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jeevanrai.bsky.social
ਜੀਵਨ ਰਾਏ🔻
@jeevanrai.bsky.social
1K followers 910 following 98 posts
maths/code/music. precariat lecturer. socialist (he/him)

Support my friends in Gaza: linktr.ee/jeevn
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jeevanrai.bsky.social
This photo-history book (about our hometown) that my dad wanted is out of print, but I managed to find a mint copy in time for Father’s Day.

And hence made him this card.
Historical photo book called “Images of England: Southall” by Jonathan Oates Two-panel comic strip. An old, uniformed army veteran in an armchair tearfully muses “Those were the days” as he leafs through a book called “Yesteryear: Scenes from the Past”. We then see two full-page images inside the book: in one, a tyrannosaurus rex devours a stegosaur beneath dark skies and in front of an erupting volcano, and in the other an enormous prehistoric long-toothed cat is attacking a screaming neanderthal. Artwork by J. C. Rai, 2025
June 15, 2025 at 2:09 PM
jeevanrai.bsky.social
“Just stop Israel” in the style of Just Stop Oil’s logo but with a green background and a red triangle instead of the skull
June 13, 2025 at 1:12 AM
jeevanrai.bsky.social
Snap
Harmonia axyridis larva on a petal
May 29, 2025 at 9:19 PM
jeevanrai.bsky.social
Starmer openly set this trajectory from the start, and people like Ian Dunt repeatedly defended it from criticism. Until it was too late of course.
At 11:14 a.m. on 22nd September 2020, Ian Dunt (@IanDunt) tweeted: “I see the knives are out on parts of Labour left for Starmer's speech. Let's just be really clear about something: Patriotism is not the same as nationalism. And by rejecting patriotism, you make it easier for nationalists to claim a monopoly on love of country.” Source: https://x.com/IanDunt/status/1308348815422959619 Archived: https://archive.ph/1QPoR Guardian headline, 2nd February 2021. [Headline] “Leak reveals Labour plan to focus on flag and patriotism to win back voters” [Standfirst] “Exclusive: leaked internal strategy presentation reveals plan to ‘change the party’s body language’” [Photo of Starmer in front of flagpole with Union Flag] Archived source: https://dumptheguardian.com/politics/2021/feb/02/labour-urged-to-focus-on-flag-and-patriotism-to-win-voters-trust-leak-reveals At 9:01 on February 3rd 2021, Ian Dunt tweeted the article shown in the previous image slide, with the comment: “This all seems entirely reasonable. It's a mark of how completely disconnected parts of Labour are from normal political debate that demonstrating patriotism is considered akin to right-wing nationalism” Source: https://x.com/IanDunt/status/1356890445587054592 Archived source: https://archive.ph/WkNg2 iNews opinion piece by Ian Dunt, 12th May 2025. Headline: “Starmer is as bad as those who came before him. What a bitter disappointment” Standfirst: “Echoing the far right on immigration, his moral and intellectual stature has fallen away” Source: https://inews.co.uk/opinion/starmer-is-as-bad-as-those-who-came-before-him-what-a-bitter-disappointment-3688849 Archived source: https://web.archive.org/web/20250513105056/https://inews.co.uk/opinion/starmer-is-as-bad-as-those-who-came-before-him-what-a-bitter-disappointment-3688849?srsltid=AfmBOoplzYKULXxF4NkG2kV7ykeC-Q5CpPJwCMXK-j50CSIZ_2M7SZc2
May 13, 2025 at 2:14 PM
jeevanrai.bsky.social
Drawing of a brave student. 🇵🇸
Help her family out, or at least share:
chuffed.org/project/113891
Help the Helles حلس family in Gaza and let Lana لانا continue her education, at the link in this tweet or via the one in my bio: linktr.ee/jeevn Illustration of undergraduate student Lana in a hijab and blouse with a laptop bag over her shoulder, smiling gently, clutching books in one hand and making a ‘peace’ sign with the other. Artwork by J. C. Rai 2025
May 12, 2025 at 4:10 PM
jeevanrai.bsky.social
Drew this birthday card for a poet friend
Four panel comic strip of verse with the first two lines conspicuously amended as follows: “Proses are read.¹ Violents are blue.² So a very happy birthday,³ to all who celebrate.⁴” Each line is respectively illustrated as follows. ¹ An unweildy hardback book open on its last page, to show the final sentence “All was well.” ² A police helmet. ³ A cupcake with a candle in it, the line of verse coming from a speech-bubble tail out-of pane. ⁴ Keir Starmer at a press conference, revealed as the reciter. Artwork by J. C. Rai 2025.
