Tulika Publishers

A review of Gender Talk - Big Hero, Size Zero by a 15-year-old

"The book states a lot of facts without hiding anything. The truth is not morphed to make it sound better. That way it is different and more effective than textbooks, because, how much ever text books are supposed to tell the truth, they only touch the basics and in the process not touch upon a lot of things. That leads to us experience stuff on our own, and learn them the hard way.

I am a std X student and I think I know a lot of stuff, because I have 'learnt it via my text books', but I really have not. Only when I read it in this book, that I actually got to know more about a lot of things that are going on around the world, in a factual way. This may or may not be true for adults, but definitely true for adolescents and mid-teens. For example, the book rightly points out that a lot of us, girls think that in the US and other western countries, girls have a lot more freedom and they are treated better than in India. Like, they can wear whatever they want etc., but this book has let me know that they may also be constrained just like us or in other ways that we do not face.

This book talks about a lot of stuff that is told down to us kids by not only our parents, but other adults in the family too and we are expected to abide by them, just because they have been told by the elders. Most of the criticisms and beliefs, are taken and treated like they can't be challenged.This book tells us that they don't have a reason behind most of those and they are saying most of them just because they never thought about questioning their adults. This book taught me that we can challenge those beliefs and not feel guilty like I am speaking against my parent. I don't have to accept things just because they are told by an adult.

This book has helped me realise, that we as in the current teens, who think that we are not as biased as our parents, are actually biased in different ways. It has kind of rubbed off on us as well. We are okay about the male-female-gender-talk, but what about the people who are in between? We too are biased towards them. We think of them as if being born like that is somehow their mistake, when actually this is not true at all. We tease a guy at school, just because he likes another guy. It may be just friendly, still we tease them and it may affect his morale badly. He may not show it outside, but may lead to him being depressed, which may lead to other undesired results.

The Size Zero and the Big Hero concept is so ingrained in our system, that I had not realised that we all are victims of the media. We tease people, just because they are too fat, too thin, skinny, heavy etc, without ever bothering to find out if they are healthy. If they are healthy, why should we bother whether they conform to the norms set by a movie star? This book made me look at our obsession in a new way.

The illustrations in the book make a lot of sense in a not so serious way and makes the book fun to read. They have been done interestingly and at the same time without moving away from the concepts that the book is easily readable, unlike a textbook, in spite of dealing with dry and sometimes not so easy topics. I liked them a lot.

I would recommend this book to all my friends and in fact, make them read it :)"

Saralya P. Narayanan

"The first thing that strikes about the book 'Big Hero, Size Zero' is that it is honest, to the core. There are no biases here, even though it makes the reader acknowledge the biases that are ingrained in his mind.

The book should be slated as the first non-fiction essential that a teen must read. It states all facts as just those... facts. With a child like purpose, the book talks about gender issues, without attaching a whole lot of sentiments.

In a few words, simple, honest, straight forward and a must-read for adolescents, teachers and parents with kids about to become adolescents."

Abirami Narayanan

A flower shower for the award-winning Mayil Will Not Be Quiet!, Sowmya Rajendran, who co-authored the book with Niveditha Subramaniam – collected the award from Sahitya Akademi on Children’s Day at a ceremony held in Mumbai. Here is Sowmya's speech:

It is a pleasure to be here today in such distinguished company. Needless to say, I’m honored that the Sahitya Akademi has bestowed this award upon us, Niveditha and I, for our book Mayil Will Not Be Quiet! A book that was rejected by almost every publisher we approached.

Our journey with Mayil began many years ago. Niveditha and I met in Stella Maris College, Chennai, in the year 2003. We were in the same undergrad English class. We became great friends and discovered that we also worked well together professionally. We turned to each other for honest and critical feedback on our writing and fortunately, this only cemented our friendship further. During our undergrad years, we were exposed to some brilliant literary and philosophical texts that revolutionized the way in which we looked at the world. From naïve school children, we grew into young women with a healthy appetite for questioning the status quo. Our training in literary criticism made us go back to the texts we’d grown up reading as children and look at them again with fresh eyes. Many of these texts – Indian and Western - were riddled with clichés, stereotypes and prejudices. Ugly people were evil; stepmothers were cruel; princesses waited to be rescued; princes were always brave; boys led, girls followed…and so much more. Without a doubt, we’d thoroughly enjoyed reading these texts as children, but we had to work doubly hard as adults to rid our minds of the bias and conditioning that we’d inherited with this literature, among other influences.

After graduation, Niveditha went on to do an internship with Tulika Publishers, an independent children’s publisher, while I traveled to the UK to do my Masters’ in Gender Studies at the University of Sussex. At a certain point, when we both had sufficient experience in writing and publishing, we decided to collaborate on a children’s book that would talk about the growing up experiences of an Indian child with honesty. Back then, there were hardly any Indian children’s books in English that were of this genre. We wanted to create a character, a girl, who asks the sort of questions that we wished we’d grown up asking. Not a precocious, annoying child but someone with natural curiosity and a kind of courage that only children are capable of. And Mayil was born. We initially planned on creating a resource book for children with Mayil as the protagonist. We put down the various issues that a young girl, on the cusp of adolescence, faces and thinks about – but we were determined to keep the tone light and non-judgmental. Each chapter ended with a list of open-ended questions for the readers to answer. Or even just mull over.

We approached educators, people in NGOs, people in government organizations, and publishers alike to bring this book out but we were turned down by all of them. Finally, Tulika Publishers responded. They liked what they saw, they said. But would we consider changing the form of the book to a diary? We thought about this and agreed that this made sense – in a diary, Mayil could speak for herself. She would become all the more real and accessible to a reader. And so, the process of rewriting the book began. Since we have a similar wavelength and writing style, we managed to get a consistent tone and voice for Mayil. As we wrote more and more, she became her own person.

We launched Mayil Will Not Be Quiet on March 8th, 2011. To say that we were nervous would be an understatement. Would adults appreciate the frank depiction of childhood in it? Would the uncomfortable questions we’d raised in the book make parents too uncomfortable? Mayil’s world was unapologetically located in Tamil Nadu – would people from other parts of the country relate to her? Had we been too political correct? Or too politically incorrect? And most importantly, would a child like this book? To our immense relief, the children who came to the book launch took to the book immediately. Boys and girls alike. And in the months that followed, we got great reviews from adults, too. This was all very new and unexpected and Niveditha and I were thrilled. The CBSE even put the book on its recommended reading list! In 2013, we brought out Mostly Madly Mayil, the sequel. I’m not going to lie – ever since Mini Shrinivasan, also a Tulika author, won the first Bal Sahitya Puraskar in 2010, Niveditha and I have been wanting to win it! Not because authors write to win prizes but because an award brings with it validation, recognition, and new audiences who might have never read you if not for it. And then, of course, there is the satisfaction of becoming a part of a distinguished literary tradition. We were both, therefore, speechless with delight when we received the news from the Sahitya Akademi, four years after Mayil Will Not Be Quiet had been published, that our book had been chosen as the winner for this year’s award. It is, beyond doubt, the second greatest honour that we could have received, the first being a child’s unvarnished enthusiasm and acceptance of the book.

Today, I’m very glad that we did not give up on Mayil when we received all those rejection letters. I’m very glad that we persisted, believed, and followed our heart. We’re no longer in a world where children can afford to be silent. They must speak, they must ask, and they must never be quiet. Here’s hoping that more children will get to know Mayil and inherit her spirit to question. We thank the Sahitya Akademi, Tulika Publishers, our supportive families and friends for making this possible.

JANUARY

1.The House That Sonabai Builtby Vishakha Chanchani and photographs by Stephen P. Huyler

This sensitive telling of Sonabai's story follows her transformative artistic journey from the tactile experience of her first creations in clay, innovative experiments with colours and light, and unfettered play with pattern and design to being embraced by the art world.

