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Legacy
Monideepa sahu traces the wonderful journey of Uncle Pai, who worked tirelessly to brighten the lives and minds of India’s children through his ‘Amar Chitra Katha’ and ‘Tinkle’ comics series.
It was the exciting finale of a citywide quiz contest, as we waited to meet a living legend. The auditorium was decorated with lively posters of unique cartoon characters.
Bright-eyed kids from all over Bangalore chuckled over cut-outs of Shikari Shambhu, the forest ranger with an enormous moustache. “Look, here’s good old Suppandi,” said a girl, pointing at a gawky, flat-headed cartoon character.
“Whenever his master leaves him instructions, he goofs up,” giggled her friend and team-mate.
The teachers accompanying them, and parents like me, smiled while trying to maintain our dignity. We’d seen entire generations grow up devouring these delectable comics.
And some of us weren’t ashamed to admit that we too loved Amar Chitra Katha (ACK) and Tinkle. These phenomenally popular, totally Indian comics could hold more than a candle to the onslaught of foreign superheroes and cable TV. Best of all, ACK kept kids hooked on books. They had such a whale of a time following the escapades of their favourite characters, they never realised when the learning was packed in.
After the volley of questions was over, Uncle Pai took the stage to speak to an awestruck audience. The father of Indian comics was standing before our eyes. A simple, unassuming gentleman, Uncle Pai spoke words of inspiration straight from the heart.
True to his style, it came naturally to him to take the children into confidence and speak to them on their wavelength. When my son’s turn came to receive his certificate and a hamper of Amar Chitra Katha comics from Uncle Pai, he glowed with sheer joy. It was a child’s dream come true.
Our memorable encounter with Uncle Pai happened aptly at a quiz tournament. Uncle Pai encouraged his young fans to participate in quizzes, sponsoring them and including quiz sections in Tinkle. The ACK story itself was triggered by a quiz. Way back in 1967, Anant Pai was watching a quiz show on TV. He was shocked to see bright Indian kids who didn’t know the name of Lord Rama’s mother. Trivia about Greek and Roman mythology was at their fingertips. But Indian history and mythology proved a stumbling block. This motivated Anant Pai to leave his job with the Times of India group and create comics on Indian mythology, folklore, history and culture. The runaway success of his brainchild would endear him to millions of children who would lovingly nickname him ‘Uncle Pai.’
A bright student, Uncle Pai studied chemical engineering from Bombay University. But, right from his childhood, he was fascinated by ancient Indian folklore and scriptures. Even as a young boy, he held his little friends spellbound with spellbinding renderings of heroic tales from Indian history and mythology. He could recite appropriate shlokas at the drop of a hat for any special occasion. This early interest led him to master not just Sanskrit, but the ancient languages Pali and Ardhimagadhi too. His work experience with the Times group handling the popular Indrajal Comics also came in handy as he embarked on his pathbreaking project.
It was far from child’s play creating all-Indian comics which would draw young readers into their cultural roots in a fun way. Uncle Pai took up the challenge with rare panache. To produce the early books, Uncle Pai himself took up the responsibilities of writing, editing, refining the graphics and publishing. A great deal of research went into making each comic in the ACK series factually accurate. While the original concept was entirely Uncle Pai’s, the name ‘Amar Chitra Katha’ emerged from his discussions with writer B R Bhagat.
Finding a publisher to back his brainchild was the next hurdle. Many publishers shied away from taking on the new project. At last, the good people of India Book House offered Uncle Pai a contract in 1967. An excited Uncle Pai resigned from his job and plunged full steam into his dream project. Indian publishing for children was in a nascent stage in those days. Uncle Pai worked hard to locate and train a team of writers who could put some life into the scripts. Trained artists for comics were a rare species. Uncle Pai sought out artists who could brighten the comics with their drawings.
Creating accurate and well-researched scripts for the ACK books was an enormous and scholarly task. Indian mythology has multiple versions of each of its many stories which took months of careful research. The Laxman Rekha episode, for example, appears in Krittivas’s version of the Ramayana, but not in the Valmiki Ramayana or Ramcharitmanas. Uncle Pai and his team did a lot of reading and research to decide whether to include it in the Amar Chitra Katha version or not.
Success did not come on a platter. The first book, Krishna, took some time to pick up. Uncle Pai listed this first book as the auspicious number 11 instead of one. He worked hard to popularise his book, going around himself to put up displays in restaurants and other places where people were likely to notice the book and pick it up. After years of dedicated efforts, sales gradually began increasing and ACK went on to become a household name in every corner of India. Today, Amar Chitra Katha has sold over 100 million copies of more than 400 titles in over 20 languages.
As Uncle Pai’s dreams began to take root and grow, he was struck by the fact that a huge number of Indian children drop out of school before completing Grade Four. Uncle Pai felt that there was more behind this sad state of affairs than poverty. If learning is made more fun for children, surely many more of them would be motivated to continue their studies, he felt. In 1980, Uncle Pai started Tinkle, a magazine with facts on maths, science and history, spiced up with fun stories and cartoons in a comic book format. Children were encouraged to contribute and come up with ideas and suggestions. The secret behind Tinkle’s popularity was that it took kids into confidence, never talking down to them or preaching. The story behind the light and musical name of this immensely popular magazine is interesting in itself. Whenever Uncle Pai and his team got together to brainstorm on a name, the phone would ring. And so, they decided to call it ‘Tinkle.’
Until his recent death, Uncle Pai worked tirelessly to brighten the lives and minds of India’s children. While ACK comics and Tinkle were Uncle Pai’s most popular projects, he also ventured into other areas such as video scripting and production. Today, Uncle Pai is no more. But his legacy lives on in the hearts and minds of generations of children, for whom his books were a magical part of growing up.
