Calvin & I

In past 2 years Infosys has caused a lot of changes in my world… generally all the changes that come along with change in career…change in location… change in lifestyle… and all other job related stuff…
But there is one more change that was brought in by Infy and that was no way related to my career or job…but related to my favorites….
During training period in Infosys Pune I became a big fan of Calvin & Hobbes cartoon strip. Thanks to the unknown person who took all the pain to prepare a collection then host it on an intranet website; we used to read the strip for fun whenever we had free time.

There is something about this character that I really like. Initially if you read a strip or two, you won’t find it very funny. Rather it seems stupid. Initially it is difficult to understand how a stuffed tiger sometimes speak and play and run and sometimes is just a toy?
But as you go on reading, you began to understand the World of Lord Calvin. You realize the way that small kid thinks. You began to understand his Tiger Buddy and the emotional relation between the two. At one point you understand the way the kid think and you find that you also think in exactly similar manner when you are reading the strip… and after that every strip is a fun.

After this there is no stupidity in any of the strip. Everything seems logical. Especially the way author comments sometimes on the serious aspects of life using this small strip are amazing.

All the scenarios are very much close to our daily life… a typical naughty mischievous kid whose parents work in office… he goes to school… a troubling teacher… friends in school…the sledge… the snowballs… and his imaginary world…

Everyone has his own imaginary world where we like to do the things that we think we can not do in real life. And this kid is no exception to it. The way he gives way to his destructive tendencies is just fantastic. I soon found out that I became a fan of this child’s fantastic ability to drive people crazy… especially his parents... Teachers... Friends and of course his baby sitter…

The themes of fantasies are also nice… Space Man Spiff and The Alien Encounters with Miss Wormwood… his teacher… the transmoglifier …. Calvinosorous …The snow goons… and my favorite Calvin the Tiny Insect.

Since long I was looking for a complete collection of the strip. The strip started in 1985 and was up daily till sometime in 1995. The server in infy did not have the complete collection. So I was looking for the complete collection which I could save and later read easily. Fortunately some days ago I found one and I spent a whole weekend in office just to save those pages on machine. I just spent time opening a hell lot of windows and saving one after the other… I don’t know why but I somehow desperately wanted to collect the whole set.

I sometimes feel it is very much similar to my nature… sometimes mischievous… sometimes serious but all the times logical… the ability to experiment is another thing that I find common…. (Oh God…this is height of misconception about one's own self.)