Comic heroes from school days....

When we started, early 80s, things were changing. Tarzan, Mandrake & Phantom were becoming less important. It is worth mentioning that many of us had a secret crush for Narda, Mandrake’s beautiful wife. The hardy boys, Asterix & Obelix were becoming popular.

However my all time favorites were those “detective chithrakathas”. Characters like "Urukku Kai Mayaavi" were famous then. The explosions in those stories were depicted with sounds “Tamaar and Padaaar” and people crying, “Njaan Chathe…”. It always cracks me up when people can shout “njaan chathe..”, standing at the epicenter of a bomb explosion.

As we grew up our mindsets changed. We got more interested in “Malayalam Kambi Kathakal” we bought from Trivandrum “underworld” on our way back to school from vacations and trips outside the school with “out passes”. Some of us even went to the extent of writing such stories and circulating among ourselves.

In one of such magazines, someone had asked whether masturbation is harmful for the body (in the column “Doctorodu Chodikkaam”). The doctor’s reply was, the early sperms are more powerful and healthy so don’t waste it. One of my classmates commented, “We are wasting it so much that our kids will be bullock cart drivers”.