Excellence in Book Production, Federation of Indian Publishers, and Darsana National Awards 2015

Vishakha Chanchani at a telling of Sonabai's story

2. Being Boysedited by Deeya Nayar & Radhika Menon with illustrations by Niveditha Subramaniam

"...while Being Boys presents itself as an anthology of short stories with young male protagonists, what stood out for me was its inclusion of narratives that one would be hard pressed to find in mainstream Indian publishing... Being Boys brings together a diverse range of authors, and an interesting mix of narratives - fables, memoirs, diary entries, historical fiction..." - Saffron Tree

Writer-filmmaker Devashish Makhija tells the story he contributed at the launch at Bookaroo Pune

3. A Bhil Story by Nina Sabnani and Sher Singh Bhil

"Each page is beautifully composed and packed with colourful detail... making each page a stunning visual experience." - Saffron Tree

Nina Sabnani and Sher Singh Bhil at the launch at the Kala Ghoda Festival 2015

FEBRUARY

1. The Talking Birdby Swati Sengupta and pictures by Sayan Mukherjee

"When I opened the book, the first thing I noticed was the colour palette. These were strong Indian hues of bright blue and garish orange; deep emerald and snazzy purple. Sayan Mukherjee clearly understands that we Indians like our colours to be eye-catching... The author, Swati Sengupta, understands that, for a picture book for a five-year-old, you need a good read-aloud style." - Goodbooks,in

Swati Sengupta at the launch of the book

MARCH

1. Wings To Flyby Sowmya Rajendran and pictures by Arun Kumar

"Short, sweet narration of the story of Malathi, stirring young guns to start looking at great people's lives and to tell them there is an interesting story in everybody's life. The visuals imprint Malathi's journey in the young reader's mind, and create a lasting impression..." - Plusminusnmore

Storyteller Ameen Haque and para-athlete Malathi Holla

2. Girls To The Rescueby Sowmya Rajendren and pictures by Ashok Rajagopalan

"The stories, as they are narrated, have a timeless feel to them, equally enjoyable to young readers, and to older ones - teenagers, young adults, and adults. Simple enough that a 6 year old might enjoy the narration, yet profound enough that older readers might find layers that mean different things to them." - Saffron Tree

A spread from the book

APRIL

1. Gender Talk: Big Hero, Size Zero by Anusha Hariharan & Sowmya Rajendran with pictures by Niveditha Subramaniam

"This book states a lot of facts without hiding anything. The truth is not morphed to make it sound better. That way it is different and more effective than textbooks, because, how much ever text books are supposed to tell the truth, they only touch the basics and in the process not touch upon a lot of things." - Saralya P Narayan, 15 years old, Chennai

Writers Anusha Hariharan and Sowmya Rajendran, and Schools of Equality's Gulika Reddy at the launch

MAY

1. Flutterflyby Niveditha Subramaniam

"The uses for this book are as limitless as your imagination... Bold pencil strokes bring the characters to life, and Niveditha Subramaniam has a knack of infusing her drawings with movement and humour..." - Goodbooks.in

Raksha Bandhan special

JUNE

1. Kanna Pannaby Zai Whitaker and pictures by Niloufer Wadia

"The beauty of this story is that it works at many levels. It creates an awareness about blindness in young children, both its outward appearance and inner abilities. Kanna is normal in all ways and his parents and companions come to discover that in the course of the story. Like all good stories, it is left to the reader to reflect on what is left unsaid... The greatest attraction of the book is the visual impact that Niloufer Wadia manages to convey with her beautiful illustrations..." - Goodbooks.in

Writer Zai Whitaker at the launch of the book

2. Mara And The Clay Cows by Parismita Singh

"Mara and the Clay Cows combines two things that Indian publishing still doesn' see enough of one, an original graphic narrative... and two, a story set in the North- eastern regions of the country. Mara.. is a layered story and I found myself discovering facets to the book long after I had finished it. It is, of course, a story of magic and adventure, and a child's quest for family. It also humorously questions gender stereotypes, asserts the need for non violence and environmental preservation..." - Saffron Tree

A spread from the book

JULY

1. Our Incredible Cowby Mahasweta Devi and illustrations by Ruchi Shah

"Ruchi Shah takes Nyadosh the cow to a surreal level, visualizing Nyadosh as one who becomes what she eats!... Thinking about the life and times of the story's context (it was written in Bengali in the late 1960s) asks of the reader a pause for reflection." - Goodbooks.in

After making an incredible edible cow at the launch

2. Follow The Antsby Amrutha Satish and pictures by Soumya Menon

"The book is a delightful way to introduce toddlers to everyday words and make them observe things around us... The words are simple and in each page we learn a new word which is what we see everyday and yet never make an effort to tell our kids about it. The book is a great way to teach a young child new words and trigger a discussion about things around the house." - IndianMomsConnect

Illustrator Soumya Menon at a telling of the book

AUGUST

1. Dungi Danceby Bhavna Jain Bhuta and pictures by Kavita Singh Kale

"...the drum and beat sounds are bound to be a great hit with storytellers and read-aloud-ers as well as young children between the ages of three and five." - Goodbooks.in

Author Bhavna Jain Bhuta at a telling of the story

2. Neelu's Big Boxby Nandini Nayar and pictures by Shreya Sen

A big box, her grandparents’ walking sticks, Amma’s long red dupatta… Neelu has everything she needs for her big, strong fort. But – oh no – she trips and falls, and the box becomes flat! Whacky pictures take us on a colourful ride into a child’s imagination.

Author Nandini Nayar telling the story

3. Bhimrao Ambedkar: The Boy Who Asked Why by Sowmya Rajendran and pictures by Satwik Gade

"I greatly enjoyed this book, and if it were up to me, I would gladly place a copy in every child's hand."- Goodbooks.in

Illustrator Satwik Gade at the launch of the book

SEPTEMBER

1. Salim The Knife-Sharpener by R Amarendran and pictures by Ashok Rajagopalan

Kutak-katak… zoing-zoing… bzzzt-bzzzt… zzzk-zzzk… Salim goes from village to village sharpening knives. But who needs knives sharpened every day? Some days he hardly makes enough money for a good meal. Now, with Eid coming, he decides to try his luck on the other side of the jungle. Does he get enough work? Does he get a good meal?

Author R Amarendran and illustrator Ashok Rajagopalan at the launch

2. Righting Wrongs: A Handbook Of Child Rights For Teachersby Monisha Bajaj

This handbook helps educators to create awareness about child rights among children. Featuring landmark laws and treaties, real stories and statistics, ideas for discussion, worksheets and questionnaires, it delves into the history of the child rights movement to show how young people can themselves be empowered to usher in social change.

A spread from the book

OCTOBER

1. Sultan's Forest by Kamla Bhasin and photographs by Bina Kak

Tiger cub Sultan and his Ammi have a special friend they call Junglee Bina. “Bina is bold. She’s not afraid of the forest or the animals,” says little Sultan. Bina loves the jungle, and wanders there on her own for hours, taking photographs. It is these stunning photos that show us Sultan’s life in the Ranthambore forest, even as he tells us the story of a warm relationship between a woman and the wild.

A spread from the book

NOVEMBER

1. The Boy And Dragon Stories And Other Tales by Suniti Namjoshi and pictures by Krishna Bala Shenoi

Sweeping through spans of fantasy, reality and time, the author of the popular Aditi Adventures gives us a set of stories that once again take children on a ride through magic realism. And with confused dragons, cricket playing giants, mirror books and little girls who don’t see why they should cry, they once again say as much between the lines as through the light, lively text.

A spread from the book

DECEMBER

1. Dum Dum Dho: Rhymes And Rhythms edited by Radhika Menon & Deeya Nayar with pictures by Anjora Noronha

The drums beat in a swirly whirl of rhythms and rhymes for little ones – a colourful kaleidoscope of originals from well known writers, familiar favourites from the Oluguti Toluguti collection, sounds and resonances from a world familiar to children.

Image of the book cover

Here is the note sent by the lovely Team MMC:

MMC’s day care centers are probably the most unique day care centers in Mumbai. Mumbai Mobile Creches is the only NGO that runs day care centers for children of construction workers in the city of dreams. The parents of these children migrate from all over India in a desperate attempt to find livelihood, and get employed as skilled and unskilled workers at the booming construction industry of the city. Such sudden and short term moves from the native village to the city, and from one construction site to another, impacts the tender mind the most. The children are often deprived of affection of their grandparents and siblings, whom they had to leave behind in their natal places, and hence they try to find solace in the company of their friends at the day care centers. Although coming from 21 different states and from various different castes and religious backgrounds, they all share the same experience of being a migrant and living on a construction site. Friendship brings some sort of coherence in their ever-changing lives.

The library program plays a very important role in MMC’s comprehensive day care program, and one entire week is set aside as the Book Week. It is one such week (annually) when a lot of activities are planned around books and reading. During the Book Week, both children and community members engage in multiple fun events that kindles their love for reading books.

Tying friendship bands

From November 16 to 21, 2015, the children at MMC’s daycare centers celebrated this year’s Book Week, and the theme of the 6th MMC Book Week was “Friendship”, or “AdbhootDostiKeAnokhe Rang”. During this event the children professed their unconditional love for their friends through books. Story books depicting unique and unconditional friendships were selected for children of different age groups. One such story was that of “Mukund aur Riaz” by Tulika publications which shares a message of magnanimous bonding between two friends. It was a perfect selection which migrant children could easily relate to as they too go through similar feelings of separation when they move back to their villages or other construction sites.

Telling the story

Before narrating the story, the teacher initiated with an introduction activity where children tied friendship bands to each other and celebrated friendship. It was followed by the “Read Aloud Session” of the book “Mukund and Riaz”. All the children were fascinated by the Red colour cap which Mukund gives to Riaz as his last friendship gift. As a follow up activity, the children then made caps and some of them spoke about their best friends and their names. One of the child prompted “Maine bhimeri saheli ko goan jate samay chudiyan diyithi”. (“I had also given my friend bangles while going back to my village.”)

The fabulous caps

Post by Sandhya Rao

Ranjan De with writer Bindu Bhaskar Balaji at a workshop

We lived in a nest of sorts at the top of a flight of narrow iron stairs. Back then, the perch still provided a fair view of the city through the leaves of the shady trees surrounding Tulika's first home. There wasn't even that much traffic back then, just two people and the occasional three or four, dreaming dreams of books for children flying off in different directions. Ranjan, naturally, had the table facing the window and there he sat ... to dream, perchance to create.

Of course, his birdie num-nums were already up and flying: Number Birds was one of Tulika's first three books, and for Ranjan, a project close to his heart. He was the artist guy, the guy with genius at the ends of his fingers, the wacky sense of humour and the brilliant visual ideas, never mind if we had to do some mopping up afterwards! When the question of the Tulika logo came up, nobody wanted a quill (that's what the word, toolika, means, by the way, the old feather quill), it had to be a bird, a bird that everybody could see everywhere because it flew so far and so fast and was so bold, and brave, and part of the great big family of life. What else could it be but the common crow: that unmissable part of the sights and sounds of India? And so, Ranjan stood on the outer perimeter of our perch, gazing for hours at the skies, the trees, following the beady-eyed birds, studying them and studying them. We were getting a little nervous, then we started panicking and after that it was sheer paranoia! Our first three books were nearly ready, but where was the logo? "Here," said Ranjan, coolly one morning. And there it was, our kaka! Complete in its shining glory!

1996. With Line and Circle, it was lift-off for Tulika's multilingual publishing programme for children. Save three months right at the start when we nested in one room on top of a rickety flight of stairs, home for the next thirteen years was 13 Prithvi Avenue in Abhiramapuram, Chennai.

Dreaming up the first books: Lakshmi, Sandhya and Radhika (L to R)

Twenty years on, the Tulika crow is busier than ever. People have come, and mostly stayed. Interns have summered, wintered too. More tables and chairs and newer computers have found space. And books, books, books…

Techno magic: Design intern Anisha and comp-wiz Siva

Conducting book launches, reading trails and workshops... making, checking, packing and stacking books... it was hands-on for everyone with everything. The crow wore many hats, adding many feathers to them along the way!

(Clockwise) Talking books: Radhika and Deeya
Climbing high: Lakshmi, Sandhya and Radhika in the stockroom
The quiet anchor: Radhika

The crow's new perch

In 2010, we packed up our nest and migrated to a quiet bylane close-by: 24/1 Ganapathy Colony Third Street, Teynampet. A comfortable new home, with a tree-filled backyard, a bright signboard in front, and a cosy bookstore for browsers – age no bar.

(Clockwise) Money-bird Thilak
Storytime with Niveditha
Books in the pipeline: Megha and Siva
All done shopping!
Drop everything and read!

Post by Radhika Menon

Cathy Spagnoli and Manu with the team

Cathy Spagnoli’s visit to Tulika a few days ago brought back memories of her wonderful storytelling. I first heard her at The School, KFI, Chennai, probably in the early 80s when I was teaching there. The setting was perfect – Cathy sitting on a chair with a guitar under a banyan tree, with children and teachers on the ground all around her. She started her story in a quiet voice strumming the guitar softly. The audience listened in rapt attention – children, adults and birds alike!

But her toddler son Manu had had enough of sitting quietly while his mother paid no attention to him, so he let out a loud cry. Cathy, without missing a beat, put aside her guitar, put him on her hip and continued with the story! Manu was soon as engrossed as the rest of us.

That was the first time I had listened to a professional storyteller. These days storytelling has become so popular that they have become part of every children’s book event and book festival. Storytellers use every trick from props to movements to songs to dramatisations, much to the delight of children. While I admire the creativity and the energy of these storytellers I also wonder what the children remember at the end of it – the funny sounds, the fun movements, the catchy songs? After listening to Cathy, it is the story that you carry with you. As she says, for storytelling “all you need is a story, a teller and a listener”.

Priya's Day

After starting Tulika, I always talked about Cathy’s magical storytelling to Sandhya (Rao). About a year later, in 1997, I think, we heard that Cathy was performing in Dakshinachitra. I couldn't go for some reason but Sandhya did with her six-year-old son Tejas. Both came away enthralled.

The story Cathy told that day was Priya’s Day, using a sheet of newspaper that seamlessly became a mat, a pestle, a broom, a paper cone with peanuts, grass, butterflies, a string of jasmine, a dosa and a happy face! Sandhya and I had no doubt that Priya’s Day would be our next book.

At the release of that book at the lovely store Manasthala, it was Jeeva (Raghunath) who told the story. Adapting it in her inimitable style she told Priya’s Day using a newspaper, Cathy-style, and punctuating the story with Tamil film songs, Jeeva-style.

And that is the story of how Jeeva became Jeeva Aunty the storyteller!

Cathy Spagnoli at the Tulika Bookstore, Chennai

Author Chatura Rao writes about the launch of Gone Grandmother.

I took Gone Grandmother to the Peek-a-Book Children's Literature Festival that was held in Bandra, Mumbai, on December 10th, 2016. It was my first public reading of this recently-released picture book for 6+ readers.

It is a story about the passing of a beloved grandmother. I hoped the children might respond to it in their characteristic way - with wisdom, humour and empathy. This is not the first tale of loss that I've explored with children. About Grandfathers and Trees is a starkly beautiful story about losing a grandfather, written by my sister Adithi Rao for our short story collection, Growing Up in Pandupur. I've read this story with children at creative writing workshops. They've received it with wonder.

I read out Gone Grandmother at the Peek-a-Book fest, only a little nervous. About forty adults and children had assembled. The children ranged from under-tens to 14-year-olds, the latter from the Allana English School in Kurla.

While I read, a volunteer projected slides showing Krishna Bala Shenoi's vibrant illustrations. The children listened quietly, almost sorrowfully, when I told them how Nina's grandmother - her Nani - had left suddenly one day. They seemed to understand how lonely Nina felt while skipping now that Nani, who used to count her skips, was gone. They giggled at the lists Nina made - Ways to Get to the Stars and Ways to Find God's Home. They appreciated Krishna Shenoi's simple line drawings that accompanied these lists, drawings that they might have made themselves, had they been Nina!

As the story drew to a close, I explained that in nature everything comes to an end: trees wither, rivers empty and dry up, even mountains crumble to dust. True? The children nodded wisely. I was aware that although we were of various religious faiths there in that room, and each religion explains death a little differently from the other, natural science is common to us all.

I explained how I came to write this story: when my grandmother passed away last February, a child in the family had asked her mother where Nani had gone. To the stars, her mother had replied. The little girl wanted to know how that was even possible, given that Nani was no featherweight!

