Introduction
Chanda mama was a classic Indian monthly magazine for children. Parents can use this blog for must read stories for kids. It is famous for its illustrations. It also published long-running mythological or magical tales that ran for years. These stories aims at transferring ancient wisdom and imparting mythological knowledge through story telling for kids of all age groups.
Originally, “Chanda mama” was started in Telugu by B.Nagi Reddy and Chakrapani, noted Telugu Film makers. It was edited by Kodavatiganti Kutumba Rao, a very close friend of Chakrapani and a literary colossus in Telugu Literature, who edited it for 28 years, till his death in August 1980.
Story Telling Style
The magazine started the unique trend of telling a story, almost always bound by a common thread of moral values, with a grandparents’ style of storytelling in the most flexible third-person narrative mode, on print. Across the world story telling is a way through which parents transfers knowldge and wisdom to their kids. Usually in India parents or grand parents narrates stories to kids so that they can sleep peacefully. Hence bedtime story telling has become an ritual.
The stories published have been drawn from numerous historical and modern texts in India, as well as from other countries. Mythology, epics, fables, parables and even useful hearsay were spun suitably to feed the impressionable minds so that they seek the right direction in life, even while entertaining them thoroughly. It presented a compilation of short stories for kids and long stories as well.
Types of Stories
The stories embedded in the never-ending story of King Vikramāditya and Vetala (Vampire), an adaptation of an ancient Sanskrit work Baital Pachisi, brought wide repute to this magazine, and were also featured in popular TV serials. In each issue, the Vetala, in order to prevent him fulfill a vow, poses a typical catch-22 question to king Vikramāditya, involving a moral dilemma. The wise king answers correctly, and is thus defeated by the Vetala, forcing the king do it all over again and again.
While Vikram Betal was a recurring story, the book presented long and short stories for kids.
History
For many decades, Chandamama’s illustrators defined the look of the magazine. They included such names as M.T.V. Acharya, T. Veera Raghavan, who signed his work as Chithra; Vaddadi Papaiah, who signed as Vapa; Kesava Rao who signed as Kesava; M. Gokhale; and K. C. Sivasankaran, alias Sankar, who joined Chandamama in the year 1951, and continues to draw even now in 2011, in an unbroken association of 6 decades! Later artists such as Shakthi Dass; M. K. Basha, who signed as Razi; Gandhi Ayya, aka Gandhi; and P. Mahesh (Mahe), also continued the tradition into current times.[3] Initially, the covers were printed in four-colours, while the illustrations inside used line drawings. Each page of Chandamama had an illustration, although in the strict sense of the term, Chandamama is not a comic book, with the exception of the Chitra-katha column.
(Source -www.wikipedia.com)