Writing, Music & Cartooning
I write stories, articles, poems and songs. I also draw cartoons on lunch bags, which I began when making school lunches for my kids. I later began showing them at galleries and talking about being a single dad. That experience led me to later create the SINGLE DADS FOUNDATION.
Writing
BLOOD CURSE, WHITE COBRA and the BLOOD CURSE Series
I’m the creator of BLOOD CURSE, WHITE COBRA (2024) and the upcoming BLOOD CURSE Series — a supernatural docufiction project inspired by the real family legend of a karmic blood curse on my mother's family. It was first cast on my lawyer grandfather in the 1930s. The series blends fictionalized stories, essays, poetry, and original music--all inspired by real experiences--and somehow tied to my mother's family curse.
The Real Family Story Behind the BLOOD CURSE Series
I was growing up as a Catholic kid in Maryland in the 1970s when my mom told me I had been born with a karmic curse. I inherited it from her dad — my grandfather. My grandfather was a brilliant lawyer in Sri Lanka in the 1930s. This was during the British Raj.
Grandpa became corrupted, she told me. He exploited the trust of some of the local villagers for financial and personal gain. The villagers retaliated in the way they knew, the ancient ways of my mom’s people — with a generational curse that messed with our karma. Those who inherit the curse must walk the path of our grandfather’s victims, and feel their pain.
To shield me from this curse, I was sent back to Sri Lanka on summer vacation and taken to a Hindu temple in the jungle for a consultation with the priests. There was a living white cobra coiled around the main altar at the temple — an ancient statue of the Hindu god Lord Shiva.
The priests said the curse could not be broken. So instead, they put me in front of that altar and cast upon me the most powerful protection spells my parent’s overseas money could buy.
That was nearly fifty years ago.
My life has been batshit crazy ever since…
Read the origin story of the curse:
click me 👉 BLOOD CURSE, WHITE COBRA, PART 1 of 2: My Grandfather’s Karmic Curse
click me 👉BLOOD CURSE, WHITE COBRA, PART 2 of 2: The Temple of the White Cobra.
Both available now on the Medium.com website.
Coming Soon! WHITE LIES, BLACK CROW, a supernatural political thriller about how the curse may have manifested during my decade working as a federal IT manager.
I’m the creator of BLOOD CURSE, WHITE COBRA (2024) and the upcoming BLOOD CURSE Series — a supernatural docufiction project inspired by the real family legend of a karmic blood curse on my mother's family. It was first cast on my lawyer grandfather in the 1930s. The series blends fictionalized stories, essays, poetry, and original music--all inspired by real experiences--and somehow tied to my mother's family curse.
The Real Family Story Behind the BLOOD CURSE Series
I was growing up as a Catholic kid in Maryland in the 1970s when my mom told me I had been born with a karmic curse. I inherited it from her dad — my grandfather. My grandfather was a brilliant lawyer in Sri Lanka in the 1930s. This was during the British Raj.
Grandpa became corrupted, she told me. He exploited the trust of some of the local villagers for financial and personal gain. The villagers retaliated in the way they knew, the ancient ways of my mom’s people — with a generational curse that messed with our karma. Those who inherit the curse must walk the path of our grandfather’s victims, and feel their pain.
To shield me from this curse, I was sent back to Sri Lanka on summer vacation and taken to a Hindu temple in the jungle for a consultation with the priests. There was a living white cobra coiled around the main altar at the temple — an ancient statue of the Hindu god Lord Shiva.
The priests said the curse could not be broken. So instead, they put me in front of that altar and cast upon me the most powerful protection spells my parent’s overseas money could buy.
That was nearly fifty years ago.
My life has been batshit crazy ever since…
Read the origin story of the curse:
click me 👉 BLOOD CURSE, WHITE COBRA, PART 1 of 2: My Grandfather’s Karmic Curse
click me 👉BLOOD CURSE, WHITE COBRA, PART 2 of 2: The Temple of the White Cobra.
Both available now on the Medium.com website.
Coming Soon! WHITE LIES, BLACK CROW, a supernatural political thriller about how the curse may have manifested during my decade working as a federal IT manager.
music
I’m a guitar-vocalist and songwriter. I play coffeehouse blues, jazz, sacred, and folk. My work has been featured live at venues in the D.C. area, including Hank Dietle’s Tavern in 2025 and Artomatic DC in 2024. You can listen to my music on SoundCloud and Instagram using the links below.
Fan Favorite 👉 "B-Town Underground" by Eeshan V. Melder (2025)
Promotional concert poster from SAW DC at Hank Dietle's Tavern in Maryland in 2025
lunch bag cartoons
TO SEE MORE CARTOONS CLICK HERE
👉Eeshan's Epic Lunch Bag Collection (2008 - 2016)
👉Eeshan's Epic Lunch Bag Collection (2008 - 2016)
After my divorce, I began cartooning daily on my kids’ lunch bags. Over eight years, I drew hundreds of them. Each one carried a handmade lunch to Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland and returned home safely. It became a thing with the other kids. Later, I began exhibiting the lunch bag cartoons at Artomatic in Washington, D.C. The warmth and engagement with other families about separation and divorce led directly to the creation of the Single Dads Foundation, which I founded in 2015 to help single dads with the transition to co-parenting.
Explore the media coverage:
Explore the media coverage:
