Reflections

One remembers many friends from the schooldays. Not flesh and blood friends, but those that we met in the pages of comic books. They became part of our childhood and one or two of them have remained with us to this day. We Bengali children had Batul the great, and Nontey Phontey who were great favourites. But in the more cosmospolitan atmosphere where we were brought up, American comic book characters ruled the roost. Casper the friendly Ghost, the Archie family and of course Superman and Batman , who have now received afresh lease of life because of the movie franchises were some of the favorites. However none of them have remained my close friend as has the five year old from Elm Street, Wichita Kansas. I speak of course of Dennis the Menace. In our school life we knew of two Denises. One was the one from America, but occasionally we also came across his British counterpart, Dennis with his dog, the Gnasher. However his exploits never tugged the heartstrings the way The America...