Teen Animator in world record
By Hitesh Shetty

At the tender age of 12, Sindhuja Rajaraman has achieved more than most do in a lifetime.  Sindhuja, an expert in 2-D Animation, is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the youngest CEO ever.  Even her School has recognized her amazing abilities and given her a year off to work at her own company. Like most Indian youngsters, she credits her parents for her success.

Techgoss (TG): How did you get introduced to the world of 2-D Animation at such a young age?
Sindhuja Rajaraman (SR): My father’s paintings are my real inspiration; I grew up observing his work since my early childhood days. I grew up observing and practicing his creative works. Upon seeing my interest towards painting, my father started teaching me about animation while he was still working on it. I slowly grabbed the techniques of animation from him. Even though the process of 2D animation is really tedious, I was really attracted by its results .That’s the way I got started.

TG: Was your father a big influence on you in your animation career so far?
SR: As a government employee for about 21 years my father explored his creative part in his free time. He had an opportunity to exhibit his caricatures. Through media interviews, he came to know that he was the first person in India to do digital caricatures and exhibit them.

 
TG: What kind of hardware / software does your website use? Are you also involved in helping select the hardware / software of your website?
SR: The website uses Flash, Photoshop, Dreamweaver and inbuilt XP operating system. I generally use only open source software.  I am not involved in project proposals.

TG:  How much time do you have to devote to school?  And how much time do you have to devote to work?
SR:  I step into my office by 10 or 10.30 a.m. everyday and wind up my work by 5.30 or 6.00 p.m. My school has given me 1 year leave and after I am done with my work, I go to tuitions for 1 hour and I am quite prepared for the exams and next year I will be in 10th standard !!

TG: Tell us more about your 10 hour effort on October 10, 2010, for Exnora’s Lights Out Campaign?
SR:  It was my school principal who motivated me to participate in the campaign conducted by ExNora and the Velammal Matric. Hr. Sec. School on Global Warming. It was a Guinness book record attempt of making a 2D animation short film by one person in ten hours. It was scheduled on 10th October 2010 requiring me to work 10 continuous hours on a single stretch, starting from morning 10:00 A.M till evening 08:00 P.M. I realized the challenge and decided to go full-fledged on it. I had two months to get prepared and I used to practice eight hours a day. One eyed Litti is an imaginary character which appeared in my dream sometime ago. I had a strong belief in this character and chose it to convey the message. In this project I practiced a lot, counted and divided the shots and timing. It was a great gathering with Chief Guests and Journalists to witness the event. My father was indeed a great support for me in the event venue, as there was no break / interval between the event and I had to simply survive on liquid intake only as diet. All went well and I managed to complete the film within 08:30 hours

TG: Does the thought of being the youngest CEO in the world and subsequent entry in the Guinness book of world record make you proud of what you've achieved at an age, when most others wouldn't even dream of it?
SR: I feel very happy as well as challenging…

TG: How has your family's life changed since you made it to the Guiness book or world records? What are your future plans?
SR:  Well, My family life has changed appreciably after my success stint. As far as my sister is concerned, she was learning Japanese for five years and she is good in writing English poems. My father insisted her to write in Japanese. By seeing her poems in Japanese, her institute Chairman suggested to publish it as a book, which took off when the Consulate of Japan came and released the book and showered a compliment by saying    “Being Japanese, the haiku’s written by you are so difficult for me to read, it’s of pure language.’

Finally, I would like to conclude by mentioning my mother’s name who had been very encouraging and supportive on all our endeavours. She was daring enough to encourage my father job to take up his passion as a career who further ended up quitting his secured government job. Without my mom’s support we would have not have done anything!