Recently Sid shared some of his super hero creations with us. And that created a ripple of nostalgic memories, a blast from the past.
Around 15+ years back, I was hooked to some Indian comics when I spent some years of my life in North India. Most of these comics were in Hindi and very few in English. Everyone in school read Raj comics or Diamond comics and even I tried reading a few of them and instantly fell in love with them. I am pretty sure that folks who stay in South India will not be aware of these comics, since most of these were in Hindi.
I gave myself a memory test and tried to remember as many characters from these comics as possible, and to my surprise, I could remember most of them, though I seem to have forgotten some of them. We stayed in a layout called Sonari West layout and there was a market very close (at walking distance) called Kaagal Nagar (I have no idea what that means). We often used to visit this market and get everything we wanted from there. There was a small comic books shop which would lend these books like a library does. I think they charged some 50 paise per book (not sure). I would borrow 2 or 3 of them at a time and then later on, return them for a new set of comics.
I also own some of these comics and everytime I look at them, I become nostalgic. I remember all my old friends and wonder what they would be doing now. I lost touch with all of them atleast 10 years back 🙂 My most favourite super hero in these comics was “Super commando Dhruv” (of Raj comics) who was a resident of Rajnagar. I also loved his extra-ordinary bike. Another super hero that I was crazy about was “Naagraj” (of Raj comics), who was from a place called “Nagadweep“, full of snakes and icchadari naags (snakes which can take a human form whenever they want). Nagaraj and Dhruv often appeared in the same comic book as they fought a villain together. I also remember reading loads of books belonging to another super hero called “Agniputra Abhay” (of Diamond comics). These three happened to be my favourite superheroes who could defeat any enemy; Naagraj could even shoot some snakes at his enemies, the way Spiderman shoots web.
There were other comics which were funny like Bankelal (again Raj comics), who was like a stupid person but I liked his comics too. There was Doga too but I dont remember much about him. Diamond comics had a huge collection of funny stories like Chacha Choudhary, whose brain used to work faster than a computer and his nephew Sabu. Whenever Sabu gets angry, a volcano starts erupting lava somewhere 🙂 There was Raman too, a married man; Shrimatiji who was a married lady; Pinky was a cute girl and Billu a small boy who had a series of books in their name. All these were the creations of a cartoonist named Pran.
Apart from these, I also loved reading Phantom (the ghost who walks) and Mandrake the magician, which were published by Indrajal comics. DC comics published Superman comics which was another favourite of mine. I faintly remember reading Angootelaal‘s adventures too, which were published by Manoj Chitra Katha. There were many other books which did not have a superhero but gave a nice message. Most of them were mythology based and had a moral at the end.
Blondie was one of my favourites (thanks to dad who liked it so much). I never missed reading it in the newspaper. First thing I would do as soon as the newspaper came in the morning was turn to the comics page and read all of them. My other favourites included the lazy cat, Garfield. Amar Chitra Katha publication had these mythology based comics and I make it a point to gift them to the kids these days.
I recently got hold of an old hindi comic of mine and tried to read it. You will not believe me if I say I took 10 mins to read one page and thus lost interest in reading the book. 😦 I guess that’s because it has been ages since I read anything written in hindi. My hindi has deteriorated a lot in these years. But I still love my age old super heroes, even though Spiderman, He-man, Batman, Tintin, Richie rich, Dexter entered into my life.
The good news is that Raj comics still publishes these comics. I found out that my favourite Dhruv and Naagraj are still in demand even now. 🙂
I have read only chacha choudary of the lot. But i watched hell a lot of cartoons and Phantom was one of my favorite. I just love that pink dress he wore.
Curse all these comic heroes have six packs and nice cuts. I only have a single family pack damn it.
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Oh yeah I guess even I liked Phantom mainly for his dress 😀
Haha all of them have 6 packs and all of them wear their underwear outside. wonder why? 🙂
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Comics by Pran – Chacha Chaudhry/Billoo/Pinky/Shrimatiji are my super favorites. I used to read Phantom and Mandrake when I was young. I still feel Diana is the most beautiful girl ever.. even more than Narda. I dreamed of honeymooning on Kila Vee and that table top thing where you climbed up in a bucket was awesome.
