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Anant Pai, an Indian educationist, is known as the father of Indian comics. He is the creator of “Amar Chitra Katha” and started the series in 1967 with India Book House. Through this book, children were introduced to traditional Indian folk tales, mythological stories and biographies of historical characters. Famously called “Uncle Pai”, he was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award on February 19, 2011. Pai was also honoured with the Hindi Sahitya Akademi Award for presenting literature in a beautiful form and giving it a new height by presenting it in the “Chitrakatha” style. He passed away on February 24, 2011, due to a heart attack.
The comic characters created by Pai are popular not only among children, but also among the youth and adults.
Early Life of Anant Pai
Anant Pai was born on September 17, 1929, in Karkala city of Karnataka. His parents passed away when he was just two years old. His maternal grandfather took care of him afterwards. Pai was married to 20-year-old Lalita in 1961.
Education
Anant Pai received his early education from Orient School in Mahim, Mumbai. Later, he did his higher education in Chemistry in Mumbai.
Career
After graduating from the University of Mumbai, Pai joined the comic division of The Times of India and published Indian editions of comics such as “Phantom” and “Mandrake”. He started the “Amar Chitra Katha” series with India Book House in 1967. Through this, children were introduced to traditional Indian folk tales, mythological stories and biographies of historical characters. In 1980, he started a children’s magazine called “Tinkle”. Pai also started India’s first comic-cartoon syndicate, “Rang Rekha Features”, of which he was the director till the end.
Pai’s comic strips were published in many magazines. He also made two video films named “Vedic Truth” and “Secrets of Success. Besides comics, Pai was also a specialist in personality development. He founded “The Parth Institute of Personality Development” in 1978 for children and adolescents.
Achievements and Honours of Anant Pai
Anant Pai was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award on February 19, 2011.
In 1996, he was awarded the Hindi Sahitya Akademi Award.
Anant Pai was given the Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation Award in 2001.
In 2002, Anant Pai was awarded the Priyadarshini Akademi Award.
Google’s search pages (both international and India) remembered Pai by putting out a comic-style doodle of him on his 82nd birthday on September 17, 2011. In 2012, a company managing Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle since 2007, released an Amar Chitra Katha title on Pai.
In his lifetime, Pai introduced characters such as Phantom, Mandrake and Flash Gordon in India and created fun content for everyone from kids to adults.
The Idea of Immortal Chitra Katha
Anant Pai moved to Mumbai at the age of 12. He completed his schooling here and later pursued higher education in chemistry, physics and chemical engineering at the Institute of Chemical Technology. He was a dual degree holder from the University of Bombay.
Later, he joined the books division of The Times of India and was behind ‘Indrajal Comics’, famous for publishing comic book series such as “The Phantom” and “Mandrake”.
The idea behind launching a comic book series dedicated to Indian culture and history occurred to Pai when a quiz show was airing on Doordarshan in February 1967. In the show, the contestants promptly answered questions about Greek mythology, but could not respond to a question related to Indian mythology. Disappointed to have witnessed this, Pai left his job at The Times of India in the same year and launched “Amar Chitra Katha”. The book dealt with Hindu mythology, Indian folk tales, and biographies of historical persons. But when he approached publishers with the idea of “Amar Chitra Katha”, he had to listen to “no” from most places. But he did not give up, and eventually, his “idea” became a reality.
Conclusion
Uncle Pai’s style of presenting the characters was very interesting and very unique. Through “Amar Chitra Katha”, Pai made a meaningful effort to entice children and adults by presenting traditional folk tales, mythological stories and historical characters in a quirky, colourful and attractive style. He achieved great success in this endeavour.
