Book of the week: Buddha by Osamu Tezuka
Buddha is an eight volume long English graphic novel. It is sold in a 12 volumes set in Japanese language. Buddha by Tezuka is read by more than twenty million people around the globe in various languages. Young and old read graphic novels worldwide more and more these days. This style of writing a novel is also called manga by Japanese. Manga, though developed in 19th century, became increasingly popular in 90s.
Graphic novels are different from comics. One can say graphic novels are novels presented in the style of comics. Here, Buddha is a full-length novel in a comic style, but it is called graphic novel. It is also called as Japanese manga. Some graphic novels are drawn in colour, but manga is done in black and white. Eight volumes of Buddha runs to around 3200 pages in black and white. So Buddha falls in the genre of both graphic novel and manga. Buddha is not exclusively either for the children or the elderly. It touches everybody’s heart.
The first volume ‘Kapilavastu’, starts with a chapter brahmin. It says “At the foot of the great Himalayas, the roof of the world whence the Indus River originates, there lived a people known as the aryans some 3500 years ago.” This volume also speaks of Buddha’s birth and the prophecy of Master Asita about the greatness of that little kid when grows up. One by one each volume takes the reader through the Buddha as if they are deep in a dream until one reaches the eighth one, where he walks away from this world. Some exceptional drawings of Osamu Tezuka speaks volumes than his writings.
Osamu (1928 - 1989) is known as the father, and at times god father, of Japanese manga. By training he was physician, but he quit the practicing medicine and turned to manga. He popularised this style of graphic novels all over the world. Some people call him Walt Disney of Japan. One of the most popular creation is Astroboy. He admits and says there is nothing wrong in adopting concepts from different cultures. Receptive culture develops faster, he adds. He has written 700 manga titles and a whopping 150000 pages.
This graphic novel is beautiful both in content and production. The whole set is designed by one of the best book designer of the world, Chip Kidd. Anybody sees this set in a case would struggle not to buy it. Once you have it on your home library you would read it over and again, because it is a visual treat. Harpercollins published this work of Osamu Tezuka. It costs around INR 4000.
Auswaf Ahsan
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SIT formed to probe second sexual assault case against expelled Cong MLA Mamkootathil
Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): A Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been constituted to probe a second case of sexual assault against expelled Congress MLA Rahul Mamkootathil, police officials said on Friday.
The SIT will be led by G Poonguzhali, Assistant Inspector General at the Police Headquarters.
The team also includes a DSP rank officer and sub-inspectors, officials added.
The second sexual assault complaint was received by the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee, which it forwarded to the state police chief.
ALSO READ: Cong expels rape-accused MLA Mamkootathil from party's primary membership
Following this, the Crime Branch registered a case and launched an investigation.
Crime Branch officials said the email complaint contained only the sender's email ID and no other contact details.
As part of the probe, they have sent a reply email requesting that the complainant contact them and provide her statement.
The complainant has alleged that she was sexually assaulted under the false promise of marriage, a Crime Branch official said.
However, details such as the location and date of the alleged incident are not currently available to the police.
The SIT will attempt to trace the sender of the email and record her statement, which is crucial for further investigation, the officer said.
Mamkootathil was expelled from the Congress party on Thursday after a court here rejected his anticipatory bail petition in another rape case.
Police said he is currently absconding, and a manhunt is underway in Kerala and neighbouring states.
