Champak at Every Home
The sun rays peeked through the open window, brightening the room. The fan provided little help with the heat. On the lunch table sat a plate of sliced mangoes, Baba’s newspaper, Ma’s magazine, and Rajni’s Champak.
Reading alongside Baba and Ma was Rajni’s favourite twice-a-month ritual. While they caught up with the happenings of the world, Rajni worked on her puzzles, figured out the crosswords and of course, read stories.
Champak’s Legacy
Champak has been a part of many different families, just like Rajni’s, for 50 years. It was launched in 1969 with a simple aim: to move away from stories centred on miracles, superheroes, and villains and create a space where children were at the heart of every story. The vision was to build a safe space for kids to explore not only situations but also emotions.
Our characters—Cheeku, Damru, Jumpy and more—think and behave like children in situations that happen in their day-to-day life. They were created not to educate, but to be a friend that children could relate to and learn from.
More than Stories
The world of children’s publishing and entertainment has changed dramatically, and Champak has evolved alongside it. Today, we are not just one magazine. Our collection harbours story books, puzzle books, activity books, school curriculum and audiobooks on Audible. Our magazine goes out twice a month in 8 languages and in three avatars—Champak Magazine, Highlight Champs, Highlight Genies.
While the pages reflect modern-day concerns, their curation remains rooted in a simple belief: children deserve a space they can truly call their own.
To achieve this, we steer clear of violence, weapon imagery, religious or political bias, and portrayals that label certain people or animals as inherently bad.
This approach allows us to focus on the situations children genuinely encounter in their everyday lives. Our stories explore themes such as making friends, navigating conflicts, standing up to bullying, expressing emotions, and finding the confidence to speak up—experiences that are familiar to children everywhere.
Rather than presenting an idealised world, Champak aims to help children understand and navigate the real one, one story at a time.
Communicating Bigger Themes through Smaller Ideas
But a child’s mind does not grow in just one direction. That is why our focus extends beyond stories to creating a complete playground. Champak magazine’s pages are a blend of puzzles, crosswords, comic strips, fun facts, and activities that come together to engage different parts of a child’s brain.
When a character is stuck in a cave, finding their way out, the child reading puts themselves in the character’s shoes and tries to find a way out with that character. When a character stands up to a bully on the page, the child builds courage to do the same in real life.
Similarly, when the child comes across a new word or as they navigate a complex sentence, their reading ability grows, helping them become an independent reader.
Puzzles, crosswords, and brain games help develop problem-solving skills, logical thinking, concentration, and attention span. Activities and hands-on experimentation help strengthen motor skills, encourage independent play, and nurture creativity.
Champak’s fun facts section includes a variety of information—from how horses sleep to the history of cars. This knowledge often goes beyond what children encounter in school. Most times, these fun facts are things kids write to us about.
Together, these different formats create something larger than the sum of their parts. Champak is a space where learning happens naturally and regularly, often without children even noticing as they eagerly wait for the next issue to arrive.
Hence, Champak’s every issue is carefully designed to create this experience. But long before a child solves a crossword, discovers a fun fact, or gets lost in a story, a great deal of work happens behind the scenes.
The Process
The journey of each issue begins months before it arrives in a young reader's hands. Behind every edition is a team of writers, illustrators, editors, and designers working together to ensure that every page is engaging, entertaining, and meaningful.
It all starts with a simple question: What is happening in the child’s life this week?
The answer could be anything—the first week of school, the festive season, or even a letter from a reader sharing their struggles as a left-handed child. From there begins the process of curating an issue with stories, activities and topics with relevance.
These ideas go through a team of editors who decide on the best one and ideate on how it should be presented in the issue. Editors review storylines, test puzzles, and ensure that every piece remains true to Champak's vision. Illustrators bring the characters to life while the team at the office refines them, carefully crafting them according to the story to communicate the emotion behind it.
When the editorial, illustration and design team complete their work, the file is then sent to the printers. The carefully designed file travels to the Delhi Press printing facility, where thousands of blank pages transform into vibrant pages of the magazine. Sheets roll through the press, gradually revealing familiar faces and engaging activities.
From there, the printed sheets are folded, arranged, trimmed, and bound into the latest magazine. Teams there ensure that all pages are in order and that every issue meets the standards we have followed for ages. The magazines are then bundled and packaged to be delivered. Some travel to a bookstore, while some find a home in a newsstand. Some travel farther, crossing boundaries and reaching quieter towns before finally arriving in the hands of a waiting reader.
This process takes over a month, from the editor’s desk to your doorstep. Along the way, it becomes part of a quiet ritual—perhaps a child reading on their own and solving a puzzle, siblings working together on a crossword, or a parent sharing a story at bedtime.
For over five decades, Champak has been part of countless childhoods, finding a place on lunch tables, in school bags, and on bedside shelves. And as Cheeku would remind us, every good story ends with the promise of another adventure just around the corner.
