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Its predecessor Koravanji survived the publishing onslaughts for a similar period in the 1960s, but called it quits in the 25th year instead of celebrating its silver jubilee.

If Koravanji had the revered Dr. Shivaram, one of the architects of the Bangalore Medical College and a renowned physician with a heart full of compassion, as its inspiring editor, Aparanji has his illustrious and industrial son M. Shivakumar steering the humour boat. It is 25 years now, and he hasn’t given up.

All put together, the Kannada humour magazines have 50 years of existence but between the end of Koravanji (1967) and the launch of Aparanji (1983) there was a time gap of some 16 years during which the present editor, M. Shivakumar, was seriously contemplating restarting the venture all over again, which his father had shut down for pure economic reasons.

Thanks to the efforts of A.R. Sethuram, an author with a unique sense of humour, and Seshagiri an enlightened reader of humour literature, Shivakumar could make the dream come true. Thus Koravanji was resuscitated, but with a new name. And in 1983, the first issue of Aparanji rolled out of the press.

Today Aparanji has a variety of writers both old and young to cater to the aspiration of the present-day readers. Koravanji has left behind a legacy of writers and a taste for refined humour. In fact, R.K. Laxman got a break in Koravanji when he was just a “common man” in Mysore. Other contributors included G.P. Rajaratnam, N. Kasturi, Sri Ranga, Kefa, S.N. Shivaswamy, Dasharati Dikshit, T. Sunandamma, Ha.Ra. Rami, etc., who had not only brought a chuckle to hundreds of readers but had inspired scores of others to wield their pen. Their writings hurt no egos nor injured the prides, but produced mirth with subtle jokes, puns and parodies. All that Aparanji did was to provide a platform to the surviving old guard and the new generation of writers.

Running a humour magazine is no joke. With other Kannada magazines losing its readers to TV serials that are aired from dawn to midnight, refined humour is the cup of tea of only a section of the reading populace, Aparanji is fighting hard to survive. But Shivakumar, an old hand at entrepreneurship, has brought in professionalism to keep it going. He has constituted an editorial board consisting of Beluru Ramamurthy, as its sub-editor, Baguru Chandru, H.Gopalakrishna and H.N. Ananda as members and board of trustees that is trying to spot new breed of writers.

Everyone works for free for a cause – to spread good cheer.

Aparanji is a mission of, for, and by humour. There is no profit because the issues fetch no income to the publisher. However, there is the need to create space for printed humour. A venture like this cannot succeed with just humour as capital. Commercial Houses that spend crores can set aside a fraction of their advertising budget to support a worthwhile venture like Aparanji. An ad in Aparanji supports a larger cause which could be construed as corporate social responsibility. Once this support is assured, the magazine can spread its wings and reach the masses. Aparanji will then be happily celebrating its golden jubilee.

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