One of the architects of our childhood died on Wednesday. Pran Kumar Sharma created Chacha Chaudhary, a man who could solve any problem, as a comic character, but what he really was to us (at least three generations of children through the 1970s, 1980s and the 1990s grew up reading him) is a friend; a constant companion through dark days of endless homework, teachers’ punishments, and boring tuition classes.

Pran, along with Anant ‘Uncle’ Pai and Aabid Surti, are the Holy Trinity of Indian comics. Uncle Pai gave us Tinkle and Amar Chitra Katha. Surti saab gave us Bahadur, the son of a killed dacoit who was raised by a policeman to defeat crime in the badlands of India. Between these three, I have no idea how we completed high school and later, even college.