Pandi is a naive, hopeful neighbourhood stray dog and Meenakshi, a snooty cat with her wisecracks. Different from each other, they have struck an unlikely friendship that keeps them together through thick and thin, including the lockdown. It is their conversation and confusions that make up a web comic, The Adventures of Pandi & Meenakshi, by Chennai-based theatre group Crea-shakthi that is looking to expand its horizons through publishing and an app.

Conceptualised and written by founder, Dushyanth Gunashekhar and ably illustrated by Priscilla Dillen, the characters were supposed to make their first appearance in a book which was under production when the lockdown began. "In these circumstances, there would have been no way to get a book to reach people. So, we decided to experiment with a web comic," says Gunashekhar who brought the characters to life drawing inspiration from his pets over the years, and a stray named Pandi. "Pandi is the name of a ruler and in essence, here, he rules the streets," he confesses, recounting play-acting with his pet dog over the years.