The Magical World of Amar Chitra Katha

The credit for the post goes to Ankit Vyas, who asked me if I knew Anant Pai. (Because of my name..Divya Pai 😃) And my reply was I only know him through Amar Chitra katha 😁.

Most of you, if you have grown up in 80s and 90s, would have spent at least a part of your days reading Tinkle and Amar Chitra Katha. Me too☺️…

When I was a little girl, I had a huge collection of these awesome comics. My father would take us to the second hand book shop and we would select some new titles and about 10 to 12 books would be bound up in a hard bind so as to keep them in good condition. And everyday, I would select one title, which my mother would read out to me. I still remember her reading out Buddha’s story. “Buddham Sharanam Gacchami. Dhammam Sharanam Gacchami. Sangam Sharanam Gacchami.” Sounded awesome even though I didn’t really understand what it was all about. Later as I grew older, I started reading on my own, and idle afternoons would be spent in the magical world of kings and queens, Gods and Goddesses. 

Amar Chitra Katha sowed in me the seeds  of devotion. I loved reading the stories of great saints like Meerabai….How Meerabai’s mother told her when she was a little girl, that her husband would be Krishna, and ever since then she was drowned in his love…so much drowned that the world didn’t matter to her.
Aandal’s story about how she would everyday dress up and wear the garland for the deity in Ranganatha temple, and how she ultimately became one with lord Ranganatha…. The story of the completely blind saint Soordas who though blind by birth was blessed with divine vision to compose poems about lord Krishna…
There was a book about Jesus Christ….which made me feel so sad. I couldn’t really understand why he had to be crucified. And wonder of wonders he rose up again to light up hope in the hearts of his followers…
There were stories about Vishnu, Shiva, Ganesha, Indra….A lovely book about Shiva and Parvati, how Ma Parvati did severe penance…the pictures in the book still come before my eyes, Shiva coming disguised and teasing Ma Parvati about why she was doing such severe penance for one who wasn’t worthy, and Ma getting angry with him…and then their happy reunion…Other stories of how Ma Parvati created lord Ganesha, and how he got his elephant head…The stories of Dashavatar…Stories of devotees like Prahlad, Dhruva, Sudama…
There were stories of wisdom from Panchatantra, Jataka tales…tales of humour about Akbar- Birbal, Tenali Raman…
Inspirational stories about freedom fighters, revolutionaries, stories from history like Padmini, Ashoka, Chandragupta Maurya, Chanakya..
One of my especially favourite book was about Ramana Maharshi, I can’t describe the feeling I got reading about him…such a gentle beautiful soul…
Even today I can’t resist reading a book of Amar Chitra Katha. In fact, I recently bought a special issue called “Shakti” and “stories of Krishna”. I read out the books to my kids like my mother used to read out to me ☺️
Do you read Amar Chitra Katha too? Which is your favourite?