Thursday, December 12, 2013

Satpal Singh Chhabda: Yaar hamara tha woh, kahan gaya use dhundho

Tussi kithe chale gaye, Satpal?

 Really bad and shocking morning, in fact day. I was getting ready to go to hospital where my mother in law is admitted for pacemaker operation of heart in Shelby Hospital (Ahmedabad) and got messages that our beloved friend, cartoonist and artist Satpal singh Chhabda is no more!
Can't believe. So young, energetic, enthusiastic, charming and full of great sense of humour. He was Punjabi but if you talk with him you will believe he is pure Gujarati. I was lucky to work with him for four and half years. He could capture moods very well. Suppose he has to draw Ramdev Baba he will draw his teeth, left eye ... He had drawn Gujarati column artists (such as Chandrakant Baxi, Vinod Bhatt, Taarak Mehta, Suresh Dalal , Jagdish Trivedi) caricatures.
Kahani mein twist column, Kalash Purti, Divya Bhaskar
Apne pe hans ke jag ko hasaya. He drew his own cartoon with Vinay Dave's.
Great columnist and writers of Gujarati print media- Chandrakant Baxi and Taarak Mehta (Taarak Mehta Ka Oolta Chasmah fame writer)
One of the great illustration. No other can imagine and draw like this.

Shock is also deeper  as he was very young and practicing yog.  We used to discuss on yog, pranayam...for hours and hours. We also used to talk on reality shows, television programmes, our common interest, specially about singing reality shows, Saregama, Indian Idol. His Kahani Mein Twist (published in Kalash Supplement of Divya Bhaskar) with writer and lyricist Vinay Dave was very much popular in which he had also showed his and Vinaybhai's cartoon images. I personally liked his creation/illustrations for cover pages of 'Bal Bhaskar' supplement of Divya Bhaskar very much. He could imagine animals, children, forest things so well. We had also partied at his home for farewell of one of our colleagues. If he was working with national/international media, he might have gotten many awards. Really a great loss to media industry.
Pray vahe guru to bless him peace and give courage to his family to pass through this difficult time.
We will miss you, Satpaljee!

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