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Oh you too Ava 🙂 that’s nice. Hehe honeymooning on Kila Vee sounds interesting 😉
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blasphemy..how can u miss out fauladi singh 🙂
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lambu chotu..and tht goofy boy with a forever pout on his lips forgot the name :0)
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Fauladi Singh 😦 dont remember Gils. Curse this memory. Lambu Chotu I faintly remember the name but not the story 😦
Btw did you read the English versions of these? or were you in North too?
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i the engleesh versions read.. tried the hindi ones..but the expletives used ver beyond my vocab range 😀 so cudnt much follow
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fauladi singh??!! u no remember? tht guy who can fly like superman..antariksh corporation?? gamma rays..beta rays guns??!!!
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aah. I thought so. Yeah I read big big hindi textbooks and that’s why it was easy.
😦 still dont remember fauladi singh. Let me search my old books to see if I have one of those with me. 😦
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Cool. Brought back some memories. We used to exchange comics with our friends. 🙂
Chacha Chaudhary, Billu, Pinky, AMCs were my favorites. 🙂
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🙂 Yeah they used to be so funny, those books. I kinda miss reading them now 😦
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Super commanddo Dhruv
Nagraj
Inspector Steel- Man who got converted to steel man
Doga- one who is friends with Dogs. Boxer in real life
Tiraanga
Shakti- having power of DEVI Shakti(God)
Parmanu- having scientific power of nuclear enrgy
Bhediya- one who is having powers of wolf
Anthony- he is like phantom
Fighter Todds- Todds but lil intelligents
Aila mujhe to sab yad hai…:)
I too used read them….
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Wow you have a great memory Makk 🙂 You remember sooo many characters!!! I think I remember reading Parmanu too after going through this list.
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Oh I’ve never read any of those Hindi comics you’ve mentioned (maybe just chacha choudhary)…but I have read Amitabh Bachchan comics.. !!!!!Have you have you has anyone read them? Hahaheehehuuuu 😀
Anyhoo, my fav was Asterix!
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Amitabh Bacchan comics? Never heard about them 😦 Were they written by AB or about AB? I want to read themmm.. where did you get hold of those?
I like Asterix too 🙂
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Ya .. AB comics? I wanna know abt them too 😛
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Yeah. I never heard about them 😮 Ro, we need more details 🙂
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Actually one of my dad’s project was for a publication house. Since we were kids, they gifted my dad a whole set of comics. Most of them were Batman, Phantom etc. But yes, Amitabh Bachchan were also there..It was not by AB. But all about BigB as superstar saving the world. Have them somewhere at home. Looks like it is a collectors item judging the fact that noone even knows about them. Finally, I have ways to become a millionaire;-)
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🙂 oh wow! AB as a superhero. That’s something huh. It definitely looks like a collector’s edition since I never got hold of them. Put it on ebay right away girl 🙂 I am sure his fans will be ready to pay any amount 😉
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Yes, even I have one of those. I guess in those, AB is known as ‘Supremo’ or something… The one I have is about a hostage situation in a bank which is finally taken care of by AB as ‘Supremo’… 😛
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ohhh that’s interesting 🙂 I really need to read those comics then. hehe
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well just to give u an update in form of teasing u….:P
Nagraj has grown a lot, i mean he has three series running that i follow, Nagayan, Anti-terror and Nagraj and friends (my favorite, exclusive stories of nagdweep :D)
Plus doga has a born blood series going on which no body can miss, these comics now come in international quality paper with a movie being made on Doga (from raj comics.)
Psst. U can read some raj comics online on their site…:D
Cheers,
Sid
P.s. I am controlling, don’t get me started on comics, i am total nutcase for them even now…:D
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😛 thanks for these updates sid 🙂 Wow! Nagraj has 3 series! I want to read them!!!! Are they available online? Hmm I guess I will read then. I guess even I would love to read them now!!!
Movie on Doga? Is it going to be a full-fledged bollywood movie? Would love to watch it!!
