“It is for sheer nostalgia,” declares Reena Puri. “We have all grown up reading Amar Chitra Katha (ACK) comics and now want our children to do the same,” says the Executive Director of the ACK, the English comic series started by Anant Pai in 1967.
As someone who’s been with the group for a long time, Reena is completely clued in to what young readers like to read. When she moved to Mumbai exploring various job opportunities in the early 90s, her two little boys made the choice for her. “‘You should join Tinkle comics’, they told me and I walked into the office in 1991,” says Reena. “I never thought of changing my job in the last three decades because where else would I get to read and write comics as part of my job?” she laughs and adds, “Work for me is absolute fun.”
In these many years, however, she has also witnessed a lot of change. “But our readers’ faith in our ability to tell some of the greatest stories remains,” she says. What niggles her is that the world was far more innocent earlier and anybody could be written about. “But now, we choose our titles carefully,” says Reena. However, her love for writing for children always wins at the end of the day.
Reena feels children’s literature should be kept out of debates. Popular literature, like the ACK comics, are unequivocal in viewing, for instance Tipu Sultan as a martyr who went down fighting the British. But there is another school of thought according to which he’s a merciless ruler. “Such issues can lead to controversy, forcing us to discontinue some of our titles. Why should children lose out on certain aspects of their country and the world?” she asks.
There are other sensibilities too that have been imbibed by the group over the years. “Earlier, artists were free in their expressions but now morality creeps in to every illustration,” she says, adding that they also avoid stereotyping.
Reena was mentored by the legendary Uncle Pai on writing for children. She moved to Bengaluru in 2005 and became the main driving force behind ACK. According to her, the team follows his vision of writing authentic stories so that our rich heritage and repertoire of mythology and legends reach as many children as possible.
“I find parents want children to be more familiar with their roots and demand more Indian than Western content. That is why our folk tales and mythological heroes, biographies of visionaries, legends and lores are more popular,” she says.
The ACK comics are characterised by their iconic artwork, narratives, and the research that goes into each story. “The effort to gather accurate information and to keep the language simple stands as strong today as it did when Pai was around,” says Reena. As an example, she cites how the writer of the book on Mother Teresa stayed in the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata to understand the working of the sisters who shared the most delightful stories about the Mother.
Though ACK comics have gone digital via apps, e-comics and video games, the demand for print copies never wanes, according to Reena, who adds that South India leads in readership. “The engagement and involvement of readers — who span a few generations — is overwhelming,” she says.
Based on distributors’ feedback, many stories have also been printed in regional languages such as Kannada, Hindi, Bengali and Tamil. Strong on its traditional content, the team is now focussing on collecting more of regional stories and contemporary classics as well besides taking up themes like sports, environmentalists, and path breaking women in India.
Reena admits it is not easy to write for children. “The feeling of doing something good and communicating responsibly...it is pure joy.”
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The first title to be published, scripted by Pai, and illustrated by Ram Waeerkar, was Krishna , in 1970.
Today, ACK has more than 500 titles, covering mythological tales, historical figures and modern-day legends.
