Illustrated stories and an illustrious writer

No sooner than three days since I wrote my last post about the start of the 'death march' of my emotional relatives, the news came today of the demise of another illustrious member of that group - Mr. Anant Pai.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anant_Pai

Most outside India (and sadly most inside either) may not have heard of Mr. Pai but he has been a driving force in the life of children in India over the last few decades. You see, Pai was the creator of a number of comic books in India, the most popular series of them being the Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle. The books were aimed at the 8 to 14 year old group, the key age where children start understanding the world and start shaping their moral character.

The story of how Mr. Pai started his career in this field itself is fairly interesting. The story goes that the idea behind starting a comic book series devoted to Indian culture and history came to Pai from a quiz contest aired on Doordarshan in February 1967, in which participants could easily answer questions pertaining to Greek mythology, but were unable to reply to the question "In the Ramayana, who was Rama's mother?" Pai actually did something about this. He dipped into this huge treasure trove of the folklore both in India and elsewhere and converted the gems into pictorial stories in a way that could be easily digested by kids. His significant work in this field is probably the single biggest contribution in converting the traditional oral tradition of India into the more modern written format.

I have spent countless hours during my childhood days devouring many of these stories. I was happy to see that after a lull these comics are being reprinted in India and are selling like hotcakes. It is not easy to convert a story into a pictorial form without losing its integrity. Pai was a master in doing this and his creations have been cherished over the years and am sure will remain in readers' memories for years to come.
Interestingly, I am seeing the trend of visualization crossing the boundaries of 'kid magazines' and into the business world. Recent books like Back of the Napkin and Visual Meetings are bringing this concept into the business world. It takes a lot of effort to simplify a complex concept and explain it elegantly. Being visual beings, we understand and process pictures much better than words, as we are naturally born to do so. One of my hopes is to master my visual craft further and do something in this space. If you have enjoyed reading comics - be it by Pai or others - and love the simplicity and expressive nature of the medium, I encourage you to read Scott McCloud's Making Comics, where he describes the art and science of this beautiful medium.

In the meanwhile, the death march continues... My prayers for Mr. Pai and his family - for boldly going where no one dared to go and for preserving the treasures of the past for generations to come.