If I could make a story based on a loved one and an incident, couldn't my young readers do it too? Immediately five or six children raised their hands, eager to tell about a favourite person in their lives and what happened ''one time'' with that person.

A little girl called Misha told about her turtle, Mitch, who eats a lot.

Ananya told about her best friend who once drew random circles that Ananya laughed at, but which, surprisingly, grew into a piece of art that their teacher put up for all to see.

One tiny girl took the mic and simply stated that her grandma had died in a car accident before she ever knew her and that her mother hadn't told her any stories about her yet.

Then, bespectacled, shyly smiling Fauzia from Allana English School, stood up. ''I was very close to my grandfather,'' she said slowly. ''He would drink cold water although the doctor had said he should not. I knew about this, though nobody else did. A few hours before he had the heart attack that took him, he drank cold water. I didn't tell anyone...'' A shadow darted across her face.

Are you sorry or glad you didn't tell? I prodded gently.

''A bit of both,'' she replied, smiling a little sadly. ''It was our secret till the end.''

With that line Fauzia's incident became a story for us, her listeners. And perhaps a story to help her begin to make sense of the feelings all mixed up in her.

In the face of loss all we can really do is gather the memories, spread them out and play with them for a time. We reinvent them as stories in the glow of love remembered. The children I met made the shift from memory to story quite easily. Discussing Gone Grandmother with them was truly a special experience, a generous sharing.

I hope Gone Grandmother reaches plenty of small ears, and the pages of this book are marked by many sets of little fingerprints in time to come!

JANUARY

We started the year off on a high…

The House That Sonabai Built won The Hindu Young World-GoodBooks Award for Best Book – Non-Fiction, and Gender Talk: Big Hero, Size Zero was announced as an Honour Book in the same category.

Radhika Menon participated in a panel discussion on ‘Inclusion of Specially-abled Children in Children's Literature’, at the New Delhi World Book Fair.

FEBRUARY

We turned 20 and it was Open House at our office! Our family of authors, illustrators, translators and well-wishers trooped in through the day with warm wishes.

Bhimrao Ambedkar: The Boy Who Asked Why won the Darsana Book Award for Excellence in Children’s Book Production.

We launched the popular bilingual picture book, Tiji and Cheenu at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival.

A Bhil Story went back to the Bhils! Children from Rani Kajal Jeevan Shala school, Kakrana village, Madhya Pradesh were delighted to read a book about their own people!

MARCH

Our favourite storyteller, Cathy Spagnoli, visited the Tulika Bookstore! This gentle, smiling, spirited and strong lady embodies a storytelling style that is mesmerising, even when she speaks just above a hush!

Mr Sathyanarayanan of Lohit Libraries dropped in. Chief enthusiast in the making of Hambreelmai’s Loom in Mishmi, he never ceases to amaze us with his zeal for getting good books out to children.

APRIL

Wildlife photographer Bina Kak took her ‘wild’ story, Sultan’s Forest to Bookaroo Jaipur.

Art educator Vishakha Chanchani conducted an engaging craft session with the multiple award-winning The House That Sonabai Built.

We celebrated World Storytelling Day at JustBooks library, Anna Nagar, Chennai, with a reading of Wings to Fly. With the year’s theme being ‘Strong Women’, this uplifting story was the perfect choice!

With rhythm and rhyme, writer Sandhya Rao chanted, sang and recited poems on World Poetry Day. The children at Redwood Montessori danced to the beat of the drums of Dum Dum Dho!

MAY

Our books went LIVE on Worldreader where they’re continued to be read and top the charts in the ‘most read books’ category.

We said ‘Konichiwa’ to the Japanese edition of Who Will Rule?

JUNE

Our taste bud tantaliser, A Silly Story of Bondapalli, staged by Gillo Gilehri for the first time in Mumbai, played to an overwhelming response!

The popular stand-up book, Home was reprinted in a new avatar.

We launched two e-books, The Why-Why Girl and A Silly Story of Bondapalli on the Juggernaut app.

JULY

Australian writer Ken Spillman launched his latest picture book, Clumsy!

Actor Twinkle Khanna, the ambassador for Vidyanjali Yojana, a government scheme to promote reading habits among children picked A Silly Story of Bondapalli for a rollicking read aloud.

Several popular titles were released as multilingual anibooks on YouTube by BookBox.

AUGUST

Winner of the first Bal Sahitya Puraskar, Just a Train Ride Away, was published in Punjabi!

SEPTEMBER

We created some fabulous handcrafted puppets based on the hit Gajapati Kulapati series.

Spotted at an exhibition by a discerning eye, a striking piece of Warli art, turned into the brilliant book, My Gandhi Story. The same exhibition, Bapu: A Craftperson’s Vision, travelled to Australia, along with the books!

Stephen Huyler’s spectacular photographs of the self-taught artist, Sonabai, in the four-time award-winning The House that Sonabai Built were on display in Columbus, Ohio, USA.

OCTOBER

Our engaging Read and Colour Stories were brought back on the shelves.

Film lyricist and Tulika translator Raj Shekhar took two of his books, Pakdo, Pakdo Us Billi Ko and Ruru Raag to Arushi, an NGO in Bhopal, where he recorded the stories for their library.

Mr Ravi Arora, an IAS officer currently posted at Navsari, Gujarat, conducted a programme to sensitise children towards differently-abled people using the Gujarati edition of Why Are You Afraid To Hold My Hand?

Illustrator Proiti Roy and animator-filmmaker Nina Sabnani were nominated for the Big Little Book Awards.

NOVEMBER

Chie Media’s Fundoodaa train of fun got their first lot of Tulika books on board, and you can choo choo choose them in the language you prefer. More anibooks!

The first in our Illustrated Classics series, Our Incredible Cow was nominated for the Crossword Book Awards – Jury Award.

More of our books were published by Oxford University Press, Pakistan.

DECEMBER

Illustrator Krishna Bala Shenoi’s book trailer for Gone Grandmother has been trailblazing the internet.

Dum Padam Pappadum from the Oluguti Toluguti book of rhymes was published in the Archa Calendar, by the globally renowned International Youth Library in Munich.

We are deeply touched that people take the trouble to write and tell us how much they love our books and why. It gives us our energy shots!

On Tulika

Every Friday afternoon, in the village of Suviseshapuram, a classroom is transformed into a library. Many of the parents at the Kalnagar Elementary School are scavengers, making their living by picking through garbage and cleaning public toilets. On weekends some of the students work alongside their parents. Mothers started noticing the new library books their children were bringing home. With captivating illustrations and intriguing stories like Gadagada Gudugudu and Vaalameenkku Kalyanam, curiosities rose. One by one, parents with some reading skill started dropping by Kalnagar to see if they could check out books — for themselves. The new libraries are not just for the schools. They are also for the village or the neighborhood—broadening and expanding worlds for their communities.

Jane Koons , ALC School Library Programme in association with HRF (Hippocampus Reading Foundation)

One thing that has emerged in this “repeated reading” of Tulika books with my daughter is that in addition to the story the visuals in these books provide a very rich opportunity to connect experiences in our everyday lives in India with what we are reading. The context of life in India is present in the visuals waiting to be experienced, discovered and made connections to :)

Anita Balasubramaniam, Educationist, Chennai

I am overwhelmed as a mother and a vivid reader myself to see the diverse subjects you have published. The text and the illustrations of every book is eye catching. My daughter loved the books. Thank you Tulika for being so thoughtful for Indian children of today. Our generation unfortunately had to rely only on the foreign authors and Indian literature was mainly limited being regional due to the language bar (like Tagore being read mainly by Bengali kids).

Chandrima Pal, Scientist, Pune

The beauty of the edition you created continues to find its way to new languages, new readers, and it is not unrealistic to hope that it will outlive those who created it.

Alice McLerran, writer

Our state wide campaign on spreading the importance of reading for the better future of children has been successful. With your books we have been able to enhance the reading skills of children in schools and communities... After the campaign children now appreciate the importance of
developing their reading skills.

Suseela, State Co-ordinator - RSEN

For all of us at Bookworm, Tulika books are a staple diet. They are the books we use and use well. They have the stories that allow us to make story telling engaging and learning experiences, they are the books that inform us and show us how a good book should be.

