As I was reading the comic books that were collected meticulously decades ago and were neatly bound and numbered with volume numbers, my mind went to those beautiful childhood days when my younger brother and I used to spend our entire pocket money for buying them. We used to get very little pocket money, but watching us spend the little sum on buying comics and enjoying reading them, my father increased our allowance so that we could buy more. He suggested to us the way to maintain them and asked us to get them bound in volumes, so that it would be more organised. This suggestion motivated us to maintain them well.
We were fascinated to read them again and again and it used to take us to a different world.
Dalton Comics, Indrajal comics, Phantom, Superman, Spiderman, Mandrake the Magician, Zoro the Masked Hero, Amar Chitra Kathan. While we enjoyed comics the most, my father would get us Chandamama magazines, which had a great collection of stories, and one can never never forget those of Vikram and Beetal.
While today’s children are much better and brilliant than we were in our younger days, thanks to awareness, ever-developing technological advancements, new innovations and methods, handling of gadgets, reading stories through Kindle and other methods, do they get the thrill and curiosity we had in our childhood days, while waiting eagerly for fresh and new editions of comics?
The thrill, the happiness they generate even today is an absolute treasure which no money could buy.
It steadily improved our thinking process and gradually improved our reading and learning skills, which also helped in better performance in schools. Reading is a great habit as it improves our thinking. Most important, precious time is effectively spend. These wonderful comics helped to shape us in the formative years. Wonder if children of today enjoy lives as we did in our childhood days.
Under pressure in the competitive world, the smiling faces are giving way to worried faces. Childhood is not the age to worry about uncertainties in store and about the future. It’s the best time to enjoy learning. Though cartoons are available on TV, do they teach the importance of reading and learning newer things that goes together with schooling.
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