May 11, 2025 at 11:15 AM
jeevanrai.bsky.social
Drawing of Sondos and family. 🍉
Help them if you can, or at least share:
www.gofundme.com/f/783f72-hel...
Illustration of the al-Haq family in Gaza — Mohammed and Sondos, and their two young boys Ahmed and Saleh — with an appeal to donate to them via the link in my bio: linktr.ee/jeevn Artwork © 2025 by J. C. Rai
April 27, 2025 at 2:00 PM
jeevanrai.bsky.social
Comrades of the sea, you are needed again
Seabed-level shot of a pod of orcas, looking as though they are in hushed conference with one another, with the subtitle “Bismillah we attack tonight”
April 17, 2025 at 11:49 AM
jeevanrai.bsky.social
Today was my brother @planetsmudge.bsky.social’s birthday. And once again, the card I made for him featured a beleaguered Wilson Fisk. But it is also an allegory for what I think should be done with Wes Streeting.
‘A-yeehaw,’ says Mr Quimby the ageing geography teacher, and then, ‘That’s right,’ as he lassos and casually drags through a field towards the farmers market not just Mayor Fisk himself, but the man in his chair along with his traditional hefty office desk, with all manner of items — pens, paper, cigars, phone, and lamp — rolling around, flying off, and falling from its worktop, some to lie in the muddy tracks left by its mahogany feet. Fisk himself claws at its edges to try and haul himself up, but does so in vain, for he has sunk into his luxury coaster-mounted office chair, his plentiful jowls squashed upon the desktop, his thorax scooped through the open kneehole, and legs flung up and pinned in place by the rope, his whole body uncomfortably trapped between desk and chair like an upturned horseshoe, in which confounded predicament he can muster only the strained utterance ‘SsssssSSSSAH.’ Illustration © J. C. Rai 2025
April 7, 2025 at 10:21 PM
jeevanrai.bsky.social
the awakening
Scene from Season 1 of Daredevil of Wilson Fisk sitting alone looking at his white painting, except said painting has been replaced with the sketch in the above post
April 7, 2025 at 10:36 AM
jeevanrai.bsky.social
My mum’s been reading a lot of French recently, so I made her this very silly card for Mother’s Day.
www.instagram.com/p/DH1KuZkNp0w/
[Illustration] “L’anatomie d’une «Frenchy Hen», une étude du professeur Poulet-Fou” [Illustration of a hen in à-la-mode sunglasses, bonnet, holding a net full of chocolates, annotated as follows] “Lunettes Cocorico Chanel. “Bon bonnet. “Bonbon net.” [Beneath her plump neck we see she is accompanied by a chick in a beret.] “Cou de gras. “Accessoire chic.” [A garden gnome is tucked beneath her wing, and she’s wearing oversized crocs with moustachioed faces drawn on the front.] “Gnome de plume. “Les crocs-monsieur.” [END] Illustration © J. C. Rai 2025
March 30, 2025 at 10:12 PM
jeevanrai.bsky.social
bsky.app/profile/theg...
Hot dog guy / “We’re all trying to find the guy who did this” meme but his face is the Guardian logo
March 14, 2025 at 12:16 AM
jeevanrai.bsky.social
The one for my brother @planetsmudge.bsky.social is, um, its own category of humour, take it or leave it.
Cartoon of an angry Wilson Fisk squashed deeply, in significant defiance of physical limitations, into the robotic techno-trousers as seen in ‘Wallace and Gromit’. His head sinks into the bulging mass and bellowing cloth of his suit, and his arms awkwardly reach over to grip the metal frame. The caption reads “IT’S THE WRONG TROUSERS VANESSA” [J. C. Rai 2024]
December 25, 2024 at 11:53 PM
jeevanrai.bsky.social
Festive love to all comrades.

