Über Desi » Books

The Amar Uncle Pai

Santosh — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 04:59:46 +0000

Anant Pai, the creator of Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle died at the age of 81. [BBC]

Anant Pai, widely known as Uncle Pai, to kids who grew up in 1980s India, was a chemical engineer, who followed his passion of story telling. He went to work with Indrajal comics, and was instrumental in introducing The Phantom and Mandrake the Magician to Indian audiences and also in the creation of another comic character, Bahadur. In 1967, he had an “eureka” moment when contestants in an Indian quiz show could not answer simple questions like “Who is the mother of Lord Rama?”. So instead of creating a website dealing with Hindu denigration, he created the comic book Amar Chitra Katha (ACK). Vivid illustrations, simple language and compelling story telling, led to a series of highly popular books among millions of children in India. His ACK comics mostly covered, Indian history and Hindu mythology, but I distinctly remember reading an ACK issue on Jesus. My personal favorites were the epics like Ramayana and Mahabhartha (this one spanned around 18 consecutive comic books). Pai through ACK took us on magical journeys through palaces of kings and queens and magical castles to more historically significant locations like Jallianwala Bagh, the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort. In mythological stories, the message was simple: good always triumphs over evil. We were regaled with tales of wise emperors like Akbar the Great and his smartass minister, Birbal. Kids would eagerly await for the next issue to come out in stores or be delivered to their house.

In 1980, Anant Pai created another comic book, Tinkle, replete with simple humorous tales and characters like Kalia the crow, Suppandi, Shikari Shambu, Tantri the Mantri and Nassurdin Hodja to name a few. Tinkle, is where Anant Pai became Uncle Pai to millions of children. In every issue of Tinkle, he answered letters from numerous children.

It must be pointed out yours truly was not among the fortunate few who got their letter answered by Uncle Pai. However, I had the fortune of meeting him in real life, when he gave a speech at my school. Few attended because the powers that be at my pathetic school did not deem it necessary to publicize his visit. My first and only impression of him is a rather slight unassuming gentleman with an infectious smile and sharp wit. Details of that day are hazy and this is what I recollect: Uncle Pai had each student walk to the front of the room and tell everyone what they planned to be when they grew up and the answer always was engineer, doctor, ***enter standard white collar profession*** or take over father’s business. My answer was “engineer”, when Pai asked why, my answer was “because my father is one”. Pai’s retort was “But what do YOU want to be?”. Deep words, the meaning of which I did not understand until, ironically, after I became an engineer. But this interaction is one I’ll always cherish.

In his personal life, Pai and his wife did not have any children, but between Indrajal, Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle, Pai’s works reached millions of Indian children across multiple generations, and it must be pointed out multiple continents. This tweet, summarizes Anant Pai’s impact on the Indian psyche.

Thank you, Uncle Pai.

A desi Tintin

Santosh — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 17:27:32 +0000

Hindustan Times reports that the politically incorrect but popular comic book franchise, Tintin, will soon start releasing books in Hindi. (news and images from the Tintin Facebook fanpage)

On Monday, the Belgian ambassador’s residence in the Capital will see the launch of eight Hindi language books from the Tintin series.
The books have been translated by Puneet Gupta, an ad film-maker

Presumably, this is a more concerted effort to target Indian audiences, which, in my opinion, should’ve started a couple of decades back, if not earlier. Better late than never, is the popular proverb. Now a lot of kids around my age growing up in India, read Tintin comics and they remain popular to this day but their appeal among Hindi and other regional language audiences is TBD.

To appeal to the Hindi-speaking audience, various Tintin characters are also assuming Hindi names.

Snowy (originally Milou) is Natkhat
Thomson and Thompson (originally Dupont et Dupond) are Santa Singh and Banta Singh
Prof Cuthbert Calculus (originally Professeur Tryphon Tournesol akak Prof. Sunflower ) is Professor Surajmukhi
Bianca Castafiore is Malika Castafiore (a name inspired from famous singer Malika Pukhraj)

Translation of literary and musical content across languages are often more miss than hit as evident in some of the books’ titles: “Kaala Dweep (Black Island)” and “Samrat Ottokar Ka Raajdand (King Ottokar’s Sceptre)”. One can only imagine the names of the characters and book titles, if they decide to print in Tamil, Bengali or Gujarati.

What makes Devdas tick?

Runa — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 18:40:48 +0000

This post is a kind of 3 in one : a review of a book, a movie and random musings from me.

