ As my grammar and word
choice improved, writing sentences, paragraphs,
and comic strips began to come naturally.”
Sandeep says, “I
wanted to write a movie script, but that
seemed like it would take a long time. Comics
bring instant gratification.” |
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| Nimesh
started writing verses for rap songs and
poems. Slowly, the whole thing coalesced
and being funny became serious business.
Is the strip strictly for
laughs or do they try to make some kind
of a statement with Badmash? Says Sanjay,
“My parole officer thought it would
be good for me to do this strip. It also
waives my community service requirements.”
Sandeep adds, “It is not strictly
for laughs. People think this stuff is funny?”
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Nimesh,
however, sums it up, “Both definitely
— laughing is healthy. It just feels
like there’s way too much complexity
in life these days, so we hope that Badmash
gives people a 30 second escape from their
daily grind.”
While the
three writers have used several artists
to create the strip, the most constant
has been Kevin Hsieh, who’s Chinese-American.
He says, “I found Badmash through
an online posting and I was very interested
in cartooning. The Asian subject matter
also piqued my interest.”
Asked about his experiences sketching
the lives of brown people, Kevin says,
“It’s hard drawing brown people
or any character that is supposed to be
a specific nationality. You have to balance
between having enough characteristic to
portray the race, but also not so much
that it becomes stereotypical.”
Yes, there
might be a whole barrel of issues facing
the Indian community from racism to culture
shock, but the Badmash gang treats everything
like a big joke.
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Sanjay says their aim is to tell America that
South Asians are not their New Age mascots.
Sandeep adds, “There is a lack of intelligent
humor in South Asian media. Our strip does
nothing to address that. I believe that Nimesh
and Sanjay finding suitable wives is the biggest
issue affecting the South Asian community.” |
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The guys
may fool around all they want, but there
is a method to their madness.
“I think the Badmash strip is a
must, because there’s no current
methodology for us as South Asians to
discuss social/political commentary to
the masses, via an entertaining medium,
based on current events.” says Nimesh.
“ For example it takes such along
time and is such a lengthy process before
a documentary or a feature, a music album
or a book can reach the masses and discuss
topics relevant to our people.”
Where do
they place Badmash — hobby or business?
They say it’s both since they have
been contacted to do contract animation
work and political propaganda pieces and
are also syndicated to several ethnic
magazines. They have also started a parent
company called Mahoot Media (www.mahootmedia.com)
to do films and ads.
Making money may be a fine thing, but
the foursome want to continue sending
the comic strip out free to people on
a weekly basis, to be forwarded on and
live forever in cyberspace, making people
laugh wherever it ends up.
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Is this a fulltime venture
or do all of these smart alecks have day
jobs? Says Sanjay, “I have a few other
jobs in addition to Badmash. I don’t
rest much. I figure there will be plenty
of time for sleep when I die.”
Sandeep, however, says,
“This is a half-time venture. The
other half of the time is spent procuring
rent money.” Nimesh adds, “We
all have other things we’re doing,
but none of us are doing a traditional 9-5.
Badmash is a constant part of our daily
routine.” Any backlash or protests
from the Indian-American community about
their sometimes outrageous strips? Says
Sanjay, “Only from Bobby Jindal’s
baby’s mama!”
Nimesh adds, “After
the Jindal strip, one Jindal supporter said,
‘I used to enjoy and read you guys
every week but after this strip, I have
unsubscribed myself from your list.’
Fortunately, he was the only one. Everyone
else emailed or called to thank us for saying
what was on their minds. Still, we’ve
learned through other strips that you can’t
please everyon,e because someone’s
always determined to be offended.”
What satisfaction do they get from creating
the strip? Sandeep has just one word to
describe the satisfaction: “Sexual.”
Nimesh says, “The creation of a brand
is something that I find particularly interesting,
especially given that this ‘brand’
embodies each of our personalities.”
And Sanjay probably defines the feelings
of all second generationers when he says,
“I’m just relieved that I’m
not instead wearing a white coat pushing
pills onto people!” |
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