Niju Mohan, Bookworm

FoL (Fountain of Learning) has been working with isolated and neglected schools across Ladakh, towards both the Indo-China and Indo-Pakistan borders to empower children with the gift of education and these books helped provide a better overall quality of reading in these regions.

Deachen Yangdol, Avalokitesvara Trust

The Tulika books are very seductive and beckon loudly from the shop shelves with their vivid colours and imaginative illustrations. They are especially lovely to hold and feel… Apart from the aesthetic appeal, the choice of subjects, the bilingual approach, and the strong links to a 'sense' of India – contemporary, urban, rural and folk – make a very strong case for me to always consider a Tulika title with seriousness!

Anita Roy, Commissioning Editor, Young Zubaan

The Tulika series (Takdir, the Tiger Cub, Lai-Lai, the Baby Elephant) is filling an urgently needed niche. The general public is surprisingly unaware about wildlife issues, and this series could go a long way to programme in Uttaranchal and the tiger book in our programmes in Sundarbans and central India…

Belinda Wright, OBE, Executive Director, Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI)

Marion Sneyd and I purchased two sets of books from you, in both English and Tamil, for the Child Haven International Home in Kaliyampoondi. I wanted to send you this email to thank you for these books and to tell you that the Tulika books are one of the highlights of the library. We were surprised that even the older children loved your books, both the text and the beautiful illustrations.

Susan Ayela, Educator, Canada

Some weeks back I bought your bilingual book THE SEED by Deepa's Balsavar (Tamil translation by Karkuzhali) and enjoyed reading it several times to my three year old grandson Vedant. It is a brilliant production with excellent scripts and pictures. Last week .... I gave the script to the dancers for poetry appreciation and analysis without revealing the source and the context. The discussion went on for nearly half an hour and everyone agreed that it was a poem and a fit subject for dance!

Sujata Vijayaraghavan, Dancer, Chennai

I recently visited my friend in Berkeley, California. She’d just returned from Chennai and bought a collection of Tulika books for her two daughters.....I too loved the books and immediately checked out your website. I was drawn to your philosophy on children’s books and it was wonderful to see such a great collection of innovative children’s book. I loved reading the profiles of your authors and illustrators and marveled at the awesome talent you have.

Ria Patel, California

It's cause of them [Tulika] that my son just loves Karimuga and Bajrangbali and not chhota bheem.

Rachna Koppikar, Entrepreneur

To me, the treasured moments of my daughter's childhood are the times we spend together pouring over an aesthetic book — mostly Tulika's! Thanks for the happy moments.

Jackie Schimdtke, Oklahoma, USA

We've found your books to be amazing… your books have been part of engaging children in regular enjoyable reading, who otherwise would not be. I feel if more people knew how good Tulika Gujarati books are – more people would buy them.

Gautam and Krutika Patel run a Home Learning Centre

I'm interested in the way certain individuals try to keep the cultural / spiritual / emotional heritage of India alive for coming generations. I see you do that through your publications. Commendable.

Devashish Makhija, Writer, Filmmaker and Director

One weekend when we were visiting some close friends, Amrita got a lovely gift from them… a stack of books published by your firm. And every single book from that collection has taken her on a new journey, especially books like Malu Bhalu, Eecha Poocha and The Runaway Peppercorn, which were her favorites. Now that we are back home, her only connection to those memories are through those books… it also fondly reminds her of those special cozy afternoons she shared with her grandma telling her similar stories. I am very glad to know that FINALLY there are some books out there, which can make a difference, and more importantly these are books, which our children, here in the USA can relate to. I applaud you for taking this step and putting out such great products…there is obviously a dearth of good and wholesome books/authors for children’s reading. We have a huge, urban, educated middle class in India but pathetically not enough literature is being created for children. Books are typically written to enhance reading skills… but equally important is the need to foster good values, critical thinking and appreciation for our rich folklore and culture in the young minds of our children.

Anuradha Gokhale, Parent

The simple language and the use of just a few lines per page make it a great resource both for reading out to children and for shared reading by the children in class. Apart from this is the high quality of paper and printing which one rarely gets to see in Hindi books.

Amrita Patwardhan, Pune, India

Thank you so much for When Ali Became Bajrangbali -- I enjoyed the book very much, in its play of narrative and image, both very sophisticated (it's the most difficult mandate to achieve that refined simplicity which compresses a great deal and yet conveys pleasure and sense), and in the way it conveyed some profound insights into Indian culture and politics. Congratulations to Devashish Makhija and to Priya Kuriyan.

Ranjit Hoskote, poet and theorist, Mumbai

On newsletters

Your news letters are very refreshingly amazing, nice to see that your books are a fantasy of childhood imagination in this metallic world of concrete materialism, and plastic emotions, a runaway route from hard reality. During my teaching career my writings for children were an escape route for relaxation. I have forwarded a manuscript titled FLIGHT TO FANTASY, to you a year back, where animals get into humanised situations to make it hilarious. You are doing a great job, as you are truly opening a world of fantasy, good wishes and regards to your entire team.

Soma Banerjee

Thank you very much for your wonderful ideographical newsletter. Highly Commendable! Congratulations also for fast development in educating and reaching the needy and deserving. I feel really happy on seeing new programs and aids for easy educating system.

Basil Pereira, Educator

On birthday packages

It's been a great experience dealing with Tulika. Great customer service is really rare in India, so you folks really stand out... Once again, both I and my wife are super-impressed by the speed, thoughtfulness and attention to detail from Tulika and we'll wholeheartedly recommend you folks to all our friends :)

Rohin Dharmaprakash, Bangalore

Thank you for the beautifully wrapped books and extra thank you cards and the gift for my daughter, the mom book!!!!! She was so happy and the book is so beautiful. So very thoughtful of you.

Shubha Gajanan, Parent

Sandhya with the children

To celebrate a day that celebrates books, we put together a creative writing workshop at Wandering Artist, Chennai. Some creative prodding from writer Sandhya Rao, some dreamtime thrown in with her Dream Writer, and a bunch of quick-thinking children churned out a half baked cake!

Read the story they put together:

MY CAKE DREAM
When I woke up it was my mum’s birthday. I remembered that we had forgotten to buy a gift for her.

I threw my blanket aside and leapt out of bed. I quickly woke up my cousin sister who was spending the weekend with us.

“Wake up, wake up!” I said. “It’s my mum’s birthday and I forgot to get her a present!”

My cousin Aarushi said, “Come, let’s bake a cake.”

How do YOU think it ended? Write down the ending, put it up on your social media account and tag us. Special gifts await!

Non-fiction = information books = general knowledge = better marks. This is how the genre has usually been seen with regard to children, and this is a reason why it is much in demand among parents and teachers dealing with a marks-centred education system.

Information, certainly, but in creative ways – this was the challenge Tulika took upon itself 20 years ago with its very first non-fiction titles.

Since then, its strong non-fiction list for ages 2 to 16 has done a fine balancing act of information, stories, graphics, illustrations and photographs to give the reader a lot more than just facts, covering many issues green and gender as well as people, places and events, and in a rich variety of formats…

Read and Colour Stories offers a hands-on way for young children to understand and explore information. The four Freedom and four Riverstories are told along with well-researched line drawings so that children absorb visual details as they colour the pictures and read the story-like texts.

Looking at Art is a unique series that leads children into the world and sensibilities of some of India’s best known artists – contemporary, traditional and folk. Through story, memoir and biography, children look at art and understand aesthetics. The books give young readers a wider and more inclusive idea of art.

The books in the series are on the art of painters M. F. Husain, Ravi Varma, Amrita Sher-Gil, Jamini Roy, K. G. Subramanyan and Paritosh Sen, and clay artist Sonabai. Stitching Stories, based on an animation film, is a striking visual narrative through applique and embroidery. Cave Art unfolds the story of art with photographs of the ancient paintings at the Bhimbetka Caves in Madhya Pradesh alongside creative reproductions of rock art. In A for Ajrakh: The A to Z of Block Printing, each letter sparks off an aspect of block printing on textile, so that by Z for Zafran what we get is a fascinating patchwork of the styles, the motifs, the blocks, the dyes, and the skilled people who sustain and invigorate a centuries-old intricate craft.