I just finished reading Orhan Pahmuk’s “The Museum of Innocence”.Pahmuk, the 2006 Nobel Prize winner has written a magnificent, wordy, illuminating and infuriating novel. The book tells the tale of Kemal a rich young businessman from Istanbul and of his obsessive and destructive love for the beautiful (but poor and hence off-limits) young Fusun. His obsession leads him to a passionate affair with her while he is still engaged to the Sorbonne-educated and more suitable Sibel. Ultimately, Kemal’s obsession leads him to create a museum dedicated to Fusun- hence the title. A couple of things struck me while reading the novel. The first : there is so much similarity between the society of Istanbul in the 70s and that of upper middle class India that I experienced in the 80s. Pahmuk is known for delving into the dichotomy of Turkey as an Islamic and as a European society and the inherent conflicts that arise between the demands of conservatism and the pull of openness. In this story too, Kemal, his fiance Sibel and Fusun as well as Kemal’s set of rich,Westernized friends constantly undergo turmoil as they struggle to fit into the mores of traditional Turkish society while trying to taste freedom sexual and otherwise. There is a lot of lipservice and hypocrisy which definitely reminded me of India! The second thing that resonated: while I loved the book and admire Pahmuk’s prose, it was very difficult to feel empathy for the “hero” Kemal. His behavior through the book reminded me of another hero – one I have always actively disliked – the pathetic, wimpy, tragic Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyaya creation – Devdas.

Coincidentally, just last week I finally watched the latest spin on Devdas, the Abhay Deol starrer “DevD”. This movie caused quite a buzz with its re-imagining of the Devdas tale in modern times. DevD is a semi – watchable , noirish film about – who else?- DevD a spoilt , self- indulgent rich kid unable to come to terms with his love for Paro. Like every other Devdas before him, he drowns his sorrows in drinks and drugs. What can I say? Whether it is Abhay Deol, Dilip Kumar or Sharukh Khan ( in Snajay Leela Bhansali’s ornate “Devdas” starring Aishwarya Rai), I am unable to muster any empathy for the title character. His motivations are unclear to me. His behavior is immature, wimpy and ultimately his destruction is self -wrought. My impatience with the Devdas character is his inability to act rationally. I just do not get what is so fascinating about self indulgence and self pity. Why does the tragic male lover , a Devdas like character keep reappearing in various interpretations? Pahmuk’s book is just the latest in a long string of movies and books about such tragic heroes.

Coming back to the reviews: By all means read “The Museum of Innocence”. Ialso recommend watching “DevD”- its flawed but has its moments. ( The high point for me was a song whose lyrics go ” Touba tera jalwa/Touba tera pyaar/Yeh Emotional/Atyachar!”- I kid you not!)

I am pretty sure I am missing out on some deeper symbolism here . I welcome any input from our readers – anyone out there like or understand Devdas? Please educate me!

Only celebrities can reincarnate as celebrities

Santosh — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 05:26:39 +0000

In recent days, there has been increased chatter in desi media about Walter Semkiw’s books. [HT]

Did you know that Mahatma Gandhi has been reincarnated as Van Jones, the celebrated American civil rights and environmental activist who was named Time magazine’s “environmental hero” in the US in 2008?

“Objective evidence that forms the basis of past life studies prove that Jones is the reincarnation of Gandhi,” world’s leading past life researcher and best-selling author from the US Walter Semkiw told IANS in an interview.

World’s leading past life researcher? He certainly seems to have the market cornered in that segment. So what is the big evidence that ties Van Jones to Gandhi?

Jones’ facial bone structure and features are the same as that of Gandhi’s, Semkiw said.
“His manners and body language are also similar to that of the Indian freedom fighter and he does the same things Gandhi did in Africa during the 1930s – campaign for civil rights. Like Gandhi, who was named Time magazine man of the year in 1930, Jones figured in Time’s list of most influential men in 2008 and in several other magazines,” the researcher said.

So basically being bald, bespectacled, and a Time magazine list alum qualifies Jones as Gandhi’s reincarnation. But wait, it only gets better.

Amitabh Bachchan, revealed the doctor, is the reincarnation of famous American actor Edward Booth and “displays all his characteristics”, while former president APJ Abdul Kalam is the present-day avatar of Tipu Sultan, the first Indian ruler to have used rockets in battles.
“Shah Rukh Khan is the reincarnation of yester year Hindu actress-singer and dancer Sadhana Bose. Social worker Annie Besant has been born as Maneka Gandhi….”

The premises of his books seems to be something along the lines of such and such celebrity gets reincarnated as a different celebrity and predictably mention of Indian celebrities with supernatural mumbo-jumbo seems to have the desi media literally on its knees begging for more. Of course, no media outlet has raised simple questions like: what is the scientific validity of this “research” on reincarnation and, even if valid, why are only celebrities being reincarnated as celebrities?

On a side note, some of you may wonder about someone with the twitter name of “reincarnation” railing against the scientific validity of that very concept. The twitter name is just that, a pseudonym, and has nothing to do with the supernatural acts.

Arvind Adiga wins Man Booker

Anantha — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 01:01:39 +0000

Chennai born Arvind Adiga has won the 2008 Man Booker prize and £50,000 prize for for his debut novel The White Tiger. Adiga, only the fourth first time novelist to win the prize, beat out established names such as Amitava Kumar and Sebastian Barry to win the prize for his novel that the Guardian describes as “a bracingly modern novel about the dark side of the new India”.

Adiga was born in Chennai in 1974 and was raised partly in Australia. Having studied at Columbia and Oxford universities, he became a journalist, and has written for Time magazine and many British newspapers. He lives in Mumbai.