Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Did you know Kalpana Chawla?8212;it8217;s the first question I get from anyone who knows about the comic I have written on Kalpana. I frame my answer after a moment8217;s pause. I know her much more than people I meet every day, but now my usual answer is, 8216;8216;I have never met Kalpana Chawla, but I wish I had.8217;8217;
To be able to write a biography that appeals to others, you ought to identify with your subject. That has always been the case with me. From Jawaharlal Nehru to Kalpana Chawla, I8217;ve read so voraciously on my subjects, that I8217;ve almost lived their lives. I8217;ve looked out for anecdotes that would bring the comic to life and make people sigh or smile.
Reading and writing about Kalpana has enriched me. I8217;m amazed by her zest and tenacity, her bonhomie and sense of fun, even her sense of style. She had an ability to sustain links with people and was concerned with problems of the world and the environment, despite the rigorous demands of an astronaut8217;s life.
Certain small details of Kalpana8217;s childhood took me back to my own. I studied in a school in Delhi similar to her own, where we used to call our teachers didi and bhai sahab. Stories children hear from parents, about the challenges and problems they have had to face, have a profound influence on a child8217;s personality and I have woven these into the strip. One of Kalpana8217;s heroes was JRD Tata8212;he was a lifelong inspiration for her. I hope Kalpana8217;s story inspires young people of today.
The first script I wrote for Amar Chitra Katha was on Nehru. I had met him at a prize distribution ceremony when I was six. I was captivated by his concern and affection, when I stumbled on the steps and keeled over with my prize. Nehru used to read a lot during his days in prison and kept a diary of all he read. I was really amused by his candid entry about a scientific book; I think it was on the Theory of Relativity: 8220;Couldn8217;t understand a thing, returned unread.8221; In the comic, I included young Nehru8217;s adventure of stealing a pen from his father8217;s study. But to really understand him, I had to begin his story with his ancestors in Kashmir and their migration to Delhi.
I was lucky to meet Swami Chinmayananda while we were shooting a video with him at an ashram in Mumbai. He made the whole experience fun. I don8217;t adulate godmen or swamis but Swami Chinmayananda charmed me with his zest for life. Later, when I began to read about his life for Amar Chitra Katha, I learnt that as a child, he would play all kinds of pranks on his gullible sister. He first visited an ashram as a young journalist who had no faith in swamis. A journalist with no faith in swamis8212;that was my link to his life!
The life of JRD Tata was well-documented. His passion for flying and his achievements were well-known. But to make him appealing to young readers, we needed to start at the beginning. Here too, we were lucky because we had anecdotes from his childhood, which he had shared with our cub reporters for a feature called My Salad Days for our youth magazine Partha.
The process of making a biographical comic is long and demanding. Kalpana became such a big part of my life that I knew what she had eaten on each day of the mission, what music she had listened to and other such small, but interesting details.
Later one day, I overheard someone making an unkind remark about Kalpana. It made me furious! I realised then that I could not just internalise my passion and wear it on my sleeve all the time. If my comics inspire even a fraction of young readers, my job is done.
Margie Sastry is a regular writer for Amar Chitra Katha
