As the story goes, there was a king who had two dumb sons. All the king’s efforts to make wise men out of them boomeranged until a Brahmin named Vishnu Sharma came to his rescue. Vishnu Sharma started educating the two princes in his own style. He told them a story. From the first story emerged the second one; from the second emerged the third....story after story, each story having a moral, and thus the princes became wise men. These stories were collectively called Panchatantra.
It was none other than Vishnu Sharma who returned in the twentieth century in the form of Amar Chitra Katha.
MY FIRST INTRODUCTION
It was in 1980 when I read my very first Amar Chitra Katha comic. It was Ramayana. I was mesmerized. For years after that, I honestly believed that Lord Ram and Lord Krishna had blue coloured skin. Over those magical childhood years, Amar Chitra Katha made me aware of my country’s culture, its heritage, its heroes, its history and of course, it’s mythology. The stories which looked like stern teachers in my history books, miraculously became my childhood buddies in the form of these pictures. Amar Chitra Katha introduced me to kings like Akbar the Great, Chatrapati Shivaji, Rana Pratap, Puru and Rana Sangha. It made me understand the greatness of our freedom fighters like Mahatma Gandhi, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad, Rani Laxmibai, Madanlal Dhingra and Vallabh Bhai Patel. It acquainted me with our mythological heroes like Krishna, Lord Rama, Parshuram, Karna and The Pandavas.
THE IMPACT
The impact that this comic book had on my generation was phenomenal. Almost every kid read these highly engrossing stories. I do remember that in our school exams, some students ended up writing stuff that was not mentioned in our text books. This extra knowledge was courtesy Uncle Pai and his super comic. The Amar Chitra Katha wave took the children’s world by storm, and catered to all its little clients in almost all Indian languages. It shaped the children in its own sweet way and made Little India aware of their roots.
TINKLE
This comic book from Amar Chitra Katha deserves a special section in this review. Tinkle with its family of Shambhu Shikari, Suppandi, Tantri the mantri, Kaalia the crow and Mooshak always brought a tinkle....I mean, twinkle in the eyes of children.
A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
This happened when I was studying in SSPMS, Pune. In one of the Tinkle magazines, Uncle Pai encouraged all his little readers to make their own Amar Tinkle Club in their locality. Impressed by this idea, I formed my own Amar Tinkle Club of SSPMS and enrolled the name with Amar Chitra Katha. Every Sunday the members of the club would meet and discuss about general knowledge, have debates, talk on current news etc. Some school teacher would be invited to preside over these meetings. It was a very healthy exercise for our developing minds. We received a five-page informative booklet every fortnight from the Amar Chitra Katha Office, and this booklet was our asset. Only members were allowed to read it, and hence it attracted many members.
Then a day came when I received a letter from Uncle Pai. It informed me that I and my members were to attend an All-Club Meet at Tilak Smaarak Mandir on a given date. This was not possible for us as we stayed in a hostel and were not allowed to leave the premises. I wrote back to Uncle Pai about our inability to attend the function.
A day before the function, a certain gentleman named Anant Pai came personally to our school and met our Principal. He took official permission from the school authorities to allow us to attend the function. When the principal called me to his office and introduced me, it took me a few seconds to realize that none other than our very own Uncle Pai was standing in front of me. Needless to say that we attended the function.
Looking back, I remember that Tilak Smaarak Mandir was packed that day. So many Amar Tinkle Clubs were there in Pune alone, and yet....Uncle Pai had personally come down to help us make it to the function.
IN CONCLUSION
What can I say in this section except a very big thanks?
Thank you, Amar Chitra Katha, for shaping our minds.
And Uncle Pai, if ever you read this, let me tell you what I could not tell you that day in Tilak Smaarak Mandir. You may not be aware of how much your visit to our school, for our sake, meant for a bunch of hostel kids. Thanks a lot for everything!