First Look Sciencehas five books that are perfect for a child’s first introduction to science, because they were born as pictures. In a classroom project with The Srishti School of Design, Bengaluru, students were asked to visualise five sets of scientific facts on different topics. They did this through the fantasy adventures of Bhoomi, Boondi, Dhooli, Gitti and Beeji, bringing in basic concepts about space, water, air, earth and the earth’s surface. The stunning illustrations convey the beauty, vastness and mystery of nature, enriching the storytelling experience. The science is summed up at the end of each book.

My Gandhi Story by Nina Sabnani and Ankit Chadha, illustrated by Rajesh Chaitya Vangad, came out of four large paintings displayed in an exhibition on Gandhi. In a unique collaboration, this brought together a Warli tribal artist, an animation filmmaker and a storyteller. While the artist was inspired to paint Gandhi's life simply because “he was like us”, the curating of the visuals was inspired by the delightful details in the paintings, picked and highlighted with care. Telling the story in three distinct voices – of a questioning child, a narrator who responds, and Bapu himself – lends intimate subjectivity to a much-published subject.

Gender Talk: Big Hero Size Zero ‘talks’ directly to teens about a complex subject with empathy and in a language they would understand. Uncovering truths, untruths, semi-truths and myths, using everyday examples as well as references to popular media, and with a humorous cartoon commentary running alongside, the book explores what it means socially and culturally to belong to a certain gender.

Fact+Fictionis the series with the winning combination of both!

Other non-fiction titles:

India at the Olympic Games

India’s Olympic Story

Bijoy and the Big River

The Coral Tree

Riddle of the Ridley

Fact + Fiction series

Stone Eggs: A story about Indian dinosaurs

The Shining Stones

Jagadish and the Talking Plant: Pioneering scientist J.C. Bose

Little Indians: Stories from across the country

Mathematwist: Number tales from around the world

Non Fiction Picture Books

Lai-Lai the Baby Elephant

Takdir the Tiger Cub

Baby Beboo Bear

Dinaben and the Lions of Gir
Carry Me, Mama!

Watch Out!

Dancing Bees
My Facebook Friends

Let’s Plant Trees
Let’s Catch the Rain!
Why the Sky is Blue
Ira, the Little Dolphin
Sultan's Forest
Spider's Web
Wings to Fly
Bhimrao Ambedkar: The Boy Who Asked Why

Coming up: In the next post, we will look at our latest non-fiction title India Through Archaeology: Excavating History.

We know we said we’d give you a post on Excavating History but that is in the making right now. (It’s on archaeology so, you know, it needs some time!) In the meanwhile, here’s something else that’s close to our heart that we’d love to share with you.

Regular readers of Tulika’s books would have noticed that we love publishing books which are not just a good story but also say something about the wider world, especially on current social reality. In this post, we feature Rinchin, who while telling us a darned good tale gently draws our attention to the social, political and cultural issues behind it. (We will be talking to her soon asking her exactly how she does it. Watch out for this space!)

So who is Rinchin? She is a writer and activist living and working with tribals in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. She loves stories, and feels that everyone should have some to read that reflect the worlds around them.

What we love about Rinchin’s style is her rare and powerful storytelling technique through which she explores issues using her feather-light touch. She is our publishing gold, completely in sync with our approach.

A word here about Tulika’s publishing philosophy. Our focus has been publishing books that offer a range of experiences that is inclusive and representative of different childhoods, different social milieus and different cultural contexts. Since the books are published in eight other languages apart from English, they reach children whose lives are reflected in the stories and the children see themselves in the books. While for the young readers – and often adults – of the books in English for whom these stories show a far-removed reality, the books through the text and pictures, sensitise them to how other children live. Books that extend their ideas and sympathies beyond their privileged circumstances.

Now you see why we are so excited whenever a book by Rinchin comes to us. To give you a better idea, let’s look at some of her books that we have published. She came into our orbit with her first book Sabri’s Colours way back 2009. But we couldn’t just stop with one! So there was The Magical Fish (2013), The Trickster Bird (2016) and now I Will Save My Land (2017).

In Sabri’s Colours illustrated by Shailja Jain, Rinchin tells the story of Sabri, a Bhil-Barela girl of the Nimar region of Madhya Pradesh who loves to draw. She draws everywhere – on paper from old notebooks and the floor of her hut. She draws everything – the sun coming up from behind the hills, her Ayti and Baba and little Chakuli crawling, the chicken and the goats. One day at school, she sees paint flowing out of bottles... and her world changes. No longer is she happy to just draw – now she wants to colour the drawings as well.

Told from Sabri’s point of view, we see her world both in – figuratively – black and white and in colour. It’s a story full of yearning for something that should be naturally and rightfully hers but has been kept away from her. Through the beautifully illustrated story, we are introduced to the subtext of reserve forests, which are the people’s area but have been closed by the government to be ‘protected’ while the villagers including teachers in the school protest against it.The clashing worlds of natural justice and manmade justice resound through the story. The unfairness of the situation hits us even as the story closes with Sabri chasing her classmates who have run away with the bag which contains her precious drawings.

The story of The Magical Fish is itself quite magical. It’s a story told by Gond storyteller Chandrakala Jagat, a one-time construction worker and magnificent storyteller. Rinchin and Maheen heard this story, put it down on paper in Hindi and made a film out if it, in which Chandrakala Jagat herself plays the narrator. Translated by Rinchin into English, The Magical Fish is illustrated by Shakunlata Kushram who is a Gond and paints in the style done by her community on the walls of their homes.

The story goes that the world slowly lost its happiness. People started fighting and were always hungry and tired. An old woman, a dukariya, who could see the real problem, thought and thought about what to do. Then she heard from the wind about the magical fish which lived in a lake made by the spring behind a mountain. So she took her daughters-in-law and set off to the lake. When she got there, she coaxed the magical fish to move to the river and return the happiness of the people.

As seen in the below lines from the story, Chandrakala Jagat’s own life seems to be reflected in the dukariya’s demonstrating physical hard work, courage, perseverance and practicality:

She had built houses that never fell, ponds that did not seep, bridges that stayed strong... Now she set out to bring back happiness.

She ran home and called out to her two daughters: “Leave your sadness behind or carry it with you, but we have to go to the lake behind the mountain.”

In The Trickster BirdRinchin narrates with the flavour and affectionate humour of a grandma story, the history of a community condensed into a bedtime story. While listening to the story of Renchu’s grandfather who was fooled by a partridge, we get to know from the grandma the origins of the Paardhi tribals and how they were once bird suppliers to the khansama (chef) of the begum (queen) but now carry the stigma of having once being branded a criminal community. The grandma in the story narrates with such placidity and without complaint how they as a community went from being a people with a profession in their village to becoming displaced ragpickers in a big city, who live in jhuggis. The unfairness of it all again strikes us immediately.

This year, we have possibly Rinchin’s most powerful book so far – I Will Save My Landillustrated by Sagar Kolwankar. It’s the story of a small girl belonging to a tribe somewhere in North Chhattisgarh. Her name is Mati (meaning intellect) and she is on a mission to save her ‘doli’ (field) from being consumed by the big companies who are looking for coal. Carrying all the overtones of maati (earth), little Mati’s story reflects and refracts the stories of many farmer families in India.

Before we wrap up, here’s a treat: a trailer of the book I Will Save My Land. Go on, give it a watch. You can look forward to a long conversation we had with Rinchin in the next post.

Happy reading!

As we told you in the previous post, we are intrigued with Rinchin’s storytelling technique and the way she weaves the story and its social, political, cultural and environmental issues into a fine tapestry that not only made a great read but also made us think. So we asked her a few questions. In return, we got such honest and moving answers that we had to share them with you.

1. Can you tell us a bit about your life and work?

For the past twenty years, I have been involved in social movements and my life has been nomadic and rooted at the same time, if that’s possible. That’s been my life largely spent in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Within the largely political work, a big part has been cultural. Writing, translating, publishing through autonomous groups stories of people, films and non-fiction books that should reach the general public.

2. Why did you choose children's fiction to tell your stories?

I don't choose it, it chose me! I don't exclusively write for children. I write all kinds of stories. One never starts with thinking of the audience, or keeping in mind who it’s going to be for. As one writes, I think the story, its scope and the way it needs to be told determines how it comes out. But apart from that, I enjoy engaging with children. How they see the world, how they express their thought and how they interact with adults interest me. And it’s not only from the outside, when you write from the point of view of the child, somewhere one is also speaking for the child that lives within us. Sometimes these stories also allow for me to address the questions, joys and anxiety of that child too.

