Diagonal Days: The comic strip based on the character of the Diagonal Lane novels
Introducing Mrs. Bromowitz: This week, I finally bring onstage one of the most interesting characters in the Diagonal Lane Trilogy. Vera Bromowitz is a retired ballerina of the Bolshoi who has emigrated to India to be with the love of her life, Bharatanatyam teacher Sri Srirangapatna. Together, they run a Ballet and Bharatanatyam school on Diagonal Lane. In Mr. Reddy Learns to Dance, which is probably the best short story in Diagonal Tales (Vol1 of the Diagonal Lane Trilogy), Mr. Reddy gets infatuated with Mrs. Bromowitz and joins her dance class to impress her, despite being over 70 and in poor health. Burning with jealousy, retired Brigadier Thimappa, who also has a soft spot for Vera, signs up too.
The short story describes what leads up to this situation, and subsequent events on Diagonal Lane. But I don't describe the actual classes in the short story, largely because that wasn't the point of that short story. A pity, because there was great scope for humor there.
In the next few strips, I try to imagine what might have happened in the classes. It is the sort of thing best dealt with in an episodic comic strip.
This in fact demonstrates perfectly how the Diagonal Days comic strip fits into the Diagonal Lane Trilogy. This comic strip IS NOT a cartoon version of the books. Rather, it takes characters and situations from the novels and short stories, and fills in the blanks and adds sub-stories. There are certain things that work better in the comic strip format than in a short story or a novel format. In that sense, this comic strip complements the books. Someday, I hope to publish this too as a comic book that will form a part of the Diagonal Lane series.
