February deleted one of the most important personalities who influenced our childhood very much. There won’t be any replacement for Anant Pai who enriched my/our childhood with colourful characters from Indian mythology, history, and fiction. We belong to the generation grown up with the stories illustrated in Amar Chitra Katha, which was published in Malayalam by Paico in late 1970s and early 1980s.
There was no cartoon channel, no Internet or not even television to entertain us at that time but we enjoyed a world of books and it was Uncle Pai who directed us by holding our hand towards a new world of reading. For our generation, Amar Chitra Katha was much more than an illustrated comic book. It was a like a bridge between the formulation of values through the imaginations about our heroes of young age. Uncle Pai realized the potential of the illustrated medium in value education of children and put a lot of effort to pick up the right characters to nurture their thoughts and imaginations.
During my childhood, most popular children’s publication was Poombatta. In fact, I was introduced to the characters of Amar Chitra Katha through the illustrated strips appeared in the Poombatta. In the beginning, Poombatta was a monthly publication and within few years, they made it as fortnightly and the duration of two weeks was also too much for us to wait. I still remember Uncle Pai’s name was read along with Mohandas in the most popular illustrated stories –Kapish and Shikari Shamboo. Still I don’t know who Mohandas was and it was a question I kept to ask directly to Uncle Pai, which was never asked.
Poombatta owed a lot to Uncle Pai for its rapidly growing popularity. It was the time, Paico, which was a major brand selling books in my town, Ernakulam, getting into new avenues of publication business. Poombatta definitely helped them to increase their reach and am sure; Uncle Pai’s name helped them to consolidate their brand in our generation. Eventually, Poombatta stepped into more publication for children and started bringing out the Malayalam version of Amar Chitra Katha as fortnightly and illustrated version of western classics in the name of Paico Classics on monthly basis. Everything was huge success in the market.
The management of Poombatta also very much aware of the popularity of Uncle Pai among the children and to utilize it, they organized Poombatta Amar Chitra Katha Quiz competition every year. One occasion, I was very lucky to be part of it. Thanks to my close friends Manoj and Manoj who fought with my parents for permission to take me along with them. Programme was in the auditorium of Bharat Tourist Home, a renowned hotel in Ernakulam. For us, the biggest attraction was the presence of Uncle Pai than winning prize in competition. He was living in our imagination and we were craving for an opportunity to see the man behind all stories in Amar Chitra Katha.
When we reached the venue, we saw the auditorium was filled with children and their parents. Our group was not accompanied by parents and that made us more vulnerable. The organizers explained the method and rules of the competition and said the question will be asked by Uncle Pai. We were in seventh heaven and eagerly waited for him. Within few minute, he appeared in the stage in light green safari suit and addressed the crowd. We, the Malayalam medium students, who usually struggle to understand speeches in English but we had no problem with Uncle Pai’s conversation. He really put effort to make himself as simple as possible to the children.
Method of the quiz was very interesting. It provided each child to have a chance to interact with Uncle Pai directly and if he answers he will get another chance otherwise eliminated. All questions were picked up from Amar Chitra Katha, which was published by Poombatta in Malayalam. The eliminated children were also treated very well with handful of gifts which included two copies of Amar Chitra Katha in English. Uncle Pai will ask a question to the child in front of him, if he won’t answer, it will pass to next one and repeat to another three more. After five children, he will declare the answer and pick up next question for the next five. Four of my friends fell in the first round and eliminated and before my turn, it was Uncle Pai’s chance to declare the answer, so I escaped. I had more time to be with him till he pick up the next one and waited for the question with loud heart beats. The organizers made arrangements to translate Uncle Pai’s questions in English to Malayalam. He picked up another question and asked me and luckily, I had the answer. I got a good handshake from Uncle Pai and passed to next round. If my memory is correct, I had another five rounds with him till ending up in the last round. Each round, I got good number of gifts in the form of books, toys, T-shirts, stickers etc. In the final round, we were three and there I fumbled and ended up in the third position.
I was very, very fortunate to have an interaction with a person like Uncle Pai at that age. It changed my position and image among friends as well as in the school. My friends took a lot of pain to convince my parents to get me out of house to participate in this programme. Unfortunately, they all got out in the primary round but they waited till the end to see at least one among them getting some prize. After nearly thirty years, I still keep those movements as something precious in my life. I remember, we had a photo session and a fabulous lunch with Uncle Pai. At that age, we never bothered to do follow up of the event and collect copies of photographs from the organizers. Now, after several years, I really feel bad for not doing so.
During my last home visit, in December, I was going through one of our old album, in which I found some stickers of Tinkle, which I got as gift in the competition. It evoked some good feeling about the nice occasion. Thank you Uncle Pai. I will keep those memories with me throughout my life. You made our life very colourful and imaginative. We will definitely try to pass your contribution to our next generation.
