Lecturer shares memories of Ipoh through his drawings


Written on January 30, 2012 – 9:15 am | by hemroids

GROWING up in the simple town of Beruas and Ipoh during his childhood years, 47-year-old law lecturer N. Kumar has fond memories of a simple life playing sports and having many adventures with his friends.

This helped mould his character, and while he later moved to Kuala Lumpur to pursue his law degree and eventually stayed on to start a family, these memories remain with him to this day.

As he continues to reminisce on these memories, Kumar decided to share them with fellow Malaysians through his creative caricatures in a book he has named Ipoh Mali.

The idea came to him during a random drawing session in 2010, when he showed his family a caricature of his younger self resisting the barber who was trying to cut his hair.

“When I showed this drawing to them, they laughed and were very interested in it. I started producing more drawings until I finally decided to publish a book,” he told TheStar.

However, finding the time to draw the pages for the book proved difficult as he tried to juggle lecturing and running his consultancy firm in the day, and drawing at night.

“Looking at my schedule, I decided to set a comfortable pace. I took a longer time, sometimes even two nights, to complete the drawings for a single page,” he said.

After a year, Kumar’s labour of love was finally completed and the 118-page book was published in February last year, much to the delight of his family and friends.

“My children loved it as they could relate to the stories. It has become a conversational topic that we share.

“Some of my aunts have pointed to the book at bookstores and proudly exclaimed that the author is their nephew,” he said with a smile.

Flipping through the pages, readers can easily identify with the theme of growing up in small towns like Ipoh, while sports lovers will be able to relate to times when just an old coconut was a football. Kumar’s drawing will also bring readers back in time when food sellers hawked their wares from house to house on bicycles and motorcycles.

Adventures are also a highlight of the book, with Kumar and his friends hitchhiking to Cameron Highlands, sleeping in a flooded tent on Pangkor Island and cycling to Taiping.

“Those were the days when life was simpler, but more exciting. There was not a moment wasted in a single day,” he said.

In his effort to portray his growing up years in the 1980s as accurately as possible, Kumar made numerous trips back to Ipoh and even took photographs of shops and other landmarks such as the Ipoh Railway Station.

“I spent hours drawing out the details to allow my readers to identify and connect with these icons and to bring out their own wonderful memories,” he said. Looking at the drawings, one cannot be blamed for comparing Kumar’s drawings to that of famous cartoonist Datuk Mohammad Nor Khalid or Lat.

“Of course, Lat’s drawings are of higher standard and have a certain depth to them, mostly focusing on kampung life and kampung scenes. Ipoh Mali is directed towards a non-Malay and urban perspective. However, I aspire to achieve that level of quality and Lat’s work continues to inspire me,” Kumar said, adding that he hopes to inject more humour into his future drawings.

Kumar is currently working on his second book on stories from ancient sages around the world.

“The book is due out in March, after which I will start on my drawings for Ipoh Mali 2.

“Due to popular requests, I have decided to draw a sequel to Ipoh Mali and hope readers will be able to reminisce about their own adventures and simpler times when reading it,” he said.

Related articles on WeblogPlaza

Tags:



Post a Comment

CAPTCHA Image
*