Anant Pai, The Creator Of Amar Chitra Katha Is No More

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | February 24, 2011

Anant Pai, the adoptive 'Uncle' of generations of Indian children died today at 5 pm. Pai suffered a massive heart attack this morning. He was 81. Popularly known as Uncle Pai, the creator of Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle comics was born on 17^th September 1929.

Uncle Pai was a renowned educationalist who created Amar Chitra Katha series in 1967, along with the India Book House publishers, and which retold traditional Indian folk tales, mythological stories, and biographies of historical characters. In 1980, he launched Tinkle, a children's anthology, which was started under Rang Rekha Features, India's first comic and cartoon syndicate, that lasted till 1998, with him as the Managing Director.

Today, Amar Chitra Katha, sells about three million comic books a year, in English and more than 20 Indian languages, and has sold about 100 million copies since it inception in 1967 by Anant Pai, and in 2007 was taken over by ACK Media.

Born in Karkala, Karnataka to Venkataraya and Susheela Pai, he lost his parents at the age of two. At the age of twelve, he came to Mumbai, where he studied in Orient School, Mahim. He studied chemistry, physics and chemical technology at the University of Bombay Department of Chemical Technology (UDCT now UICT) and was a dual degree holder from the University of Bombay.

Uncle Pai had earned many awards and accolades through out his life. Some of awards are - Karpoorchand Puraskar of Uttar Pradesh Bal Kalyan Sansthan (1994), Yudhvir Memorial Award in Hyderabad (1996), Maharashtra Rajya Hindi Sahitya Academy Award (1996), Dr. T. M. A. Pai Memorial Award in Manipal (1997), University of Bombay Department of Chemical Technology's Distinguished Alumnus Award (1999), Millennium Konkani Sammelan Award, Illinois, U.S.A (2000), Raja Rammohan Roy Library Foundation's Award (2001), Priyadarshni Academy Award (2002), Vishwa Saraswat Sammaan (2003) to name a few.

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