Tinkle tells me why....

Last week, Uncle pai's death was the talk of the town -(Twitter and Facebook I mean). One fine morning we all woke up and realized that he was actually 80+ and he died. It was not a shock - I have never tried to read about uncle pai or his health ever. I have to admit that i was a little guilty, cos i was trying to find every bit of news about Steve Job's health all these years but not about this great man who accounts for almost 60% of my childhood. I mean I know all of us have to die one day but for some weird reason i never "expected" uncle pai to die. Probably he was also a "character" engraved in mind along with shikari shambu, suppandi and Ajay. C'mon shambu cannot die right? Its like Mickey mouse- they are always there deep inside your mind.

Tinkle was probably the first book I ever read. 1st std maybe. My sister got a copy home from the school library and at that age all I wanted to do was get my hands on whatever she had. I initially followed only raghu and suppandi. I found shikari shambu boring, though I always drew his wife in my drawing notebook (i found her very cute). I skipped ajay and his adventures with his dog (Raja?) cos I actually got scared mid-way. Yeah. As years progressed, i read all except shikari shambu. This was when the obsession with Tinkle grew so much that my mom decided to get the annual subscription (after much pleading - 60rs a year was a LOT i guess).

I clearly remember our newspaper vendor throw in the tinkle on the 5th of every month. Sister and me had this rule that whoever gets to "touch" it first reads it first. 5th of every month we woke up very early. For almost 3 years. Years passed and Tinkle got bigger- the digests came out and then the much awaited "Holiday edition". For some reason holiday editions were never available at easwari lending library (always out on rounds and i have a good guess as to where it might have gone - dandilsa? :D). The scrawny man in the library insisted i read "Gokulam" and I used to make a face at him. Gokulam was way down in the ladder compared to Tinkle. Starting with in- attractive covers and too many "do it yourself" stuff than stories I had to fight with mom for buying tinkle and not Gokulam. (It was way cheaper than Tinkle though).Our only choice was to search the higginbothams at central railway station. From then on, train rides just got better with Tinkle. I don't think there has been a single train journey -even an hr's trip like Chennai-Vellore without buying ourselves a copy of Tinkle. I would have written to Uncle Pai atleast 5 times asking him to publish my "It happened to me" ( most of it would have been a lie) and "Tinkle tells you why". In return, we used to get Uncle pai's handwritten letters saying he was sorry and a box of the most amazing erasers.(Very cute and colorful ones). what joy!. Looking back, he really is an awesome guy-imagine writing letters to children every single time.I wish i had those letters now. As years went by and five find outers, malory towers, nancy drew started getting more attention, i started lending Tinkle to younger cousins. But there was this special bond with Tinkle - i HAD to get it back from cousins.Losing it meant a big quarrel and parents had to pacify us. I actually read a couple of Tinkle digests last year - have to admit, the stories were very childish and I finished the comic in 5minutes but there is SOMETHING about those familiar faces- the illustration- the onomatopoeic words, kapish uncoiling his tail that makes it really really hard to resist a smile. It is truly a blast into the past - a familiar world that you wish you could jump right into.

There are about two huge boxes of Tinkle ( late 80's, early 90's and mid 90's) at home back in Chennai. Suddenly, they seem more valuable than they were earlier.

Uncle Pai, you are sorely missed.