From 50 paise in 1971, the ‘Adarsh Baalak’ chart now costs Rs 5. The ‘Adarsh Balika’ poster was launched two years ago. (Express photo: Tashi Tobgyal) From 50 paise in 1971, the ‘Adarsh Baalak’ chart now costs Rs 5. The ‘Adarsh Balika’ poster was launched two years ago. (Express photo: Tashi Tobgyal)

The recommendation came from school teachers, a little after the 1965 India-Pakistan war. A young nation, surrounded by hostile neighbours, needed “adarsh baalak” who saluted their parents, helped others, and joined the National Cadet Corps (NCC) for basic military training. So, in 1971, as India and Pakistan went to war, Delhi-based Indian Book Depot released a 12-step pictorial guide to being such an “ideal boy”.

Recently, the kitschy artwork poster, that was a staple at homes with children in the ’80s and ’90s, found itself at the centre of social media attention when English comedian Stephen Fry tweeted a framed ‘Adarsh Baalak’ poster he had spotted at his doctor’s clinic in London on January 19. As the poster went viral, what followed were reactions from all over, from foreigners befuddled over what could prompt the compilation of such a set of instructions — ranging from morning walk before school to praying daily — to parents wishing they could enforce implementation of even one of them, to Indians bemused at this blast from the past. There were jokes, parodies and memes.

Harish Chandra at Indian Book Depot office in Old Delhi. (Express photo: Tashi Tobgyal) Harish Chandra at Indian Book Depot office in Old Delhi. (Express photo: Tashi Tobgyal)

Eventually, the buzz also reached the Indian Book Depot office, essentially two shops separated by a wall in Old Delhi’s Sadar Bazaar. It’s the space the publishing house has inhabited since 1947. The spacious rooms are cramped with stacks of posters and maps.

Karan Chawla, 33, the son of owner Harish Chandra Chawla, says he realised ‘Adarsh Baalak’ had hit Internet charts on reading a report in a Hindi newspaper. “Mostly, people were making fun, but at least they remembered the chart,” he says, adding, “The context (when the poster came out) should never be forgotten; it was a different time. I retweeted it and thanked Fry, but he’s not responded yet.”

Harish Chandra, 65, said they had made the poster on the recommendation of schools. “My elder brother Ram Krishna Chawla was heading Indian Book Depot then. We had been making maps and charts of vegetables, fruits and freedom fighters since 1935 but had not thought about ‘Adarsh Baalak’. Schools wanted to imbibe these value in their students.”

From 50 paise in 1971, the ‘Adarsh Baalak’ chart now costs Rs 5. Harish Chandra claims they still sell to around 3,000 wholesalers across the country in stacks of 100 each — with the poster one of its bestsellers in a list that includes 320 subjects. The Indian Book Depot’s website claims to have a presence in “28 states and 7 Union territories”.

Carefully unwrapping the original artwork of the chart, stored in a dusty almirah at the Sadar Bazaar office, Harish Chandra reminisces, “We were the Google of that time. We had four artistes, and ‘Adarsh Baalak’ was Fateh Chand’s work. It took him more than a month to finish it — the line drawing, the colouring were all by hand. He joined us in 1970 and left in 2000 after his hands started trembling.”

Now all the four artistes associated with the publishing house are dead, and no new full-timers have been hired. “We now use photographs from Google, have freelancers to do the line drawing, and use photoshop to add colours. The art is lost,” says Harish Chandra.

But apart from that, there have been few other changes in the four decades. Some of the comments on Fry’s tweet mentioned the chart’s awkward grammar. These mistakes have been removed since, apart from some “sequential changes”, Harish Chandra says. For instance, the ideal boy now “greets” his parents instead of “saluting”, and brushes his teeth instead of the earlier “brushing up”.

Harish Chandra’s father Nawnit Rai founded the publishing house in 1935 in Lahore. When Partition rumours began, he began sending dispatches to Delhi for storage, and finally started operations from the Sadar Bazaar office in 1947.

“We keep upgrading. So the community cleanliness chart is now Swachh Bharat Abhiyan chart, and has a photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We made the ‘Man on the Moon’ chart in 1969, a Civil Defence chart in 1965… We didn’t realise we were famous or a symbol of nostalgia till a magazine interviewed us a few years ago.”

Adding they are here to stay, Harish Chandra says, “We are still very relevant, less in metros, but a lot in the rural areas. Print-outs cost Rs 10 a sheet, while you can buy the whole chart for Rs 5.”

For those who wondered on Twitter whether there was an ‘Adarsh Balika’ poster, to counterbalance the ‘Adarsh Baalak’, Indian Book Depot launched it two years ago. Apart from doing all that an ideal boy does, the ideal girl is expected to “help the mother in the kitchen”, “decorate your home”, and “learn stitching”. But not join the NCC.

“This is where my father and I disagreed. I don’t think the ‘stitching’ bit should be there. We are talking about equality, then why should only girls know how to stitch?” says Karan.

Incidentally, their ideal girl poster has few takers — unlike the ‘Adarsh Baalak’. Asked how many of the latter they have sold till now, Harish Chandra smiles, “lakhs”.

Approached by The Sunday Express, Fry refused to comment. But that’s worth a chuckle.

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