Had a really nice day with my family. Here are the silly cards I made for my mum and dad. (For once, I don’t think they require explanation of the in‑jokes.)
instagram.com/p/DEAqlPBNLwU
Single-panel cartoon in style of Gary Larson. An old lady on the phone says “Oh yes, he’s grown into it beautifully.” Next to her on the sofa sits a young man, apparently by context her son, whose body language suggests restrained annoyance, and whose entire head is snugly covered by a baby-sized woolly jumper. [J. C. Rai 2024] Four-panel cartoon: (1.) Close up of a wrapped gift for ‘Chimpy’. (2.) Bemused monkey having opened his gift, ‘The Monkey Thesaurus, 3rd edition’ is reading it. (3.) Close up of the first page of entries in the book, beginning with the letter ‘A’, which shows synonyms of the word ‘Aaa (interjection)’ to be ‘Aaaa, aaaaa, aaaaaa, aaaaaaa, aaaaaaaa, aaaaaaah, aaaaaagh, aaaaaah, aaaash, aaaah, aaagh, aah,aagh, aah, agh; oo-aa, oo-aaa,oo-aaaaa, ooaaah, ooaagh, ooaarooah; ooo-aa, ooo-aaa, ooo-aa… ’, and so forth. (4.) The monkey slaps his head and screeches ‘Aaaaa!’, presumably in confusion. [J. C. Rai 2024]
December 25, 2024 at 11:44 PM
jeevanrai.bsky.social
Ambigram for my cousin Rukshie & Kevin, her now-husband — they got married today!

www.instagram.com/p/DDAPDJDt0Hj
November 30, 2024 at 6:02 PM
jeevanrai.bsky.social
We got my dad a tablet for his birthday, so I naturally did this card once again featuring that butt of all our jokes, the neighbour.
www.instagram.com/p/DCEfBhHt9EW/
Cartoon of an advert for the ‘Eye-Pad Pro’, modeled by a dowdy white English bloke. A minuscule tablet computer is strapped on like an eye-patch, albeit with an unwieldy, thick, uncomfortable-looking buckled belt which runs vertically around one side of the head. An ‘easily stored stylus’ protrudes from his nostril. ‘A joy to use’ the advert claims, as he struggles, mouth gasping behind the heavy brass buckle which presses painfully into his double chin, sweat pouring down his temples, trying to fit one chubby finger between his eye and the tiny screen, while awkwardly aiming the stylus overhead. ‘Retina Display burns straight into the eye’, a cross section of an eyeball; rays refract towards a focal point within, singed, a tiny plume of smoke rising from it. A product close up shows the belt is poorly screwed in. Its ‘Notifications’ screen displays ‘Full Time Score: Chelsea F.C. loses 0–71 to Patiala Government Elementary School Kindergarten Reserve Team’. Artwork © J. C. Rai 2024
November 7, 2024 at 6:52 PM
jeevanrai.bsky.social
When I say our fake democracy is just a ‘good cop, bad cop’ routine, I wonder if people realize exactly what I mean: that it’s always ‘good cop’ who ends up extracting. https://twitter.com/jeevanrai/status/1811405025664455151
September 12, 2024 at 9:22 AM
jeevanrai.bsky.social
My grandad Dilbagh passed away six years ago today. Still miss him a lot. He cared for the Palestinian cause deeply, and it was the subject of our last ever conversation.
Photo of my grandfather Dilbagh in the late 1970s or early 1980s, a phenomenally handsome middle-aged man walking through the woods.
September 7, 2024 at 2:53 PM
jeevanrai.bsky.social
Happy Diwali and Free Palestine 🪔
www.instagram.com/p/Czipp76t1Qk/
Rāma, standing on a field in front of a starry night sky, shooting an arrow from his bow. The colour and geometry of the illustration are composed to suggest that of the Palestinian flag.
November 12, 2023 at 10:33 AM