3. What inspired you to write Mati's story in I Will Save My Land? What was the starting point?

It started with a child helping her family on the fields and being stubborn about wanting to do certain tasks that were according to the adults too difficult for her. When denied, she sulked. “Is it not mine?” she kept asking. I was living with that household then and we all tried to placate her but it took a lot of placating. That was the germ. Of course, displacement and the threat of losing land is a reality in the central Indian Adivasi belt, so that is the natural context of the story. Her question resonated in my mind. It connected with me at various levels – how is it that the land to which women have a right is never completely theirs, even though they work so hard on it? Almost all of us have been told that our maternal homes are not truly ours. Then here, Adivasis are told that their land is not theirs. The government can give it away through a legal procedure to companies. Then there is caste, a big way through which people are marginalised and disinvested of their land.

In fact, after I had written this story, in the course of something we were doing, I walked into a field of an Adivasi woman. She had cleared a part of the forest for agriculture — many of the landless farmers have done that. Though she was the only woman who was working all by herself, every one said that her fields were better than any of the other ones in which the men also worked. And she had help from her three granddaughters. Sometimes one finds a living story after one has written the story. It happens many times with me. And if you see agricultural work, especially in labour-intensive farming, you'll always see women. These were the images that all went into the story. That is Mati’s world seen through my eyes.

4. You have explored several social issues – casteism and sexism – in I Will Save My Land. In The Trickster Bird, you have explored the issue of Paardhi tribals of Madhya Pradesh. Yet neither book is weighed down by them. How do you achieve this balance between the issue and the story?

Because one doesn't start with the issues; it starts with something personal about the character. But the character’s life and context bring in the issues. You can't separate that from the life the character leads or even the kind of the life the writer leads. I don't know about balance but one thing is certain the writer’s life and the politics or the views that one has will determine how the story comes out. In a sense they will determine what you see, what you think is important, what will pop out at you and demand to be made into a story. One can’t sit on a desk and determine an issue and then write about it. It won’t ring true. Sometimes when you know the context the story will flow naturally. And sometimes the characters will lead you to questions you don't understand very well or know and force you to explore them to know more, to engage more. For example, caste is a reality of our society. One cannot escape from it, not even in a children's story: you have to confront it.

5. What intrigued me (and other readers) while reading I Will Save My Land was that I could listen to the local language through the skin of English. How do you manage to bring this out?

Because what I'm writing is a translation of the local language in English. The language of the characters translated into the language I write in. So in a way, I write in translation. It’s not an effort; that’s the way it happens. But in that it does break away from the structure of regular English. It does not always subscribe to its rules. And slowly I've realised that I can’t keep to just one language, other languages push their way in and I can’t translate everything. So they all coexist. I don't think in one language. Most of the times even in our heads we are translating from one language to the other. That’s how it comes out in writing to too.

6. You have written very strong women characters in I Will Save My Land, The Trickster Bird and Sabri's Colours. Does the inspiration to create strong women (and girl) characters come from yourself and/or the women you see around you?

Always the women around me, and there are so many. So in the women I see their struggles, their strength; it inspires me. But again it’s not something deliberate that one starts with thinking that I will have a woman character. It just happens. Women are 50 percent of the population. So 50 percent of the stories should be written about them? Where they are the protagonists? They populate this world. There has to be stories about them: of their strength, weaknesses, victories and defeats. In land struggles it is the women who are at the forefront; they are the ones who come-out on the roads. In the Paardhi context, because men always have the danger of being arrested, it is the women who interact with the police in case someone is picked up. They risk the humiliation or even the beating when they go to get someone released. They are the ones who will rag-pick to earn, while the men may try to look for other work. Because women and their work are valued less, whatever they do doesn't get enough importance. We see that unfairness in all our lives. Being the weaker sex takes a lot of strength. I think the effort sometimes is to bring this out. Because I think it is through many such stories that we read that we develop our own sense of self — to see ourselves as equal.

If that’s got you eager to readRinchin’s books, do visit our website.

WHY do I have to sit separately in a corner of the classroom?

WHY can’t I drink water from the tap like other children?

WHY do the teachers never touch my books?

The ‘Whys’ shout louder in little Bhim’s head as he grows up, trailed constantly by the monster of untouchability. They catapult him into a lifetime of struggle for equality. They shape the remarkable ideas that are the cornerstone of the Indian Constitution, which he drafted as India’s first Law Minister.

- From the blurb of ‘The Boy Who Asked Why’.

You know how it is when you have found a book that speaks to you, or better still, sings to you. A book that’s so close to your hearts that you don’t want to ever part from it. What would you do to never let it go?

One boy wrote the book down by hand in his notebook! This is probably the most moving response we have ever received for our books and we are so overjoyed.

Here’s the background. One fine Saturday we came across this beautiful and touching story on the Community Library Project’s Facebookpage. The featured story was of Balmiki, who is a member at the Community Library Project - Agrasar (Sikanderpur, Gurugram). In his lunchtime, he hops over to the library to read his favourite book, a biography of Dr. Ambedkar (the NBT Children’s edition). This is an everyday habit. One day his favourite book cannot be found. The library staff search high and low for it. But no luck — the book is just not to be found. So they suggest an alternative, Tulika’s Veh Ladka Jisne Poocha Kyun, the Hindi translation of The Boy Who Asked Why by Sowmya Rajendran, illustrated by Satwik Gade.

©The Community Library Project

After he leaves, they find the book they were searching for. On Monday when he is back in the library, they ask him if he had read the book. He replies yes and produces the entire book written down line by line in his notebook! He says he liked it!

©The Community Library Project

The story seems to have had a domino effect. The writer Somwya Rajendran was so touched by it when she came across this post that sent copies to the library and a letter to Balmiki. This means more boys and girls will read the book. Which is always such a hopeful thought.

A look at the comments section tells us about how the story has touched so many people. Illustrator Manjari Chakravarticommented that it, “Brought tears to my eyes”. Another comment was from Radha Harish who said, “These are stories that need to be shared, made viral...Or else we will become a barbaric society.” The poet and library activist, Michael Creighton expressed it best: “O, this is a revolutionary post. Thinking and reading is often a revolutionary act in a world that is not fair or kind.” We cannot agree more.

In Balmiki’s act of writing lies our hope for the future. He found a book he loved and he made it his own. Now, the story is his forever. As Michael Creighton mentioned when he shared the post, “On the surface, this is a feel-good post. But I'm guessing when this member grows up, he and his friends will have questions of his own--and the answers to those questions may make us more uncomfortable than we'd like to admit. A library movement is a movement for access to ideas and thinking, which is to say it is a movement for access to power.”

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About the Community Library Project:

The Community Library Project reading program has its roots in a volunteer-run after school reading program which began in 2008. The library itself was built over the course of the 2010/11 school year by volunteers from the American Embassy School, and it has been supported since then by many local community members and publishers.

The library has gone through several phases over the years, but currently it is home to 4,000 high quality English and Hindi books for children, and checks out books to over 700 working class and poor children with a volunteer run reading and library check out program.

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Image courtesy: The pictures of Balmiki have been used with permission from The Community Library Project.

Most people think that a book on history is a surefire way to guarantee yourself a good snooze. We beg to differ. Excavating History is our attempt to make sure that you are awakened and refreshed and excited by history and archaeology.

Researched and written by archaeologist and writer Devika Cariapa and illustrated by Ashok Rajagopalan, this book packs in nearly 2 million years of human history discovered through archaeological artefacts and stories in only 160 pages!

Excavating History is a genre-bending work that is not only a reference book but also a fun-to-dip-into book, a fun-to-read book and an illustrated history book. Now, howmany of these have you come across lately?

The inspiration

Devika Cariapa

The author Devika Cariapa explains what inspired her to write the book: “When I was doing my Masters in Archaeology, I was fascinated that something as tiny and innocuous as a small piece of stone, a shard of pottery or a few random scribbled letters from the alphabet could have a tale from the past hidden in them. Also, so many of the stories of how our history was pieced together read like exciting mysteries or detective stories and I thought that children, especially, would enjoy them.”

