Yesterday, the Maharashtra chief minister's office posted an image on its Twitter handle with the tagline "Life indoor is life secure" in order to send a pertinent message during the lockdown. The illustration features a cat holding a hammer above its head standing outside a hole in a wall, waiting in vain for the mouse that lives inside it to exit its home. You'd recognise the duo instantly since it's Tom and Jerry, characters who have had a tight grip on the Indian imagination ever since the MGM series started airing on Doordarshan before the cable TV boom. Back in those days, kids in the country had a rough ride when it came to visual entertainment. Their options were limited to precious little apart from Disney cartoons, Spiderman, The Jungle Book and the cat-and-mouse duo. No wonder then that the cartoon remains so relevant in the 21st century that CM Uddhav Thackeray used the afore-mentioned image to drive his point home. And no wonder that when Gene Deitch passed away earlier this week, a number of Indians put up grieving social media posts, crediting him as "the Tom and Jerry director" in their condolences.

Abhijeet Kini with vintageTom & Jerry and Popeye comics