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Young World
Discover the answer, the Dogra way
P. ANIMA
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What started out as a hobby happily became the means of his livelihood.
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He leads children to a world of discovery and wonder with his tiny dots and mazes. For the past 32 years, Jalandhar-based artist Dharam Paul Dogra, has been entertaining children with his works that take up a small space in various newspapers. Dogra is the creator of puzzles and mazes that lead the young enthusiasts to different treasures. He allows children to discover their favourite animal hiding behind a maze or teases them to spot the difference between five similar l
ooking Santas. With over a crore of such sketches behind him, Dogra claims to be drawing for over a 100 newspapers all over the country. Children in Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Punjab and many other States are familiar with these mind-teasers that Dogra creates.
On his own
“As a child, I was inspired by the cartoons I saw in various papers,” The newspaper strips inspired him to make cartoons on his own.
Apart from puzzles like “find the way out”, “join the dots”, and “spot the different one”, Dogra also through his strips teaches children how to draw. “I started teaching children to draw after one of my subscribers in Varanasi suggested I do it,” says Dogra. So be it a boy, a horse or a parrot, he teaches children in a few steps how to draw the perfect picture. What starts a simple line or a curve develops with each step towards a complete picture, in the meantime making drawing simple for kids.
With about four to five sketches or puzzles appearing in each newspaper every month, Dogra sure has his task cut out. “Once I start, I finish at least a 100 sketches at one go,” says the veteran. It may intimidate a novice, but Dogra enjoys such challenge.
“There are always a lot of ideas running in my head. I am always thinking of what to draw next, whether it should be a rabbit or a kangaroo,” says Dogra.
Apart from small puzzles and mazes for children, Dogra has other passions too. He is interested in calendar work as well as making sketches of freedom fighters and gods and goddesses.
For Dogra, what started as a pastime when he was a child is today his livelihood.
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