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Chandamama

Discussion in 'Snippets of Life (Non-Fiction)' started by GeetaKashyap, Apr 4, 2019.

  1. Mistt

    Mistt IL Hall of Fame

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    Geeta,
    If you write about your childhood that was filled with your imaginations and etc, I don't be shocked because my childhood was also same as you. I still remember all my cute imaginations, doubts and it is fun to recall them.:grinning:
     
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  2. GeetaKashyap

    GeetaKashyap IL Hall of Fame

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    Ayyo, it is so embarrassing now but then those thoughts were so real! Chalo, some day in future let us entertain our fellow IL'tes !:beer-toast1::roflmao:
     
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  3. Novalis

    Novalis Gold IL'ite

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    I spent my early childhood in an isolated cantonment almost mistaken for a rainforest with dotted buildings. During that stay, once, my next door grown-up neighbor inquired the buggy-eyed three-year old me swinging like a bonobo on the landing grill of our apartment if I wanted to keep myself occupied without breaking a bone. Chocolate? No. Toy? No. What do you want? That comic book with pictures. She gifted me that comic book. My earliest recollection of taking shine to a comic.

    The toothy me didn't know a language to read but would exclaim away at the vibrant colors and funny contours of the images in the book.

    I read less of Chandamama compared to other folk comics like Tinkle and Amar Chitra Katha.

    India was bhai-bhai with Russia back then. Dad used to bring home Russian comics and magazines from his library. Despite the novelty of imported comics, our modest Indian comics were beguiling with shrilling characters and upright pony tails on cover pages deserving the unsplit attention of a wild toddler. Brushing aside the glazed comics, clutching the suspenseful artwork of the local comics, there was no way these unsettled beckonings could be ignored. Would the recklessly inquiring man fall off from the balcony? Would the potli traveler escape the crisis? No passing child would have ignored the anxious undertakings of these character glimpses.

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    Folk and mythological comics were raided and hoarded.

    In the same (junglee) dwelling, a cheering friend would invite others to foregather at her place with our story-telling belongings. We would assemble with a crinkled Tinkle, loosely held ACK, little-brother half eaten Jataka to glorify the event with our valuable preserve. Times have changed but the ethos hasn't. Geeta, you might have presided with the iconic 'Vikram and Betaal' but my Jataka wonder (toothy excuse: all pages lost in a campfire except for one!) is no less a contribution to your play date.

    You have the enchantment in you to unite the widespread (comics) fealty across all our childhood wanderings to esprit de corps in IL.
     
    Last edited: Apr 14, 2019
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  4. GeetaKashyap

    GeetaKashyap IL Hall of Fame

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    How cute![​IMG]

    One question: :thinking: Is this a patented formula to turn a Bonobo kid into a sophisticated Angrezi Pandit?

    What a fantastic selection of images! Even an adult can't ignore such vividly expressive images; they speak louder than the words!

    You are so right when you say, "Geeta, you might have presided with the iconic 'Vikram and Betaal' but my Jataka wonder (toothy excuse: all pages lost in a campfire except for one!) is no less a contribution to your play date." Chandamama, Amar Chitra Katha, Jataka Tales, Bharata-Bharati booklets, tin-tin, Phantom comics etc were all unique and excellent. The only area Chandamama scored was in that it has seen several generations of kids right from the little boy Cheenia to little girls Shravs or Anusha!
     
    Last edited: Apr 14, 2019
  5. Viswamitra

    Viswamitra IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Geeta,

    Thank you for presenting your mrmorable childhood experience. Everyone prior to digital revolution would have fond memories of reading Chandamama. Who can forget closing eyes and try to answer the questions asked by Bedal before reading Vikram's answer? We read it in Tamil.
     
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  6. GeetaKashyap

    GeetaKashyap IL Hall of Fame

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    Thanks, Viswamitra Sir, for sharing your memories and joining the group #MeTooChandamamaFan! Hope you completed your whirlwind India visit & had good time.:)
     
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  7. Novalis

    Novalis Gold IL'ite

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    There were less distractions in the jungle entrapment. Imagine, the delight of parents on knowing that the jumpy kids could never run afoul in secluded installations where a human child and a baby monkey were indistinguishable. When a typhoon felled the junglee encampment, I inquired with my dad: Will our building collapse? He responded: No, this building is constructed by the communist Russians. To a naive child unfamiliar with both Marx and Solzhenitsyn, she thought a communist was someone who builds robust houses in India. Mitigated distractions, google-less days to verify if the building was in fact erected by the commies, inventive ploys of the elders were the pinnacle of my childhood, the 'angrez' in me awakened much later after the russian fiasco.

    Rumour has it: Back in the day, there was some Russian hand in the planning and construction of these junglee cantonments in India. As no Indian architect would have built such preposterous layout inimical for Indian weather.
     
    Last edited: Apr 23, 2019
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  8. GeetaKashyap

    GeetaKashyap IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear @Novalis ,

    Studious, stupid or silly, those formative years were always beautiful.:hearteyes::tonguecrazy: Thanks for sharing those lovely memories with me.:thumbup:
     

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