If you log on to Sherin Mohamed’s Instagram page, a hijab-wearing, chirpy-faced young woman pops up a wide smile. Her rather large wonder-struck eyes bear two red heart shapes. The jolly user avatar in self-referential humour perhaps best captures Sherin’s spirit. Even her Instagram handle, ‘ticklesh’, is meant to instantly evoke a ticklish sensation!
With her simple but mirthful comic strips on droll vignettes from everyday life as seen through the eyes of a hijab-wearing woman, Sherin has been tickling many a funny bone. A bunch of amusing illustrations and a few caricatures on some sheroes, like the one on Ilhan Omar, the hijab-wearing Somali-American Democrat elected to the US Congress, come as a bonus for her page visitors. “It (Instagram page) started off with some light-hearted moments occurring in my life. Such moments need not be overtly eventful as simple slices of life, like a conversation with my hubby or observing my kids playing sometimes become fodder for imagination,” says the 29-year-old.
An Ernakulam native, Sherin grew up in Dubai. The former accountant later settled in the capital city after her marriage. And it was as a sheer pastime that she decided to try her hand at doodling and sketching after she had quit work during her first pregnancy. “I started doing comics in 2016 with just paper and pen. They used to be simple drawings with members of my family becoming my characters. I began digitalising my works the next year when I opened ticklesh,” says Sherin.
Her modus operandi involves doing an elementary sketchwork on paper with pen and using the app SketchBook to lend life to her drawings. “I think my drawing style is rather simple and I don’t even do shading. I don’t paint either, though I would love to learn that. I like to make the embellishments I can do while on the go on my phone for the sake of spontaneity and convenience.”
Sherin says she originally intended to open an Instagram page by the handle “tickle bone or a catchy phrase on similar lines” but most of the ideas were already taken up. She then struck upon ‘ticklesh’ — a portmanteau of the word ‘tickle’ and the first two letters of her first name. “I’m glad the name stuck. I feel changing it now would be like changing the name of one’s child,” she says with a laugh.
While some of the witty dialogues in her comic strips are in English, she sometimes resorts to Malayalam transliterated into English so as not to lose the pun and the fun in translation. But Sherin says she doesn’t want to restrict her characters by giving them any names. “Essentially, they can be anyone, from any part of the world. Also, what works for me is often spur-of-the-moment ideas,” says the mother of two. “For instance, when her brother, Zayed, was born, my five-year-old daughter, Ayesha, said she was quite happy. But in her own cute way, she added as an afterthought that she would have preferred a minion instead (laughs). Such real-life banter often finds its way to my works,” Sherin explains.
Simplicity is the soul of her wit and humour is her cup of tea. Sherin says, for now, she would rather steer clear of “serious or tricky subjects”. “I don’t think what I seek to express is cathartic or anything eye-opening. I just want to make people laugh through what I love to do. I like to watch comedies and I read a lot of comics too, mostly online. When I was in Dubai, I used to avidly read a children’s magazine that featured a lot of nice comics,” says Sherin about her tastes.
With encouragement pouring in, Sherin now tries to put up at least a post a week. Between keeping her kids engaged and taking care of the domestic stuff, any time of the day is conducive for her to keep her “passion” going. “That’s the best of such a hobby. There’s no deadline and there are no work hours to be met.” So, does she consider herself a born artist? “That’s a paradox. I never drew as a child. In fact, I used to entirely skip art classes in school. Sometimes, I would seek my vaapa (dad) to do my art projects,” says Sherin with a chuckle.
Sherin, who “loves talking in Malayalam movie dialogues,” says she plans to come up with comic strips with characters who interact using iconic dialogues, especially from the 90s. A big fan of the Disney movies, she also intends to “draw people she knows as Disney characters.”
Sherin’s ever game to deliver the punchline!
