'Amar Chitra Katha' creator Anant Pai dies of heart attack

It would have been a rare household in the 80s and 90s where fights would not have broken out among children over who would get to read Tinkle first.

On Thursday, the creator of the monthly magazine Tinkle and the man behind the iconic Indian comic series Amar Chitra Katha, Anant Pai died after a heart attack. Uncle Pai, as he was better known, was recovering from surgery after a fall that broke his hip last week.

The loss of this beloved ‘Uncle’ sent a wave of grief over social-networking sites where, within minutes of Pai’s demise, people began posting their memories associated with Amar Chitra Katha, Tinkle, and, of course, Uncle Pai.

Pai was a legend of the Indian comic industry. As a junior executive with a leading media group, he played a key role in launching the Indrajal comic series. In 1967, after observing the lack of interesting books for children on Indian mythology, he started Amar Chitra Katha (ACK). “He was passionate about creating an engaging educational experience for children,” said Reena Puri, editor, ACK.

ACK enthralled generations of Indian kids with pictorial stories from Indian mythology, history and the freedom struggle. “While Amar Chitra Katha was a history lesson of sorts, he wanted Tinkle to be a source of general knowledge. The Anu’s Club section in the monthly magazine was the story of a group of children hanging out with Uncle Anu — a character based on Pai himself — learning about science in a fun manner,” said Puri.