A Pixar Animator Rediscovers His Hindu Roots

[Guest guest]

(January 15, 2007): Krishna's childhood nickname was "Butter Thief."

Shiva likes to get away from it all every now and then. Ganesha has

a sweet tooth, so be sure to share your candy with him. And whatever

you do, don't get Kali agitated.

 

These and many other fun facts can be found in Sanjay Patel's "The

Little Book of Hindu Deities" (144 pages, Plume, October 2006):

 

http://www.amazon.com/Little-Book-Hindu-Deities-

Goddess/dp/0452287758/

 

OR http://tinyurl.com/22dyq4

 

The book is a collection of humorous but reverent biographical

profiles of 50 divinities, each paired with Patel's illustration of

the god or goddess in question. Patel, an artist at Pixar Animation

Studios, renders the divine beings in a brilliantly colored, modern

anime style that works surprisingly well to capture the personality

of deities that have been around for millennia.

 

Patel, 32, whose work has appeared in "Monsters, Inc.,A Bug's

Life,Toy Story 2" and "The Incredibles" and on Fox's "The

Simpsons," was raised by devoutly Hindu parents who immigrated to

Southern California in 1980. At the moment, he's more apt to find

the divine in art than in any religious tradition, but he hasn't

ruled out the idea that he may become a Hindu again someday.

 

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Q: What would you say was the best part about growing up Hindu in

America?

 

A: Honestly, I can't think of anything that was good about growing

up Hindu in America. I found it really to be a burden, actually.

 

Q: How so?

 

A: I was forced to practice Hinduism because I was living in my

parents' house, but I was just going through the motions. It felt

like doing chores to me, all the fasting and rituals. My parents

really didn't explain why we were doing these things or what they

were for.

 

Q: Were there many Indians living in the part of San Bernadino where

you grew up?

 

A: Yes. My parents owned a motel right on a stretch of highway they

call "motel alley," along what used to be Route 66. There were about

20 motels that were all owned by Gujarati families. So we definitely

weren't the only ones from India. But we were sort of alienated from

the other Indian families -- mainly because my mother was

schizophrenic. She was diagnosed before I was born, and because of

that, it cut us off in a lot of ways.

 

Q: Why were you cut off?

 

A: In the Indian community there are a lot of functions that the

women sort of foster and shepherd along, like going to temple and

attending these big Indian festivals like Diwali and whatnot. And

sometimes my father would go, but usually he was too busy managing

the motel, which required a full-time presence.

 

Q: At what point did you pull away from Hinduism altogether?

 

A: My older brother put his foot down because my father would force

us to pray -- my brother just got fed up with it. He and my father

fought, and eventually he was able to cut the cord. After that, we

could both do what we wanted to do. Ironically, I started going to a

Christian church when I was in middle school because I had some

friends who went there. It was more of a social than a religious

thing -- I think I just wanted to get away from the motel.

 

Q: Why did you decide to do a book about Hindu gods?

 

A: I was always fascinated by mythology and legend. Then I read a

story about Ganesha, the elephant-headed god and how he came into

being, and it really captivated my imagination.

 

Q: You had never heard the story before?

 

A: I had no familiarity with Ganesha except these little pictures

that I would stare at while we prayed. It would be like seeing Jesus

on the cross and having no idea about the story behind it.

 

Q: Do you have a specific Hindu god or goddess that you are

particularly fond of?

 

A: I like Vishnu a lot. He reincarnated himself 10 times in the form

of various avatars, or reborn gods, in order to right injustices in

the world. I think it's fascinating how somebody can recreate

himself to fix a problem. Vishnu sleeps on a bed of snakes, and the

snakes are represented as the infinity of time and the amorphous

nature of life. All of these things just boggle my mind. It really

fires my imagination.

 

Q: Hindu families often have a special god or goddess that they

favor. Did your family?

 

A: Durga, the mother goddess. My dad really worshiped her, and I was

fascinated because at the time I was into "He-man" comics. He-man is

this barbarian that rides a green tiger, and if you look at Durga,

she is this princess Indian woman who has many arms and they're

holding all of these buckets, and she rides on a tiger, too. I was

always struck with that similarity. So I really like her, too.

Actually, she is one of my favorites.

 

Q: How has writing this book changed your view of Hinduism?

 

A: I had a lot of animosity toward Hinduism because I was forced to

practice the religion without really understanding what it was or

why I was doing it. Now I can see it as a very beautiful mythology,

and I think it's really captivating, really stimulating, actually.

 

There are many concepts that are so interesting to me, like the idea

of reincarnation and karma. I like the fact that, depending on what

you sow in this life, you might pay for it in the next life. I like

this idea that the goal is to get out of the cycle of birth and

rebirth and move to something higher, something more noble.

 

Q: Do you see yourself a spiritual person?

 

A: I'm not sure, really. I guess I'm still figuring out what that

word means. I do see myself as a person who is devoted, devoted to

my art, but I don't know if that's spiritual or not. One thing I do

believe is that anything should be said and can be said. I see human

expression as sacrosanct. I believe people should have the freedom

to say and do whatever they want.

 

Q: Many people who don't to a particular religion still

feel like there is something else going on, some kind of order to

the universe and a reason why they're here. Do you?

