For a moment I went all smiles, forgetting the
drudgery my mind was bearing and daydreamer that I am I started weaving images
of my memory with the Mustached Oldie.
I couldn’t help myself intervening and saying
“Diamond Comics” – for it was truly an era the digests ruled my childhood. Those long summer vacations where I was
hopped up in bed –eyes glued to my new copy of Chacha Chaudhary .Those fights
with my sister as to who gets to read the new comic firsts -yes , our love of
the comics was so intense , we ended up pulling up each other’s hairs at times
, forcing our dear Mom to intervene – and then blaming each other when Mom
stashed the collection away.
The world was so colorful: A
stupid thief tries to rob Chacha or his dear friends . Chacha( *jiska dimaag
computer se bhi tez chalta hai ) outsmarts him ,with the strength of Sabu (who’s
from Jupiter). In background, our motu Chachi cooking food all the time; Rocket
– the tiny-miny tail wagging dog ;the comedial efforts at theft by the dual jodi
of Gobar Singh and Dhamaka Singh; the villainous Raka – his name has made a
permanent place in my mind with all things evil.
The stories revolved around them
and were same always, but somehow every single story (I might have read at
least 5,000 of them, not kidding, it might be more) had a quality that drew me
to it.
My sister and mine love of the
comics was so extreme – my Dad spend an entire Sunday trying to locate a book dealer who would rent
out those books for cheaper , to save us from spending his hard earned money. (Well you have to
remember those were the days Internet/mobiles didn’t exist –and one had to
actually travel around letting his eyes do the google job)
And the delights of our simple minds when Dad
bought us a “Double Digest” instead of the simple one!
How I fancied a Pagdi (turban)
then, after all it was Chacha’s pride and whenever my Mom forget her red
dupatta around – it would end up on my head. :)
Diamond Comics had other geniuses
characters as well – Pinky , Billu , but nothing beat the charisma of Chacha’s
world .
Now as I think of it I did had an
addiction in childhood –an addiction I am fond of and still hold close. I still
can remember the pain I felt when my Mom told me on phone she’s finally got
ridden of my stashed collection of the comics (Well, I can’t blame her , I was
in college then – and she had thought her girl would be mature enough not to
read them anymore) .
At least, now I know what I would
be doing this weekend –reliving an era created by the genius Cartoonist Pran!!
