Back in the nineties, when tablets were non-existent, kids spent their time playing outdoors, travelling to grand parents’ villages and reading comics that simply borrowed stories from real life.
And four such characters that were labelled under Diamond Comics influenced a lot of youngsters who spent time engrossed in these books.
Chacha Chaudhary, the most popular among the lot, followed by Billoo, Pinki and Raman were created by Pran Kumar Sharma, who passed away at the age of 75 due to cancer on Wednesday.
People who grew up reading these comics, are sure to have seen the calm face of the cartoonist and author on the covers. And, these comics did create a lot of impact on a whole generation.
A few Hyderabadis go back in time and recall how these characters dominated most part of their childhood.
Shilpa Singh, a 26 year old development professional is desperate to find out where these comics are available right now.
Quoting the famous line, “Chacha Chaudhary’s brain works faster than the computer”, she says, “I used to follow all the characters that were published by Diamond comics. Apart from Chacha Chaudhary, I also used to be fascinated with Billoo’s character, whose eyes were never visible,” she laughs, adding that he was an icon much before Justin Bieber’s came into existence (referring to his hairstyle).
Recalling that most of the boys wanted to be like Billoo and girls like the character Pinki, she transcends into a world of nostalgia.
“We used to live in a place that was neither a complete city, nor a village and we used to make annual trips to our grandparents’ village. These books used to be savoured during those train rides,” she elaborates.
Shravani Misra, 17-year old Engineering student, also recalls how train journeys were exciting because she got to get a copy of Chacha Chaudhary. “I enjoyed reading the adventures and the mis-adventures of Chacha Chaudary, that also triggered my creative side,” she says.
Another, Surya Shruthi, a management professional says she read them long before Amar Chitra Katha’s Tinkle, or the DC, Marvel and Archie comics. “There is a huge sense of familiarity because the humour in these stories was very simple, inspired from instances right from our own households,” she says, where the jokes revolved around gol gappas, uncles, and laddoos.
Though the illustrations weren’t fancy, neither was the quality of paper that they were published on, these books were extremely popular. And, along with the story lines, the cost, the availability of the comics in local language and the information that was provided – all count as factors.
“I never read these comics in English. They were translated to English much later. And if you look at the characters, none of them were violent or rude. There was a lot of monkey business, but all very simple,” says Shilpa, explaining how Raman’s character was created to bring importance to national integration and communal harmony.
Another fan, Disha Bhandari’s favourite character is Sabu, who is from planet Jupiter -- the reason how most people knew of its existence.
“I don’t remember missing a single issue, and they made me want to learn more about computers and technology. I love how the outcast and strong, burly alien Sabu from Jupiter travelled places seated on top of an aeroplane,” she points out.
Pran Kumar Sharma started his career as a cartoonist in the Delhi-based newspaper Milap and his claim to fame was when he created the character Chacha Chaudhary, assisted by his alien-counterpart Sabu. This was for the magazine Lotpot in the year 1969.
It was the time when western super heroes dominated the cartoon space. This was followed by characters Shrimatiji, Billoo, Pinki which also were quite popular. Raman, was a character that was created with a theme to promote national integration.
All these comics were originally published in Hindi.
Chacha Chaudary comic series was adapted into a television show, much later, in 2002 and was aired on Sahara one. The character was played by Raghubir Yadav who is a popular face in Bollywood.
Pran Kumar Sharma also founded the Pran Media Institute, New Delhi in the year 1999 that offers a wide range of courses.
