RIP Uncle Pai

How come Uncle Pai was never bestowed the honour of a Padma Shri or Bharat Ratna when his achievements far surpass that of some of the fools in that list ?
Uncle Pai was the founder of Amar Chitra Katha - the comics that introduced generations of Indian kids to Indian history and mythology. One of the animators I once met had this to share - that it is so difficult to re-create Ram and Sita and other characters because all our perceptions were framed by Uncle Pai’s delineation of the same. The hour glass figured village belles with the sheer dupattas and the dusky handsome men in the stories - those are difficult images to compete with!
Uncle Pai was passionate about history and worked hard to realise his dream.He quit working with the Times of India after he saw a quiz program that deeply disturbed him...the Indian kids knew Greek mythology but had no clue who Ram’s mother was. He decided to bring Indian history in all its glory to kids. The first Amar Chitra Katha ‘Krishna’ was launched in 1969.In 1969, Anant Pai founded Rang Rekha Features, India's first comic and cartoon syndicate, which lasted till 1998.
Uncle Pai also started ‘Tinkle’, a children's monthly magazine in 1981. He decided to call the magazine so, because everytime they held a meeting to decide on a name for the magazine, the phone would ‘tinkle’! Kalia the crow is based on the crow that came to his window sill at home, in Mumbai's Prabhadevi.
Anant Pai conceptualized all the ACKs, wrote the scenarios for most of them and worked closely with the artists on the development. There were times when the comics would be ready, but there was no money to print it. So he would wait till he could finance the print run. Because of budgetary constraints, the original printings of ACKs were not in full colour. The panels were printed using yellow, blue and green. The later issues were in full colour. All ACKs stuck to a 30 page format.
Uncle Pai was full of stories about how he took the ACKs to different towns and cities and the loving reception he received everywhere. The ACKs came at a time when the shift from villages to towns had resulted in the break up of the joint family system. In an urban nuclear family set-up, the ACKs filled in a void created by the absence of grandparents and other elderly folk that would tell epic tales and stories from India’s rich cultural heritage.
Though ACKs were later translated into many languages, Uncle Pai decided to introduce them in English in order to reach out to the English medium schools and kids that aspired to learn English.
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. Many schools use strips of Amar Chitra Kathas to teach kids history.
Uncle Pai has been honoured with many awards, the latest being the the Lifetime Achievement Award this February at India’s first ever Comic Convention held in New Delhi.
Even though Uncle Pai sold the business to ACK-Media in 2007, he continued to come to office every single day. He was working on a massive project that would reflect the Glimpses of Indian Glory through the ages. He was meticulous in his research and passionate about his work till the very end.
And no National honour for this great visionary? Shame Indeed.