Tinkle is an Indian fortnightly magazine for children in English, published from Mumbai. Originally owned by the India Book House, the Tinkle brand was acquired by ACK (Amar Chitra Katha) Media in 2007. The magazine contains comics, stories, puzzles, quizzes, contests and other features targeted at school children, although its readership includes many adults as well. It is published in English and syndicated in many Indian languages like Hindi, Bengali, and Malayalam. The magazine was published at a monthly frequency until July 2016 when Tinkle announced its first fortnightly issue. The first issue of Tinkle was released in November 1980. The magazine carries comics, stories and regular columns of interest to school children. Tinkle enjoys great popularity in India — , Tinkle had a circulation of 3 lakh copies per issue. It has been an integral part of growing up in India in the last two decades and characters like Suppandi and Shikari Shambu that were created in the early years of the magazine have nationwide recognition among all age groups. Readers send more than 200 letters with stories and other features to be considered for printing in the magazine. The wholesome combination of educational and entertainment that defines Tinkle has many celebrity fans in India, including the former Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The official website of Tinkle contains puzzles and games. Background Anant Pai, the founding editor of the magazine, is known to his readers as Uncle Pai. The idea behind starting a comic book series devoted to Indian culture and history came to Pai from a quiz contest aired on Doordarshan in February 1967, in which participants could easily answer questions pertaining to Greek mythology, but were unable to reply to the question "In the Ramayana, who was Rama's mother?" Pai left his job at Times of India, and started ACK (Amar Chitra Katha) the same year, with the help of late G.L. Mirchandani of IBH, (who also took charge as the command of Tinkle late when it was formed), when most other publishers had rejected the concept. Later, he took on the role of writer, editor and publisher. The series went on to become a publishing milestone for the Indian comic book scene, selling over 90 million copies of about 440 titles (as per last count until the end of 2008). He has also launched the popular series. In June 2018, Tinkle Comics reprinted