The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Writing goes Size Zero

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 11, 2010
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Writing goes Size Zero

Deepa Kurup

PHOTO: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL: Vijay Kumar started out trying to fit in as many words as possible into one sentence. Later he taught himself to draw. —

BANGALORE: A hostel warden by profession, Vijay Kumar writes till his eyes water and ache, and his head reels under pain. In his quest to write in an ‘invisible’ fashion, he attempts to fit reams of text into a single line: no less than 450 characters per line of text, or 20 characters per centimetre.

But why would anybody want to do that? What could one possibly achieve by fitting the entire text of the Bhagvad Gita into one colourful page, or the biography of Michael Jackson on his signature jacket drawn on paper? “Ambition,” says Mr. Kumar. He clarifies that he feels compelled to achieve “greatness, of some sort”. A tad apologetic in his tone, he says that he has approached the Chief Minister’s office (who simply redirected him to the Kannada Samskrithi Ilake) for acknowledgement of some sort. “My dream is to make it to the Guinness World Records but I cannot afford the Rs.40,000 deposit it requires,” says Mr. Kumar, who works at the Bangalore Management Academy.

He goes through several rough drafts before the final copy is ready. Sometimes it takes over a month to make one piece. His effort is remarkable as it takes a rather powerful magnifying lens to read what he has written, most of which is legible. His collection is eclectic, to say the least. He walks around with this bulky file full of A4-size sheets showing off his efforts.

That he chose the Bhagvad Gita or attempted to weave the story of Jesus Christ around a neatly drawn image of the ‘son of God’, has little to do with religion or faith, it appears. A few pages into his bulky file of “miniature writing”, one comes across the story of vocalist Gangubai Hangal or the late thespian Dr. Rajkumar.

Packaging matters

Mr. Kumar started out simply trying to fit in as many words as possible into one sentence. Later, he says he realised that packaging mattered. “So I taught myself to draw. I am not an artist but I worked on drawing portraits to add colour to my work. Nobody will read minuscule text written on a plain paper, but if the same is accompanied by a portrait or some design, it captures people’s imagination,” he explains.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka