Chacha Chowdhry

‘Chacha Chowdhry ka Dimaag Computer se bhi tez Chalta hai’

Somebody recently reminded me of our very own homegrown comic book hero.

They were referring to their 'mind' and said their 'mind' was sharper than a computer. I remember making a quick association to ‘Chacha Chowdhury’ because his quick-thinking is compared to the speed of a computer’s CPU.

It was funny to hear somebody use the comparison I grew up reading about in a comic strip, in real life.

It brought back memories of ‘Chacha Chowdhury’ and his bravado in Pran’s comic books. I thoroughly enjoyed reading those comic books as did a lot of my peers.

Chacha Chowdhury : The smart, witty, man from Haryana who isn’t afraid of anything or anybody except his wife. He enjoys eating ‘Panjiri’ which of course his wife goes to great lengths to hide from him and it annoys her immensely to find out that despite her efforts he still gets to it. He is a brilliant man with a lot of common sense and is smarter and sharper than a computer. His helper and friend the giant ‘Sabu’ is not from this planet but from Jupiter. He goes around wearing only his underwear but nobody questions him because of his size J. It is said about Sabu that ‘Jab Sabu ko Gussa Aata hai to Kahin par Jwalamukhi Phat tha hai’. Chachaji’s wife is also part of the plot but she provides the comic relief in a comic strip! He has a dog called ‘Rocket’ because he is very quick in his movements akin to the internal functions of his owner’s brain.

The villains are Raaka, a dangerous criminal which Chachaji help put behind bars and Daaku Gobar Singh along with a few other accomplices whose names escape me.

Those were the days of the 386 and the personal computer was just making an advent into everyday life in India. They were creating quite a ripple and were being touted as the best thing that happened to humanity since the discovery of the wheel. So of course if a human’s brain was sharper than a computer, he/she was not human but super human.

Now in this day of Pentiums and 64 bit processors I don’t know if it still holds true but true Chachaji fans would still agree that ‘Chacha Chodhry ka Dimaag Computer Se bhi tez chalta hai’.

The comic books entertained me and a lot of my peers to no end. We enjoyed our Archies and Tinkles but Chacha Chowdhry had mass appeal like no other cartoon character in India. Comic strips have come a long way since then but I think Chacha Chowdhury is the king of all homegrown comic book heroes.

It feels so good when a window to your childhood suddenly opens up through a completely unrelated event. I was an avid reader of a variety of books and magazines and thinking about Chacha Chowdhry brought back memories of Billu, Pinki, Madhu Muskaan, Tinkle, Nandan, Champak, Chandamama, Enid Blyton, Fairy tales and a whole cornucopia of books and magazines a lot of which still exist in a small rack in my cupboard back home. I still enjoy reading them when I go back home. It brings back happy memories from my childhood.

Memories of carefree summer vacations spent reading magazines, watching movies, playing and traveling. Of evenings spent playing and bickering with siblings, cousins and friends. Of waiting for a power cut so we could go and chat with our friends at 1:00 am. Of spending countless hours talking to friends on the terrace. Of organizing new year ‘parties’ on the terrace and throwing tantrums if parents objected to staying out late.

We are all grown up not and don’t have to ‘convince’ anybody to let us stay out late but I don’t quite enjoy these late night events as much as I did back then. I guess the planning, bickering, tantrums and restrictions added a special touch to it all.