Today India has lost one of its greatest educationalists and creator of Indian comics. Many youngsters of my generation have grown on the staple humor he has provided over last 30 years. He had an uncanny knack of teaching basic ethics and science in a humorous way. And luckily I share something with him. A bachelors degree in chemical engineering!!!
Uncle pai will always be an inspiration in my life and a person who lead me into a world of fantasy and mythology. He more than chirstopher nolan "incepted" the idea of thinking and reasoning in me. As a young boy from a small town in Tamil Nadu he opened the doors of imagination and creativity and pushed me into enjoying literature and history. I can never forget the lasting impression all his characters have had on me. I was not exposed to the magic of "The Tinkle" till my 5th standard. One of cousins was gracious enough to pass me on her collection of large volumes of tinkle. And that summer vacation was the most memorable one for me. I read each and every story.
Kapish, shambu, suppandi, ramu and shamu the character list is endless. I derived the greatest joy in reading his editor columns. Lots of youngsters sharing their real life experiences and Uncle pai giving us scientific fundes was seriously a pleasure to read. His english was so simple and precise. He made reading a pleasure for simple 10 year olds.
Coming to his greatest contribution - THE AMAR CHITRA KATHAS. I would say he has done more to the cause of preserving the indian tradition and culture than any of the RSS or Sangh Parivar groups can even aspire of. The first ACK stories I studied was the hanuman followed by the Jataka tales. The pleasure I experienced in reading the indian fantasies cannot be described in words. For me and most of the indians ACK is always a notch above the DC comics. Children can learn more about India by reading these comics than any of their history texts.
I really dont know more about Anant pai - the individual. But Uncle pai has always been there in my childhood as an invisible friend accompanying me in adventure after adventure. He always knew what I wanted and provided me that through his words. The influence of people like uncle pai, enid blyton can never be measured. For me atleast education started with "The tinkle" and is still going on!!!
Uncle pai I will miss you!!
5 comments:
Great post. I too was a fan of all the comics you mentioned. But I didn't care to know about their creator. Definitely we have lost a very important person.
This is surya
really sad !
I can completely relate to what u say, my own journey started with tinkle too!!
and i was a big fan of his column there.
and three cheers to ur comment that Uncle Pai and ACK did more for preservation of indian culture than RSS, SP, and other crapsters.
touching post!
Thank you for the comments guys!!!
Good work sriram..i still remember those days wen i would look for a book stall in railway stations where i could get hold of a Tinkle to read throughout the journey..these are one such rare comic series, the characters of which still remain unfaded..even if i get hold of the book now,old or new i bet i will sit back till i finish it..hats off to Uncle Pai..
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