Abu Abraham
| Abu Abraham | |
|---|---|
| Born | Attupurathu Mathew Abraham 11 June 1924 Mavelikara, Kerala |
| Died | 1 December 2002 (aged 78) |
| Area(s) | Cartoonist |
| Pseudonym(s) | Abu |
Attupurathu Mathew Abraham (Malayalam: ആറ്റുപുറത്ത്മാത്യു ഏബ്രഹാം; 11 June 1924 – 1 December 2002), pen name Abu, was an Indian cartoonist, journalist, and author. He was a lifelong atheist and rationalist.
In a long career spanning 40 years, Abu Abraham worked for various national and international newspapers including the Bombay Chronicle, Shankar's Weekly, Blitz, Tribune, The Observer (1956–66), The Guardian (1966–69), and The Indian Express (1969–81).
Born in Mavelikara, Kerala as the son of A.M. Mathew and Kantamma, Abu started drawing cartoons at the age of 3. After studying French, Mathematics, and English at University College, Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum) and being the tennis champion, he graduated in 1945. He moved to Bombay where he became a journalist in Bombay Chronicle and its sister paper, The Bombay Sentinel while contributing cartoons to Blitz and Bharat. In 1951, he was invited by K. Shankar Pillai, one of India's best known cartoonists at the time, to move to New Delhi to work in Shankar's Weekly.
In 1953, he met Fred Joss of the London Star, who encouraged him to move to London. At 32, Abu arrived in London in the summer of 1953 and immediately sold cartoons to Punch magazine and the Daily Sketch and started to contribute material to Everybodys' London Opinion and Eastern World using the pen name 'Abraham'. In 1956, after two cartoons were published in Tribune, he was sent a personal letter by David Astor, the editor of The Observer, the world's oldest Sunday newspaper, offering him a permanent job as its first ever political cartoonist. Astor asked Abu to change his pen name as 'Abraham' would imply a false slant on his cartoons, and so he settled on 'Abu', a schoolboy nickname of his.
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