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Kalia, the Crow made its first appearance as a comic in Tinkle Number 1 in December 1980.
When I first mooted the idea of a crow as the hero of a comics strip for Tinkle, some of my associates at India Book House, did not think much of it. They pointed out that manyu people consider the bird inauspicious. However, my colleague, Subba Rao and the editor, Anant Pai liked the concept and suggested I should develop the character. I had a brilliant artist Pradeep Sathe to help me. He gave form to the crow I had in mind and whom I had decided to name Kalia. He also gave form and substance to Doob Doob, the Crocodile, Chamataka, the Jackal (name suggested by Subba Rao) and the rabbits Keechu and Meechu (name suggested by Kamala Chandrakant.)
Pradeep believes that cartoonisation of an animal should not result in distortion of the animal's anatomy. So his cartoon characters are always anatomically perfect, though not always cute. This draws criticism from artists who believe that cuteness is of prime importance in comics for children. But his drawings have a charm of their own, and I for one, like them immensely.
Kalia soon won the hearts of Tinkle readers but there were those who were not amused by his antics. This small group of Kalia-haters felt he was an interfering busybody, snatching away food from Chamataka and his inept sidekick, Doob Doob.
There was some justification for this criticism, because though Kalia usually only goes to the rescue of his friends, there are times when he goes to the help of animals that are complete strangers to him and whom nature intended as the rightful prey of carnivores such as Doob Doob and Chamataka.
The criticism dis disturb me and in later stories I tried to show Kalia as somebody who was helpful to all, including Chamataka and Doob Doob. So in Tinkle Number 26, for example, Kalia tries to retrieve a kite for Doob Doob and in Tinkle 22, he rescues Chamataka from the coils of a python. At one time, I even toyed with the idea of making the comic Doob Doob-centric and relegating Kalia to the sidelines, as Doob Doob had begun to attract a following of his own.
The educational feature 'Jungle School' in which Kalia, Doob Doob and Chamataka impart knowledge instead of confronting each other made its first appearance in Tinkle 27 in February 1983.
Pradeep resigned from his post in late 1983, and and never drew for Kalia again. His last story appeared in Tinkle 46. It was a big blow to the comic strip.
I continued writing stories for a few month longer, then other assignments took me away from Tinkle and Kalia till 1987 when I wrote a few more stories. But the Kalia series continued uninterrupted with new artists and writers stepping in whenever the need arose. In December 2007 this year Kalia completes 27 years of existence.
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