Gotham

Loved your post thank you for sharing beautiful
post.

Normally I believe when one sells the vision
one receives abundantly in a whole different
way... loved your blog

thanks
Ashie

hi ! Gotham . there are many of us who believe that India will rise to its potential in the coming times and everynow and then we dought that belief. no particular reason .. but still a dought lingers. Yes . agree that India / Indians lacks self confidence and that is about to change very gradually , but surely. Only hope it does not lose its humility while to shifts focus.

Also would it be possible to get a larger image of Buddha . thanks

Is it weird of me, as a non-indian (this time around, anyway), to also get really excited over that (and other similar things i hear)? Nice post, G. Glad to hear that you & Shekur (the artist formerly known as an Intentblogger (too busy for us.. i see how it is [sad face])) spreadin the message.

Thats a beautiful picture.. wish it wasn't so small. Thats just my kinda style, too. I will definately be checking out that book next year ^_^

Gautham, great inspiring reflections. It really is a tragedy; when there is so many gifted artists... largely ignored or un-noticed...that could very well excel the world of design into a new uncharted territory.

Gautham... you may very well be a leading source of inspiration....for them.

North

Hmmm, I can see me working on that Buddha cover....

Yes, everything is So beautiful!

Gotham,

I am sure all those artists in the sweatshop will come and work for you! India Land could work, you just need lots of belly dancers, that would be unique, and of course bigger roller coasters.

You know I had this thought the other day, I don't know any roller coasters the speed down under the ocean surface and back up again.

I don't completely agree with you.

Yes, it's great that India will become a source for innovation. It will happen.

However, what you fail to realize is that the step you so mock is what was needed to get them there. Without BPOs and doing the "necessary", "mundane" work, there is no way that India would have even been noticed.

Case in point - technology. The IT BPO space took off with something as mundane as the Y2K issue. That provided the way for them to prove their worth. Then, slowly, they were given more responsibility and more and now Google and others have R&D centers in India where people innovate for global consumption.

So, please, laugh all you want at the big studio. I applaud them for paving *your* way. For providing *you* the ability to laugh at them. If they hadn't existed, you would not have been able to do what you are now doing.

Also, remember, those 450 people coloring in basic stuff, they are paying their bills and living their lives. Probably at a higher standard than they would have without that job.

So, yes, I agree that things will change and I completely agree that India and Indians will be a source for mind-blowing innovation and creativity. But you can't go from 0 to 100 without passing 60.

Hi Gotham...if you do as well as you write, you have no worries!!!
It will come to "be" as you see it.

Power to you and the rest,

Cinda

Indians who come to America thrive as creative entrapreneurs, just take a look at Silicon Valley.

Bangalore is a great success story, clearly India can and does compete on the world's stage.

I think your business is tricky there, however, Bollywood is doing very well, perhaps you are at the tipping point.

My suggestion is to spend as much time in India as possible, it's needs your infectious spirit.

Steve

One more thing,

Does India have the equivalant of an Arts Center of Pasadena or Cal Arts College?

If not, perhaps you can try to arrange with the local arts colleges in LA to form a satelite branch in Mumbai or Delhi. I know that Ivy League colleges have something like this in India, if there are only technical colleges there, it's going to be tough to sell to not only students but families, as you know many times the children don't have a choice where they go for education, so we are looking at some very fundamental issues there.

If Arts Center backed by say Virgin gains some traction in India, then you will start feeding the education pipeline.

I don't know if students go to school to study film and acting then on to Bollywood, if so then this could be attached to the film industry.

Steve

Gotham,
This is all very exciting. Go India!
Best of luck,
Donatella

To be rocketing toward the type of gaudy, profit based, lie-glossed consumerism that is at the core of DisneyMicrosoftAmerica's commercial success is nothing to be hopeful about, only saddened. And it saddens me that everyone is reaching for the same diseased stalk and calling it growth.

Sorry, but I don't see this as simply a struggle between India and the Occident in terms of expressive autonomy.

You need only visit Kansas City, MO, the heartland of America, and witness artists who work for Hallmark doing the same thing, experiencing the same struggles for autonomy you're describing in faraway India.

I see it more as a struggle between consumeristic art versus art of the soul...no different than marxist art versus the art of the soul. One elevates the consumer, the other, the worker.

And both lag and lie.

The problem is that either sort of art lack the spiritual heft of honest introspection or cultural velocity that results from risk-taking.

Either are socially narcisistic expressions and turn a little bullshit into a lot of horseshit.

An aside:
(Some believe in two evils. The evil of uniformity and the mutually exclusive evil of destructive uniqueness. And while they are antagonistic to one another, occasionally they meet and pacts are made. And the Christ energy, the tension between these two evils is the dynamo of creativity. THis, irrespective of nation or color or creed, or in whose shop it's happening).

