Chandamama Website

Happened to bump into a website having all the issues of Chandamama uploaded since fifties. Ooof , And brought back the memories of the days which were devoid of mobiles, TV, (Not even Door Darshan). So lot of play out side. And lot of reading during the afternoons on weekends and during vacations. I still remembers the mornings when me and my brother (5 years older) , me around 7-8 yrs and he around 13 or so. getting up early (for a change), waiting egerly for most imprtant person in our lives.. Paperwala, from 1st of the month till we got the precious issue of 'Chandoba' and 'Vetaal'(from Indrajaal Comics).I was more interested in Vetaal initially as it being a comic and me being younger.. also reading speed was little lesser and found bigger fonts easier.. Also Vetaal was pure entertainment and not much of preaching.. When became little older enjoyed Chandoba too as much as Vetaal.My borther Sunil being older many times used to play games to grab the issue from me.. Used to tell me that some one is below the building.. Or Mom is calling you so that if I leave the issue and go for a while he will grab it and go somewhere like terrace etc. in hiding and read peacefully..Post that read, re-read all through the month till we get next issues. Vetaal was set in mostly exotic Jungle backdrop . Where wild animals were tames by him and obeyed him He has a wolf with him going around as a pet etc.. It also had tribals who were pygmies (short) and their chief was extremely clever and knew the jungle inside out and helped Vetaal from time to time. The best was Vetal's hide out.. A cave behind water fall.. where he just disappeared from enemies and they ere left guessing whether Vetaal was human being or walking talking Ghost that can be at 10 places at a time. Occasionally it had Mandrake,Lothar stories which were full of miracles and magic and hypnosis. I still remember the story where villain makes the life of a singer miserable by creating electromagnetic waves which led to singer having toothache during shows.Mandrake discovers and get him punished. Can't miss the element of the science here as the explanation was that metal inside the silver filled teeth reacted and led to sever pain. Where as Chandoba stories mostly rated with either 1. Farmer who was poor,hardworking was earning just enough for teh family to have good meals and sleep well etc. Had to borrow money or sell cow or goat due to some situation like illness,drought etc. 2. Money lender (sahukar) who was exploiting everyone and was very rich but was un happy and could not sleep well either due to illness ,or beinng childless(niputrik) or not having son etc. 3. King and queen whoere unhappy as did not have heir for their kingdom . Chandoba always had a story of Vikram, and Vetaal. (I was happy that my son -next gen- enjoyed the shows on TV started by echoes -VIKARAM VIKRAM VIKRAM VIKRAM, VETAAL< VETAAL<VETAAL VETAAL. ).Now to think of it I feel the pictures of women  in the old issues always had big eyes and resembled south indian women. Guys reselbled north Indians . Everyone was good looking . Over all both the peridicals were big sucees I feel mainly because it contained the Rasas which are enjoyed by children and early teenagers like 'Adbhut','Veer','Bhaya','Krodha','Lobha','Moha','Matsara'. It rarely had any comedy ('Vinoda') or ' Kaam'. I remember my brother was so fascinated and wanted to preserve the old  issues that he got them hard bound and some of them he himself hard bound at home.Next Gen some how did not enjoy Chandoba much mu was more into comics like Tinkle etc..Which had a lot of comedy angle.