For 4.63 lakh Facebook members, it is not just checking out status posts, friend requests, and notifications. They have one more special reason. The Garbage Bin — where you forget all worldly tensions. Delhi-based cartoonist Faisal Mohd started exploring his cartooning skills under this smelly but amazing name in August 2011.

What makes Garbage Bin so attractive is Guddu and his gang. Guddu is a 10-year-old kid whose middle-class wit tickles readers and sometimes leaves them in tears. His creator calls him a ‘Macintosh aficionado’ as Guddu always wears a t-shirt with an apple printed over it.

Faisal explains that his brainchild is very similar to his personality and his life. These gags (that is what he calls his cartoons) brings everyone together in a string of childhood memories. I have seen hostelers and professionals sob all over in their comments.

“Oh my god! I thought this used to happen only with me.”

Garbage Bin gags make one realise that every middle-class kid during the 1990s lived a similar life with almost the same everyday incidents and accidents.

The excitement of using a pen in Class 6, getting scolded by one’s mother for not re-filling water bottles, fighting with friends over sitting next to a girl, playing video games (contra) day and night, having a childhood crush…. These beautiful recollections give readers a chance to relive their childhood.

My favourite gag is when Guddu’s mother unveils her talent of making a rough notebook using clean pages from last year’s notebooks. Before seeing the gag I thought this idea originated only from my mother.

Garbage Bin gags have often given space to common and popular slangs but without any offence or objection.

Any festival or national event, lakhs of admirers keep waiting for a notification from the Garbage Bin page. Independence Day, Mother’s Day, London Olympics, demise of famous personalities, Delhi gang- rape or everybody’s favourite Raksha-Bandhan, this page has a gag on every topic.

And there is political satire, too. Faisal dedicated his latest gag to Manmohan Singh and his tremendous ability to zip-lock his lips.

Forget about the Facebook ‘Likes’ on his gags. Now his fans remain in a rat race to grab maximum ‘Likes’ on their comments.

In this world of copying and cheating, this cartoonist makes sure that nobody tries to plagiarise his work . So he always stays ready with a team of lawyers, who are actually his fans.

But if lucky, you might just tempt him to have you featured in his next gag.

Published on September 5, 2013