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first of all .. i missed ur posts.. oh god you have posted so many.. i guess i have to spend a whole day to finish off!
i love Garfield too.. he is always fun .. and lazy just like me 😛
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Heyyyyyy swetha. Missed you tooooo!!! so nice to hear from you after such a loooong time gal 🙂 Just noticed that you have updated your blog!!yayy!! I missed your posts too!
Yeah I guess that’s why even I like Garfield so much. Because even I am a lazy fellow like him 🙂 hehe. I can relate very well to his laziness I guess 🙂
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As you Have said i am not aware of any of the superheroes mentioned except the english super heroes…
My first super hero was he-man and my first indian superhero was shaktimaan 😀 😀 i watched that serial for almost a year without missing an episode… 🙂
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Oh yeah even I love he-man. He-man and the masters of the Universe. hehe 🙂
Oh Shaktimaan my brother was crazy about it. But I dint get hooked to it, for unknown reasons. It was so popular those days right?
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🙂
I wish I could fit all that I wanted to say about comics in a single comment… I’ll try anyways. 😛
I have not only been reading the above comics and a few more, but have also been collecting them over the years. My younger brother took up the Raj comics collection after my Diamond comics one, and has every published title of ‘Super Commando Dhruv’ and ‘Nagraj’. 😀
The fact that my hostel-room in Medical College always had half a dozen Hindi comics from the local library signifies my love for them. 😛
You can even get these comics online to read. If you get some time, do read them so that your Hindi readings gets back in shape once again.
As for the super-heroes, you can check out my favorite super-hero on my post below. 😀
http://mindzpeak.blogspot.com/2010/02/those-agonising-20-minutes.html
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Oh wow! you have an entire collection of Raj and Diamond comics then 🙂 Yeah its usually the peer pressure that makes us do things. After coming back to south, nobody seemed to care for these comics and the unavailability of them made me drop reading those comics. 😦 I guess I should start reading the online ones atleast. You are right. I should try reading a couple of them and then my hindi will again get back in shape 🙂
Hehe. I saw that post yesterday itself. Sachin right 🙂 hehe. I somehow am not that much into cricket (sounds weird right?) and hence dint completely read it 🙂
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Now thts a long list.. well, as far as comics are cncrnd I just loved Tinkle but in hindi wnt for Chacha Chaowdhary types bt vry few..
Oh wat r u saying???
who asked for my favs.. hmmmm.. u c um pretty shameless and tell about it myself :p
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Yeah Tinkle was my favourite too!!! Tinkle is something that I dont mind reading even today. Supandi is my most favourite character in Tinkle. 🙂
Hey Vipul, good that you told me your favs else I would have thought that you were so busy with your girl that you dint have time to read comics 😛
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Aww u do make me nostalgic with such posts .. what fun we hd reading those comics. In the library hours, we used to pick them up, put them in b/w some big, fat science books and read them with full attention LOL 😉
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🙂 glad you liked it swaram 🙂 Yeah me too, totally addicted to comics !!!
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Wow Avada!!
This has brought back all the memories of my childhood. I remember how ‘awe-inspiring’ it was to read concepts like –
“Jab Sabu ko gussa aata hai toh kahin jwalamukhi fatata hai”
&
“Chacha Chaudhary ke ghar taala nahi lagta”
Wow!!
Thanks Avada. Guess I will buy one of these comics soon. 🙂
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hehe 🙂 Nice to see another person who liked these comics. Thanks Dev!!! Yup even I feel like reading them right away 🙂
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And chacha choudhary’s brain was faster than computer … 😛
And Nagraaj was my favorite …. undoubtedly … I remember a few days back … I had a bet with one of my friends … whether Nagraaj was from Rajnagar or Mahanagar … The comics which I used to read years back helped me make a few bucks this time around …
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🙂 that’s cool. you made money by betting. I love these comics and am planning to read them all over again 🙂
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What about calvin and hobbes and Asterix??
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I dont know why but I dont like Calvin and Hobbes and Asterix much. I know it’s little weird since everyone likes them 😦
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