Post # 032
Dear Uncle Anant Pai,
Engineer-by-education, teacher-at-heart, publisher-by-vocation, master story-teller, pioneer of Indian Comics, you beauty, it's a pleasure and a privilege writing about you!
Though you studied chemical engineering in Bombay, you made your professional bones in the comics publishing world while being involved in the Indian launch of Indrajal comics (Phantom and Mandrake) by the publishers of TOI, Bennet Coleman and Company, in 1964.
In 1967, during your travels, you saw a quiz show on Doordarshan, where young Indians could answer questions on Greek mythology, but not Indian mythology. This spurred you to start an Indian comics series.
The strip below beautifully tells the story.
So, after many rejections, you approached G.L.Mirchandani of India Book House, who agreed to publish you. Thus were born Amar Chitra Kathas, which sucked, hooked and trapped kids like me and injected stories from Indian culture into us. The first ACK title was Krishna.
One of the reasons I love ACKs are their colors and illustrations. The below strip tells us how you met Ram Waeerkar, who illustrated many ACK titles. It's a cute story.
Along the way were born Tinkle and its characters - Kalia the crow, Chamataka, Supandi, Shikari Shambu, Anwar, Mooshik, Pyarelal, Tantri the mantri and a lot more.
Did you know that your 42-titles long Mahabharata ACK is considered the world longest comic story?
You died on 24th February, 2011, my 33rd birthday.
On 17th September, 2017, Google released a doodle in your honor.
I dedicate this post to my father, who introduced me, as a kid, to the world of ACKs. I still go back to ACKs when I am sad, when I am happy, when I am bored or when I need inspiration.
Dearest Uncle Pai, you and your wife Lalitha Aunty were childless. But through Amar Chitra Kathas, you made sure that the child within us never died.
I wrote this post with the help of:
ACK, titled Anant Pai
Wikipedia
Images downloaded from internet
My childhood memories.
With profound love and gratitude,
An Amar Chitra Katha fan forever.
