Tuesday, March 1, 2011
RIP Uncle Pai
Just a short note to the guy who taught me some of my first science lessons. Anant Pai or Uncle Pai as readers of Tinkle know him was the creator of fantastic characters like Shikari Shambhu, Suppandi and Tantri the Mantri. He also had these short pieces in every issue where he explained simple science that one could test at home. I had long wished he was asked to design our school text books, we could have learnt stuff that was more practical and also in a fun manner. Uncle Pai is also why I can almost fluently read Tamil and Malayalam. Having lived outside South India, it was reading Amar chitra katha in Tamil and Malayalam that helped me pick up the languages. It seems like an era has ended. Truly how wonderful a person you have to be to have influenced close to two generations. May you rest in peace uncle.
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1 comment:
Short, sweet piece.
All I can say is that I wasn't much of a comics person. I started reading (as a hobby) at age six, but went directly from ABC books in kindergarten to Enid Blyton classics and Panchtantra. Throughout the years I never touched a single comic book or graphic novel. Sometimes I wonder is that bad?
Then I also think about how you kept up with your mother tongue because of the Amar Chitra Kathas. I do wish I'd have taken baby steps back then and picked up kids' books in Bengali. Somehow doing that as an adult is a bit embarrassing. :-)
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