I was a new editor in 2011 and my role model—Uncle Pai. As a child I remembered how Uncle Pai would answer letters with his kind and encouraging words. So that’s what I did. I started reading and replying to all mails that came in from our young readers. Sometimes the letters would be sweet and sometimes there would be howlers, often starting with 'HOW DARE YOU STOP MY FAVOURITE SERIES?!' in all caps right in the subject line!
I discovered that children are the best listeners if you approach them with respect. To the howlers I would write back saying that we would definitely look into their concern however it would be nice to receive a more polite mail. The heartfelt apology and contrition would follow immediately—no entitlement and no defensive arguments.
This is how I came across several demands and suggestions for a superhero character in Tinkle. This was the time when superhero movies had started to boom so the interest was natural. I started thinking along these lines wondering about what kind of twist I could give to this suggestion.
What if the twist was in the superpowers? Oddball superpowers that the owners would be embarrassed by and then learn to embrace and enjoy? This thought came from the observation that many of us go through childhood and teenage right into adulthood embarrassed by the quirks in our personality. There is this image of perfection that everyone seems to aspire to. We all want to be special but special in only one mould—the 'attractive hero' mould who is up for any and all challenges without fear.
But that’s not how most of us are, right? We each of us have our fears and insecurities that we battle every day with perhaps a mask to show the world that ‘all is well’. This battle is a brave one. It takes a lot of courage to own up to who we are, silly quirks and all.
Since kids are the most receptive to new ideas, I wanted them to think about embracing the odd traits in themselves that usually make them self-conscious. Also on my mind was the fact that most of the classic characters from Tinkle had been male and adults. And so I wrote about a girl, Aisha, who wants to be special. She wants to be that most special of all heroes—a superhero. Thus, she tries leaping off her bed in a bid to fly, tries pushing trees to see if she has super strength, dances around random stone circles to call on some hidden power… but nothing happens… till it does!
She discovers she tends to jiggle embarrassingly in public when there are other kids with secret powers around. She’s a radar of sorts attuned to kids who have all manner of weird powers. The powers are so weird that the kids would rather not have them at all!
There’s a girl who’s afraid to jump lest she cause earth tremors! There’s a boy who can’t wave out to people because then they get slapped by a mysterious force. Another girl ties her hair down tight because when she lets down her hair it goes wild… literally! Each lock of her hair is able to spread out and manipulate things, quite like tentacles! (Ok, this last one was an exaggeration of my own untameable tresses... 'tresses'... that word sounds so elegant, which my hair rarely is!)
It was Abhijeet Kini who brought the series to life in his inimitable style. Abhijeet has this talent to amp up the fun quotient in scripts with distinct characters and expressions that are pure gold.
Image Courtesy: Amar Chitra Katha Pvt. Ltd.
Through the course of the story, Aisha and her friends learn to use their SuperWeird powers and revel in their status in being SuperWeirdos. Writing this series was immensely satisfying because readers would love to come up with the zaniest of SuperWeird powers for future stories.
Fun Fact: I didn't plan it however I ended up naming each story after a special effects sound used in comics. And so, all SuperWeirdo stories now are named after SFX sounds. I think only the first one is called Tremors. The rest are Thud! Screech! Whizz! and so on. :D
I also happened to write the series around the time my niece was born which is how the protagonist got my niece’s name—Aisha. Aisha eventually became Aisha Kurien Daar with a mother, Mira Kurien—a Malayali from Bangalore and a father, Samir Daar—a Kashmiri based in Mumbai. The Kurien in her surname was my salute to Verghese Kurien, a Malayali and the visionary behind the White Revolution.
It was my love for diversity that prompted me to give Aisha roots that stretched from Kerala to Kashmir with friends scattered all around the country. Idealistic, sure, but then where else can I let loose my idealistic, 'SuperWeird' side if not in my writing? :D
Image Courtesy: Amar Chitra Katha Pvt. Ltd.
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