Evergreen Uncle Pai

30th September 2009, I walk into the ACK Media office for my interview and while waiting at the reception, I turn slowly towards the security guard who was next to me and ask him in a very low tone ‘Uncle Pai office mein hai kya?’ he replies back ‘Aaj woh office nahin aaye hai’.

Maybe the excitement to see Uncle Pai in person must have calmed down a lot of nerves in me before the interview. The interview went off well and yes, I even got the job! And yes I was in the same office as Uncle Pai.

PR being an integral part of my job profile I was indeed waiting for that time when I would get to interact with Mr. Pai for the first time. I remember walking into his cabin and greeting him with a nervous ‘ Hello’ , he looks up to me and gets his right hand forward to give me a hand shake and tells me to have a seat! In a second a millions of thoughts ran through my head. Right from telling my family-friends about this meeting right up to putting it on Facebook and Twitter! He looks at me and tells me ‘Your smile reminds me of a friend’s son, who is just like you’. The 40 minutes that we interacted is when he spoke on how ACK was born, how ‘Tinkle’ got its name? And also how the name ‘Uncle Pai’ was born. I got out of his cabin and remembering sending out an SMS to a few friends.

I was feeling super human for those few seconds!

From there on a lot of interaction happen to take place with him on various occasions and every time there was something new to hear, and mostly importantly learn.

The last time I meet him, he happened to keep his hand on my shoulders and tell me, ‘Boy, you would do good in life, just keep working hard’. Thank you for those words, Sir.

Few days before he passed away he was given the Lifetime Achievement award at the first Indian Comic Convention. Due to his poor health he couldn’t be a part of it and he was very sad about that.

Generations have grown up on the content that he created and I am sure many in the coming years would also grow on it.

I was lucky that I could interact with him for whatever time I could. I will cherish them for a long time to come in many years!

For me, Uncle Pai, very much like the characters he created, will always be evergreen.

Sleep well, Uncle Pai!

Savio Joseph.