Asha Pran. Meri
Nazar Mein Pran. From a Sign
Board Painter to Padma Shri Awardee. Creator of Chacha Chaudhary, Cartoonist
Pran. New Delhi: Pran’s Features LLP, 2019. 80 pp. ISBN: 978-81-94070-33-7. https://www.amazon.com/Meri-Nazaar-Mein-Pran-Cartoonist-ebook/dp/B082LV1ZYW/
Let me be upfront from the outset. I
have known Pran Kumar since 1993, when I interviewed him in his New Delhi home.
We had occasions to get together when I invited him to speak at a conference I
co-organized in Guiyang, China and at other times when I hosted him in my home
in 2006 and he very graciously returned the favor while I was in New Delhi in
2009. He considered me as a friend, and he was mine. Pran was a much more
enthusiastic letter writer than I, but I immensely enjoyed his correspondence
which always ended with a joke.
Despite these personal connections,
I will comment on this small biography written by his wife, Asha. I expected
the book to be sentimental and emotional because of the strong bond between the
couple; at times, it was—not in an annoying manner but rather to emphasize his
traits.
Pran was born in Pakistan and left
the country with family members at the time of partition. He told me that
seeing bodies of dead Hindus and Muslims lying on the side of the railroad
tracks as a nine-year-old boy planted the thought in his mind that his goal
should be to make people laugh. Later, he did that through cartooning,
developing memorable characters such as Chacha Chaudhary, Billoo, Pinki, Sabu,
Bini, Raman, and a host of others that have brought joy to millions of readers
in the Subcontinent and the diaspora.
In Meri Nazar Mein Pran, Asha weaves her memories of Pran with
those of others, snippets from both Pran’s and her personal diaries, and other
sources that were publicly available to reveal much about this private and
humble man. She talks about the hard knocks Pran faced, their arranged marriage
devoid of any formality, the way he lived his life “playing hide and seek between
practicality and emotions,” not accepting compromise, respecting ethics as very
important, and practicing transparency. Asha spends a bit more space discussing
Pran’s abhorrence of “hypocritical religion” and the immense damage caused
historically worldwide by the blind faith in god(s) and his belief that
politics has become degraded. Ever a questioner, Pran disagreed that buildings,
highways, towns, etc. should be named after politicians; instead, he believed
they should carry the names of poets, intellectuals, writers, dancers, social
activists, musicians, educators, artists, martyrs, and soldiers.
Blended into these characteristics were the cartoonist’s likes and
dislikes. Asha lists among his likes, his fans, children (even naughty ones),
the cartoons of Abu Abraham, captionless cartoons, reading, foreign travel, and
the mountains. He did not like or pitied those who just count their wealth, arrogant
people, and violence and its portrayal.
The book contains additional information not commonly known about
Pran: how he laid the foundation for
Indian comics through his more than 600 titles; the high awards he received;
his travels; Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s inauguration of one of his books;
his fastidiousness with time; his family, son Nikhil, daughter Shaili, an unidentified daughter-in-law, and grandson Saraansh, and his dying days and
last wishes.
Overall, Asha Pran did a good job relating the life of Pran in just eighty pages. Though her written English could use editing, it is easy to read and reflects, in her own words and with quite a bit of emotion, the fifty-year journey she shared with Pran.
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