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One evening a boy of three was out for a walk with his father. There was also an elderly man with the father. Chatting they walked on and went beyond the village. Green crop delighted the eyes. The elders were walking along the edge of a field. Not hearing the footsteps of the boy, the father looked back. The boy was sitting on the ground and seemed to be planting some thing. The father became curious.
’’What are you doing?’’ said he.
’’Look, father, I shall grow guns all over the field’’ was the innocent reply of the boy. His eyes shone with the strong faith that guns would grow in the field. Both the elders were struck with wonder at the little boy’s words.
The boy was Bhagat Singh who later fought like a hero for India’s freedom and sacrificed his life.
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That was how I was introduced to a great man of whom the nation is proud of. This was an excrept from a comic book on life of Bhagat Singh. My first Amar Chitra Katha comic.
Those were the days when Dad used to bring for me those comics with colorful cover pages. And I used to read them sitting, standing, sleeping, eating, drinking and don’t know in what all conditions. The day my exams used to get over I used to take out a bundle of comics kept in a hideous place and wait for dad as he came after office with a dozen more. I pray to God let those Tom Sawyer days come back.
Amar Chitra Katha - The immortal picture stories. That was the english version of a title of the grand comic series. Grand in the sense, this series talks about the grand golden times of Indian mythology & history. From Ramayan to the martyrs in the fight for freedom. Amar Chitra Katha tells it all with pictures and text bubbles which we call comics. Amar Chitra Katha comes from India Book House.
These comics focus heavily on historical events. Thus the major readers who are obviously children enjoy themselves as they read these lessons in history in form of comics. Thus we do our studies as playfully as we read comics. So any kids out there can take this tip to recommend Amar Chitra Katha to your parents. But parents don’t come and hit me for making your children read more comics than their study material.
Now what about the epics like The Ramayana & The Mahabharata? Cannot one read the original epics instead? But my dear friends, how can one expect a child to sit and enjoy the level of language in an epic. Amar Chitra Katha plays this much needed protocol between the epics and the tender minds of children.
Once I remember myself mourning on the slaughter of Abhimanyu in the Chakravyuha after reading one of the volumes of Amar Chitra Katha.
Dad asked, ’’Why are you crying, BETA?’’
I said innocently, ’’Papa, they killed Abhimanyu.’’
Dad who had come home after the day’s hard work thought for a while and said with a concerned look, ’’Abhimanyu? Who?’’
I said, ’’Arjun’s son.’’
Dad burst out laughing, ’’Oh! That Abhimanyu?’’
Today whenever dad sees or hears the name Abhimanyu, he doesn’t say anything but a smile lightens up his face, which is very contagious.
Amar Chitra Katha comics tend to draw children towards Indian culture & history with the classic stories told with a brain of a child in mind. Panchatantra, Jataka Tales, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Hitopdesha, then stories of our freedom fighters like Bhagat Singh, Chandra Shekhar Azad, Ramprasad Bismil and many more. The count is endless. Today we can get these comics in book form as well as CD-ROM forms with title ’Phoenix Story Times’ Be sure to catch those.