 

A: Yeah! I definitely think there is more to this world than meets

the eye. And I do feel like there's a reason why I'm here.

 

Q: Any idea what that reason might be?

 

A: For a long time, I've felt that I'm here to make art and draw,

and for some reason I feel guilty about saying that -- I'm not sure

why. I so completely find myself through my art and my work -- I'm

not sure if that's [my connection to] God. I know I feel absolutely

at peace and totally satisfied when I'm working. I completely lose

myself, and that's the greatest feeling. No criticism, no desire,

just absolute bliss.

 

Q: Do you have a philosophy of life?

 

A: Be nice to people, laugh and be charitable. Those are my three

big tenets. I think these are good things to remember.

 

Q: The response to your books has been pretty positive in the

reviews I've read. I'm curious if anyone has been upset about

cartoon renditions of Hindu gods?

 

A: Well, fortunately nobody has, which is great. I've been pretty

conscientious about taking the right tone with the material. I

received only one critical e-mail, and I thought the person's point

was pretty astute. The first version of the book, which initially I

self-published and sold on my Web site, was called "Little India."

And the e-mail brought up the point that this is a book that

features Hindu gods, but India is a very multicultural country and a

lot of people there practice other religions. You know, there are

Sikhs, Christians, Muslims. I felt horrible because I realized I had

a made a huge mistake. So I changed the name to "The Little Book of

Hindu Deities."

 

Q: How did your parents respond to the book?

 

A: I don't know if my mom really understands the concept. I showed

it to her a couple of times, but I couldn't tell if she knew what it

was.

 

I waited a very long time before showing it to my dad. I was worried

about how he would react. But he loved it! He also encouraged me to

do more Hindu things. He was like, "OK, now that you are writing

this book why don't you light a candle? Why don't you just do one or

two things?" I told him, "Dad, that's not why I did this book, so I

can practice this religion. I was really stimulated by the stories

and the mythology of it."

 

Q: Did you learn anything about yourself while doing the book?

 

A: I think in part I've learned to be happy with who I am. I've

learned that Hinduism interests me a great deal. I had no way to

connect with Indian culture before doing this book. Indian culture

meant listening to blaring music or running a small business like a

motel -- I didn't do any of those things. And so I never had an

entry point into connecting with other Indians.

 

Q: It strikes me in reading your book that the Hindu gods can be

beautifully rendered in a cartoon style. I'm not sure other

traditions would work in that format. They might come off as kitschy

or strange. What is it about the Hindu deities that works as a

cartoon?

 

A: It's funny because, actually, I think there is a big kitsch

factor to this book. You know, making them look like cartoons,

that's just sort of absurd in one sense. In another sense, I suppose

it works because these gods have been depicted for thousands of

years by different artists, and I'm carrying on that tradition. I'm

an artist and this is how I see it. That's how I sort of come to

terms with it.

 

I also think that the reason that the Hindu gods really lend

themselves to caricature is because the mythology itself is really

abstract. You have characters with elephant heads, characters that

are bird and human at the same time, characters that have

decapitated heads -- things that just wouldn't work well in

photography or some highly rendered imagery,

 

Q: You worked on "The Simpsons" for a while. How did you feel about

Abu, the Kwik-E-Mart owner who was Hindu? I remember some Indian

Americans were upset about his portrayal.

 

A: I love "The Simpsons" dearly. I still watch it every day, and

there is nothing else that can make me laugh as hard. When I was

working on the show, I took no offense to Abu. Actually, I think it

is dead on. I love that we took advantage of his Hindu background

and pointed out that he does things differently than Homer and

worships different gods. Having said that, I think the caricature is

emblematic of Indian immigrants who emigrated here during the '70s

and '80s. A lot of them were running convenience stores and other

small businesses. Dead on. Dead on. Now, it's 2007, and their

children are doctors or engineers. I guess what I'm trying to say is

the culture has changed and so should the icon.

 

Q: As a member of the new Indian culture here in America, do you

think you might ever explore Hinduism any further?

 

A: I've been doing a lot of reading about Hinduism because I'm

planning to go to India for a visit. It will be my first time there.

I'm finding I'm stimulated by many of the concepts, like the idea of

dharma. The meaning has changed over many, many years, but how I

understand it is what people choose as their duty in life to do.

 

Q: Maybe you don't practice Hinduism like your father does, but you

still see yourself as connected to the tradition. Doesn't that make

you a certain kind of Hindu?

 

A: I suppose there's some truth in that. I see what my parents and

other practicing Hindus do, but they don't necessarily question it

or think about what they're doing. Well, I'm questioning a lot,

trying to understand what's going on behind the mythology of the

religion. If you define being Hindu in terms of devotion, well, I'm

absolutely devoting five or six hours a night to Hinduism.

 

I'm just starting to come to terms with who I am, and maybe once I

do that I can figure out what I believe. I'm just taking one step at

a time.

 

SOURCE: SFGate.com, San Francisco. FINDING MY RELIGION: A Pixar

animator gets back in touch with his Hindu roots through his new

book. By David Ian Miller, Special to SF Gate. Monday, January 15,

2007

TINY URL: http://tinyurl.com/yr4sum

URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?

f=/g/a/2007/01/15/findrelig.DTL