People felt sorry for him and it didn’t take much time for Luttappi to overtake Mayavi in the popularity charts.By daily-devotions-dravinaksa-dasa | Full size image 12 Lord Balarama and Yamuna Devi
On the contrary, Luttappi who would answer back, crack jokes and other silly things and work like a slave soon became popular. But it didn’t take much time for Luttappi to shrug himself from the image of the little evil guy. Luttappi and Kuttoosan came into the picture nearly a year after Mayavi was published. Someone else who was not featured in that ad also entered the scene-Kuttoosan who was Luttappi’s master. In the next edition, there was a story about Dakini going in search of Luttappi.
‘Here comes a rival for Mayavi, the evil Luttappi.’ This ad came on Balarama in June 1985. They would ride the cycle and call out, ‘Eeeh eeh.’ Such was the beautiful world of Balarama! If one was caught lying, they would be called Munjasan. The intelligent ones were called Akku and Ikku. Those who accidentally or luckily win something will be called Shikari Shambu. That one silly friend in class would be nicknamed Sheru. A fight would erupt between friends regarding who should solve the puzzle first. When they found themselves struggling to solve a math problem, they would quietly make an ‘Omkreem Kuttichatha’ wish. They would wait eagerly for the newspaper boy on that day, slip Balarama inside their textbooks and read stealthily inside classrooms. Siblings would fight to read Balarama at home. They told us that good will always triumph over evil.īalarama became the time machine that showed us history, a microscope that explained the science, and took us on a tour through the mighty oceans. They realised that birds, wolves, tigers, rabbits and crocodiles even had a mind of their own. Balarama took them closer to the world of animals and birds. They were introduced into a colourful world of colours, stories, puzzles, imagination, information and fun. For children, Balarama was like a breath of fresh air, a break from their studies. As Walt Disney celebrates 100 years, Balarama will be celebrating its 50th birthday.īalarama for a generation of people is nostalgia. By that time our children had already learned to expand their imagination and creativity thanks to Balarama. But it took a lot more time for our children to enjoy it. As long as creativity is left in the world, Disney Land also will keep evolving,” was what Walt Disney famously said.Ī century has passed since Disney has been enthralling us with their animation cartoons. Today you can count 70-year old’s among his readers. Though he came sporadically in many stories since 1984, it wasn’t until 2001 July that Soothran became a constant fixture in Balarama. But then the same rule can be applied to a stupid person’s thought process too. You can be called intelligent when your thoughts are different from ordinary people.
How did the extremely cunning Soothran and the absolutely stupid Sheru become friends? The answer is simple. That was the popularity of Soothran and Sheru. Despite not having any heroes, the story was a superhit. Those ghosts who are jumping through clouds are reciting the story of Soothran and Sheru. All the characters are already dead in the story. It didn’t take much time for children to fall in love with Mayavi and the readers increased in no time.Īpparently, there is a Soothran story without Soothran and Sheru! The story came in 2007. What started as a monthly soon became weekly with the introduction of Mayavi cartoons. That was also typical Balarama style, to introduce everything with a touch of humour. ‘.you don’t need glue to paste this name slip, just remove the paper cover and paste it on your notebook.’ This was the instruction when Balaram introduced sticker name slips. It didn’t take much time for Balarama to reach greater heights and soon children became its majority readers. Since June 2012, AV Harishankar is the editor. During the early 80s NM Mohanan took over as editor. Initially, Pala KM Mathew was the editor of Balarama. Eminent writers like Vailoppili, P Bhaskaran, Uroob, Kunji Raman Nair, and Sukumar Azhikode used to write for Balarama then. They had given more focus to day-to-day life than fantasy. So the first edition of Balarama was more informative than just fun and games. ‘We are extremely glad to present our first book of Balarama to the youth of Kerala.’ This was the editor’s note during the first edition of Balarama, clearly indicating that the target audience was youngsters more than children.