Chacha translates to paternal
uncle, a fatherly figure in India, much like the evergreen way of
addressing every elderly ‘uncle’, an English word that has taken over the basic
word of native languages - a Chacha is
someone who is seen as an elderly, caring figure.
For kids he is the benevolent
problem-solver who never says no, gaining, thus, respect and acceptance. India's first Prime
Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru was lovingly called Chacha Nehru and his birthday on
November 14 is observed as the Children's Day every year.
Children in our societies address
anyone as Chacha who is beyond the age of being seen as Bhaiya (the elder
brother) and is in the same age-group that their fathers are in.
Though Chaudhary is a surname in
many communities, it is also a widely used title of respect, found across
castes and religions. It symbolizes the position of eminence and centrality of
the persons - of the elderly figures or respected members of communities to
whom the people look up to – yes, the eminence may be restricted to the
immediate locality of the person or may traverse across a large social and
geographical cross section.
Pranji gave us this sort of character
in his Chacha Chaudhary – an average built elderly Chacha with a thick white
moustache who always carries a wooden walking stick – he was pure middle class
– like many people in our immediate surroundings – caring and helping elderly
people - and he was Chaudhary because of his wisdom that was always ready to
help others and no matter what, he found solution of every tricky situation –
that was our Chacha Chaudhary in our childhood that we so lovingly adopted –
and he was the only Indian comic book character at that time with a strong
readership among adults as well – in fact, my initiation with comic book
reading was with a Chacha Chaudhary comic book given by an uncle.
(Collage created from photographs sourced from the Internet)
Pran translates to ‘life’ in
English. The Cartoonist Pran’s illustrations and his writings made Chacha Chaudhary
and his other creations an inseparable and lively part of our childhood days.
Pranji's central characters in
his comic books were typically middle class. Elderly characters like Chacha
Chaudhary, his wife, his brother or Shrimatiji whom we found in our families,
in our societies, were instantly connecting.
He created young characters as
well, again from the typical Indian middle class - like Billoo or Pinki whom we
could naturally identify with.
And to satisfy our appetite for
superhero appearances, something a must for every comic book fan of that age, we
had characters like Sabu and Raka from Pranji.
Pranji created essentially middle
class characters, weaved around the social and family atmosphere of the middle
class societies, and added to them elements of humour to develop his stories - with
some ‘superhero and supervillain sort of characters.
His characters were much like you
and me - their problems and situations were identifiable - and their solutions
in comic book style results extended the desire to see what would happen next,
something that addressed the concerns of child’s mind – giving us the pure
pleasure of reading a comic book.
The illustrator in him designed
them like that. The writer in him wrote them like that.
One more thing - and the
essential one to mention - for many in my generation, among the earliest and the
most frequent reference to the computer was the Chacha Chaudhary punch-line - Chacha
Chaudhary's mind works faster than a computer. The real computer, the physical
access to it, came much later.
But the life that gave us so many
precious memories of our childhood is no more. Battling cancer, he passed away
on August 5 night.
Though it was a long, long ago
when I stopped reading comic books, probably when I was in Class VIII, the
memories were still so connected that I found myself writing about my comic
book reading days – that is the Chacha Chaudhary’s Pran Sahab for me, and for
many others – that is the legend of Pran Sahab for me.
Rest in Peace Pran Sahab..
Thanks for giving me some quality
memories to cherish, to feel happy about when reflecting back on life.