Friday, February 20, 2009

T-004: Tinkle #1

Father of Amar Chitra Katha & Tinkle

Anant Pai, (born 17 September, 1929) popularly known as Uncle Pai, is a renowned educationalist and creator of Indian comics, in particular the Amar Chitra Katha series, which retold traditional Indian folk tales, mythological stories, and biographies of historical characters, and Tinkle, a children's anthology.

Early life

Born in Karkala, Karnataka to Venkataraya and Susheela Pai, he lost his parents at the age of two. At the age of twelve, he came to Mumbai, where he studied in Orient School, Mahim. He studied chemistry, physics and chemical technology at the University of Bombay Department of Chemical Technology (UDCT now UICT) and was a dual degree holder from the University of Bombay (now Mumbai). Endowed with a passion for publishing and comics, his failed attempt at creating a children's magazine (Manav, 1954) was followed by a career as a junior executive in the Times of India books division, putting him in the thick of affairs when Indrajal comics was launched by the Times Group. Indrajal featured reprints of popular American strip characters such as the the Phantom, Mandrake the Magician, and later, indigenous characters like Bahadur and Dara.

The Amar Chitra Katha years

The idea behind starting a comicbook series devoted to Indian culture and history came to Pai from a quiz contest aired on Doordarshan in February 1967, in which participants could easily answer questions pertaining to Greek mythology, but were unable to reply to the question "In the Ramayana, who was Rama's mother?". He left his job and started Amar Chitra Katha the same year, with the help of late G. L. Mirchandani of India Book House, when most other publishers from Allied Publishers to Jaico had rejected the concept. Later, he took on the role of writer, editor and publisher. The series went on to become a publishing milestone for the Indian comic book scene, selling over 86 million copies of about 440 titles.

In 1969, Anant Pai founded Rang Rekha Features, India's first comic and cartoon syndicate, and started the children's magazine Tinkle in 1980. His involvement with the above, and the rapport he shared with his readers earned him the title "Uncle Pai".

Other works

Ramu and Shamu, Kapish, Little Raji, Rekha, Fact Fantasy, Funland and Funtime are some of the comic strips created by Pai, most of which continue to appear in newspapers and magazines. He has written and produced two video films, Ekam Sat (the Vedic Concept of God) and The Secret of Success, in English and Hindi.

Pai's other works include a number of books on personality development for children and teenagers, ("How To Develop Self-confidence", "How to Achieve Success", "How To Develop A Super Memory", UBS Publishers) and a series of audio book versions of Amar Chitra Katha stories, "Storytime with Uncle Pai" (Universal Music India, Dec 2001), where he plays the role of narrator-storyteller.

Awards

  • Karpoorchand Puraskar of Uttar Pradesh Bal Kalyan Sansthan (1994)
  • Yudhvir Memorial Award in Hyderabad (1996)
  • Maharashtra Rajya Hindi Sahitya Academy Award (1996)
  • Dr. T. M. A. Pai Memorial Award in Manipal (1997)
  • University of Bombay Department of Chemical Technology's Distinguished Alumnus Award (1999)
  • Millennium Konkani Sammelan Award, Illinois, U.S.A (2000)
  • Raja Rammohan Roy Library Foundation's Award (2001)
  • Priyadarshni Academy Award (2002)
  • Vishwa Saraswat Sammaan (2003)
(~ From Wikipedia)

Check following links:
  1. http://www.unclepai.com/
  2. http://lambiek.net/artists/p/pai_anant.htm
*****************************************************************
Do you remember the first Tinkle?


Many many thanks to “Ajay Misra” for providing ACK scan.

24 comments:

  1. What did I say about running out of words to praise you :-)

    The last time I forgot to thank Apoorva.. Thank you very much for the lovely ACK.

    And thank you Ajay [and Prabhat] for this wonderful Tinkle..

    ReplyDelete
  2. The 1st tinkle, a treat really! Never read it. Thanks can't say how happy I am to see it. Thanks Ajay and prabhat for it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. What can I say? 2009 seems to be a fantastic year for us Amar Chitra Katha fans:)Keep 'em coming.

    Demonoid Fan

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dimaag ki baatiyan fuse hogay. Thanks:)

    I think this came out at approx. the same timeframe as the Asian games. There never was, is and will be anything like reading that first Tinkle for the first time. We somehow missed the second issue, but after that it was years latter before we skipped an issue( and discontinued). I am not, but was there a strike or something in the 86/87 timeframe which caused the comic to become low-profile for a while?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Why do O get:

    You requested: Tinkle # 001.cbr (12.07 MB)
    Browse prabhatmunnabhai's public files

    Do I need to have an account or something to download it?

    thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  6. My God! The very first Tinkle! Never thought I'll see this one again.

    Thank you, Prabhat & Ajay.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks a lot Prabhat and Ajay - was waiting for Tinkles to be posted. Say, can you guys please post the Mahabharata series from ACK?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thank you Prabhat & Ajay!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I have almost all early issues of Tinkles . In case people want , will scan all these serailwise.

    I am glad everybody is enjoying these.

    Ajay

    ReplyDelete
  10. Sridhar: Welcome! It's really a wonderful gift from Ajay to all of us.

    It’s so nice from you to recalling you forget to say thanks to Apoorva. The contributors are expecting nothing, but a word thanks will certainly encourage them. Apoorva's & other contributors’ heart is big. They are scanning more and more per day without any expectations. Many more are coming. :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Phuktya: Welcome. I was lucky to see this first issue as child. It was my first Tinkle.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Demonoid Fan: Welcome! The hard work is waiting for you this year. :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. kk; Welcome! Download this comics from link down there.

    "Browse prabhatmunnabhai's public files" is above which leads to rest public files of that folder if there is any more.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Deb: Welcome! I was interested to see reaction about Tinkle. It'll help us to continue this series.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Amith Nag: Thanks! We'll continue Tinkle. About Mahabharata series pls check earlier comments, I repeated many times.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Colonel Worobu: Welcome!

    ReplyDelete
  17. AJAY: Welcome! I think you should continue. As there are many new contributors who are helping & ready to help with ACK scans. You are always near to provide missing covers or ACK. Appreciate your attitude to help & always ready to modify your scanning plans respecting others desires. We are really very lucky; all scanning team is very friendly & mature.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Hey..that brings my memory back..I had this issue. Thanks ...would be lovely to read it again

    ReplyDelete
  19. Finally a Tinkle Comics... Thank you prabhat.... u have taken me back some 25 years !!!

    ReplyDelete
  20. TheBlabberingBard: Welcome! :)

    ReplyDelete
  21. Samik: Welcome! I posted some Tinkle collection to check the Public demand. We see there are many friends interested, there will be many more. Ajay have almost all tinkle, but major part in bounded form. We'll try to find a solution. Tinkle series will be continued.

    ReplyDelete
  22. wow its like going back to those sweet old days when we dint even know what computers were. Thanks for writing and sharing it.

    ReplyDelete