For Anubha Upadhya, Inktober seemed like the best opportunity to create drawings illustrating simple Kannada words to post on social media, and create awareness about her language.
A national solution advisor at an MNC, she uses paper, Pitt pens or sketch pens, and watercolours to create these works. Anubha has participated in the Inktober challenge since 2015.
“Everyone interprets the themes or prompts given by Inktober in their own way. I didn’t want to go with the flow and wanted to add my own elements to make the works useful for someone else,” she says.
Anubha is married to a Maharashtrian who is trying to learn Kannada. “This was the main inspiration behind teaching Kannada words through illustrations. There are many who have moved to Bengaluru and want to learn the language. I thought pictures would be a good way to do it,” she adds. In the past years, she used to draw random sketches and not religiously follow the Inktober prompts, but this year, she is going by the list. “Since I was trying to teach Kannada or even a fun new slang word, these looked like perfect examples to go with.”
She takes a word and looks for its visual associations. She has worked with the words for disgusting (‘asahya’), fish (‘meenu’), wisp (‘hogay’), rodent (‘ili’) and hope (‘bharavase’). Other works use sentences like ‘Hallu muribeka’, a lighthearted jibe that means ‘Shall I break your teeth?’; ‘appana akashavani’, which means father’s radio; and ‘blade hakku’, which means ‘shut up’.
While some works simply pictorialise words, others illustrate an idea. “The wisp illustration is used to highlight the injustices that women are facing in the country,” Anubha says.
This isn’t the first time Anubha has used illustrations to explain words. Having learnt Bharatanatyam for 12 years, she made a series on the ‘navarasas’ in 2018. The nine expressions were illustrated in a dance form.
Although this venture is the first of its kind for Anubha, she has actively been engaging in wordplay on Twitter. “I absolutely adore how amazing Kannada Twitter is. I have made many friends in this community. Even after Inktober, I plan to illustrate Kannada words with examples,” she adds. To glance at the illustrations, search for @Ahbuna on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.