Manjula Padmanabhan:In her own words and images

The pictures I show here are from different stages of my life, starting with the very first drawing of mine that appeared in print, when I was 17 and on through the years till my most recent published book, with Tulika, called SAME & DIFFERENT.

This is just one of many cartoons I created for a small community-based magazine I worked for when I was still in college, doing an MA in History. The magazine was called PARSIANA and was aimed at the Parsi community. The little old man cartoon appeared alongside short articles about all kinds of different subjects – in this case, about Parsi-style gifts.

This is the cover of a book about the Emperor Akbar and his quick-witted minister, Birbal. I didn't write the book, but I filled its pages with LOTS of pictures, all in colour. Sadly, it did not remain in print for very long so it's no longer available.

This is also from the same book

This is the cover of a picture book I drew for the National Book Trust. It's a "text-less“ book, which means there are ONLY pictures, and it shows two children going to the market with their mother.

This is the cover of a Penguin India collection of cartoons from my comic strip DOUBLETALK. The strip appeared in a newspaper called The Sunday Observer, from 1982 to 1986.

This last picture is from the book I wrote and drew for

Tulika last year, WHERE'S THAT CAT?