Like my grandmother said, "the world's filled with either clowns or boyscouts."

That was pretty insightful. But where she fell a little short is in her belief that everyone should be a boyscout.

Here's what I'm talking about:

http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=2342667&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

Gotham,
Interesting observations about "crisis of confidence" among us: I wouldn't paint it into black and white, but there is a whole "sentiment" spectrum from vibrant optimism to despondency. In metros like Delhi and Bombay, you do feel this buzz and "on the threshold" zest, but the tier 2 cities and rural india is in a entirely different age. This we have to fix and I think government is doing its bit to enable this.

Sample this: India adds 5 million phone lines/connections every month! We have doubled the teledensity in last five years (to a poor 23% though!). The brick and mortal industries are growing at close to 9.5%, india's GDP is growing at 8+%. All economic indices point to a phenomenal change, but we are not carrying everyone with us. 400 million people still subsist under $5 a day. Our infrastructure sucks! 400 miles of road (to Alaska) took americans less than 8 months to make, a stretch of about 30Kms in gurgaon (a Delhi suburb)is been under construction for last 4 years! Well, we are like that only!

O! BTW as I write this, we are writing standards for next generation Broadband telecom system (WiMax)at Arlington Heights-Chicago. Intel, Motorola, Siemens or you-name-it, it has top notch engineers originally from India (but shifted to 1st world). I am the only one from India staying in India! Loving the chaos and if you forgive me some vanity, thriving on it!

regards
-Rakesh Mawa
p.s: Comicon was great. 100,000 people all over the harbour area, seaport village was fun.

Well India specially Delhi has developed drastically.I totalled my car in an accident 3 weeks back.I told my great grand aunt that i'm having hard time getting to work blah blah had to buy a car soon....She is surprised and quizzes me...

Are there no buses?
No

Don't you guys have Metro(Subway)?
No..

My grand aunt asks me "are you sure you live in America!!!"She was like... our delhi is better... atleast people don't have any trouble in getting to work!!!!

Hello Gotham and Everyone,

you write, "India is changing right before our eyes. The world is changing"... you make it sound very exciting, but I have to say it sounds kind of scary too, maybe because as an American I feel our Nation is loosing it's edge, in every way, as would be expected with up and coming Nations finding their own strengths and voices. I have no doubt India will prosper.

About the comics, checked out the site and it looks great, but I am really not a comic person, just, have never been into comics, sorry. I am sure comic lovers will enjoy them.peace ruth

Thank you Gotham for a great post. It is Very interesting, so wonderful to read about. I am glad you are taking so much pride in it. Go Gotham!!!

Andaleeb,,resonated with our post #19..no bus's here either in town!

Gautham, I grew up on comic books. I feel, it in large part, cultivated growth towards books....in that, I developed the love for artistic crafts...inner visions and more than anything...comics was the seed which planted my imagination as a child...

comic-on!!

North

"trying to work with some art institutions to facilitate a training program that enables both sides of the planet."

Art education in India, as far as animation is concerned, still seems to focus on a need for a "Disney" style of animation , ie where good drawing skills / draftsmanship are not a necessity, just the ability to copy a style...

I'd argue that life drawing skills and observation are at the heart of any good drawing, especially if it's "realistic" in style - once you've developed these then you can go on and invent / innovate...

Dear North...it would be nice if you could work on this project also. You have such a creative flow to your artistic expressions.
The picture posted above, for some odd reason, does not strike me as inspiring...that's just my view. I'm sure it may appeal to millions.

Cinda

Hi Cinda, that was very sweet of you to say... look forward to seeing Deepak's completed pictorial....

North

Hi Gotham,

Ive been following every little detail of Virgin Comics since I first heard about it, and zealously promoting it on tons of popular forums and stuff. I gotta say, the very reason I am following it like this is because I share the same idealistic vision - (although I believe the outsourcing you lamented is a neccecary step in between). For years I waited - who would produce the first Indain martial arts movie? Who would produce the first Indian anime? Who would produce Indian sci-fi and fantasy? Your company, as well as a few startup games developers and stuff, are finally doing what ive been waiting for. India will soon be in the catagory of cultural superpower, just like the USA, EU or Japan.

@Andaleeb - you shouldnt fear - the rise of other cultures dosent remove the power of others, it mearly adds more diversity. However, one thing that can remove cultural power, is isolationism - when a culture becomes conservative, that it when it faulters - because the world has always been globalised, and those countries that transmitted and adopted trade and ideas freely were the sucessfull ones - as India and China once were.

@Richard Thomas - I agree competely - that step is a neccecaity, and isnt something to be ashamed about - there were sweat shops in every great economy today at some point, whether it was the industrial revolution in Britian or more recently, Taiwan and Japan.

Including north america.. we still do "it" but, just better at hiding the facts. Immigrants know.