A diamond in the making

Out of such musings grew the kernel of the book. It was like a diamond in the rough. With the editorial team at Tulika the manuscript was developed to the book that you see today. The entire process from the fascinating first draft to the final book took two whole years.

The editors at Tulika, Radhika Menon and Deeya Nayar, say that the idea was to keep the chatty tone which is the writer’s USP. So this was a focal point while editing the book. Deeya adds, “It is the most immersing and rewarding book I have worked on.”

Next, a lot of editorial attention was paid to the format. In Devika’s words, “Right from the start, the team at Tulika and I agreed on the rather unique format of an illustrated resource book. That meant we had to … strike the right balance between all the elements — text, illustrations, photos, maps.”

One look at the book and you know it looks quite unlike any other book. A timeline appears at the top of the beginning of every chapter indicating the period to which it belongs. Then, there are these boxes which either give you more information or add a different perspective to the point.

If you skim through the book, these fact boxes are your best friends. Your eye will be drawn to another element on the page — the beautiful maps — which show the presence of prehistoric cultures, trade routes or the extent of empires.

Telling a story

One of the reasons it is not a snooze-inducing book is that it tells a story while juggling facts. For example: the reason why the capital of Delhi in its many avatars keptshifting a few miles here and there. This is fascinating because this was not usually how capitals behaved. They generally stayed put next to rivers. Historically, capitals were built next to rivers because people needed rivers for water and transport. So one theory is that ‘Delhi’ kept shifting its place because the river kept changing its course! (For the curious, this story appears on page 148.)

Overcoming challenges

Of course, like any worthy endeavour, there were challenges. The format alone involved several rounds of discussion. Deciding what to retain and what to leave out was equally if not more tricky. Devika says, “The greatest challenge was to know what to leave out! Too much information would have had the kids reeling in boredom. But at the same time, I didn't want to miss out on interesting details.”

Delightful cartoons

No description of the book can be complete without a word about Ashok Rajagopalan’s delightfully whimsical cartoons that pepper the pages. Of the elements in the book — the text proper, the fact boxes, photographs of prehistoric places or illustrated maps — the cartoons give the book such levity. They reimagine for us what life would have been back then. More importantly they appear to humorously comment on the story being told much like R.K. Laxman’s Common Man. What a delight!

Response in the media

By writing this book, the author Devika Cariappa wanted to write “a fun book that children would pick up without any prompting, dip in and out of, and not feel that they were reading a text book—something they would enjoy for the sake of it.”

From the responses in the media, we think this has been accomplished to a large extent. Anu Kumar’s reviewin www.scroll.in says, “For its part, India Through Archaeology brings alive in a vividly direct way, the magic, the mystery, and the many methods that make archaeology key to understanding history, the past, and thus, our own stories.” To quote the review by Geeta Doctor in The Wire, “…Devika Cariapa has used a rich repertoire of images and anecdotes to tempt her audience to follow her into the rabbit hole of history. She digs through mud, stone and brick to bring alive the story of the people of India by the material remains of their cities and settlements.” Blogger and writer Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan in The Hindu BLink review mentions, “It’s not often that a children’s book gets taken seriously, but this one deserves all the attention it has been getting. Excavating History is a history of India, but a scientific and comprehensive volume, using archaeological finds to do a quick rundown of what’s been going on in the subcontinent from the Stone Age downwards.”

By creating Excavating History we have tried to get two birds with one stone (no pun intended) — offer the child an introduction to archaeology and pack in enough to delight the adult.

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Does this post inspire you to get your copy? Head to our online shop now!

A question-answer session live on Facebook with Tulika's Publishing Director Radhika Menon on what makes a good manuscript.

Shyamala Shanmugasundaram of Kahani Takbak invited me to do a live Facebook video chat on the site. I agreed though I was not comfortable at all about being ‘out there’ talking to an anonymous group of people via a blank mobile screen! It turned out to be surprisingly interactive and I was soon past my initial reservations. Being the first to go on video there were glitches and the sound was not clear at all. So I thought I would put down the questions and answers as these are common questions of people sending in manuscripts. The first few were sent by Shyamala to start off the session.

Are there seasonal and evergreen themes?

There are no seasonal or evergreen themes we look for. An imaginative idea, a well-told story, visual possibilities of an idea or story, unusual themes or approaches, are some of the things that make us sit up. Good writing is most often the clincher. We do get manuscripts with a great idea but not written very well. We then work very closely with the writer to polish it up. We tell them at the outset to make sure that they are open to it.

Do international trends affect your choice of manuscripts?

They don’t.

When should you bury or rework a manuscript?

I suppose when your manuscript gets rejected a couple of times you should relook at it and decide to rework it. If you hit a dead end, then maybe you should bury the manuscript. Going back to it a few months or even a couple of years later — we hear of authors doing that — might help.

How to identify red flags in a manuscript?

Gender, class, caste stereotypes are always red flags and there is no compromise on that. But sometimes the effort to break it is so heavy handed and clichéd that it can be as off putting!

A common thread in the manuscripts we get are the stereotypical and predictable ways of making a story Indian – festivals, clothes, traditions, food, relationships, nostalgia for the good old way of life and so on. Not that these are taboo – not at all, but they have to be part of a good story and not the story itself! A theme or a topic for its own sake just doesn’t usually work.

When such themes are picked what is often conveyed, inadvertently perhaps, is that they are representative of ‘Indian’ culture. For instance, by going into the specifics of a festival, say Diwali, and talking only about oil baths and multi-coloured kolams and new clothes and the aroma of delicious sweets, you are talking about an experience only a small section of children can identify with. Diwali is celebrated in so many different ways, and there are many who don’t celebrate it. Good stories reflect this awareness and create the space for a broader understanding. This is where the skill and imagination of a children’s writer comes in.

When you have written a story like that it would be useful to ask yourself some questions.

What age group is the story aimed at?
Does anything happen in the story that will grab the interest of a young reader today or is it just a description of details with not much of a storyline?
If the aim is to ‘educate’ the reader about traditions or a way of life, how relevant is it? Whose traditions are we talking about?
Does it allow the reader to understand that there is no one way of doing things?

§ But writing a good picture book is not about ticking the right boxes. Picture books, by their very nature, offer creative possibilities to writers and illustrators to make stories inclusive, to reflect diversity. Unfortunately very often when you use words like diversity, inclusiveness and so on, it is assumed that such books can’t be fun! That is missing the point about what makes a good picture book.

Our picture booklist has fun and wacky books, informational books, books with thought provoking themes, real and fantasy stories, folk and contemporary stories, as well as wordless picture books and baby board books – it is a very wide range.

Our larger list extends beyond picture books to fiction and non-fiction for pre-teens, teens and young adults.

For our fiction list, we do look for themes that are different, unusual, that tell stories of non-mainstream characters and experiences. But the bottom line for us is a great story not restricted by labels.

Do query letters affect the acceptance of a manuscript?

No, they don’t. We do say that it will take three months for us to review, so would appreciate it if the queries come after that. And I must add that we are not always able to keep to the three month’s promise, much as we would like to, because of our workload.

The next few questions were typed in by the participants who had logged into the session.

What is the ideal length of fiction for the 8-10 age group?

At least 12,000 words.

Do manuscripts have to be submitted in English? Do you accept manuscripts in other languages?

We do accept manuscripts in other languages for picture books. In fact, we welcome it. The stories have a tone and flavour that we don’t find in manuscripts written in English. But we would appreciate a synopsis in English.

How many editors read a manuscript before it is accepted?

At least three – ideally all five.

Do you accept manuscripts every month?

We do.

Do you choose manuscripts based on how well they lend themselves to translation?

That is a strong consideration for picture books. But if it does not and it is a manuscript that really appeals to us then we do decide to publish it only in English.

How far do trends influence your own choice of manuscripts?

Actually they don’t at all.

What is the word count for a picture book aimed at 5- to 6-year-olds? They seem so picture rich...so how long is the manuscript for such a book?

About 500 to 700 words ideally. If it for 7 and 8 year olds we do look at longer texts of about 800 to 1000 words.

What do you think about picture books that rhyme?

We think they work very well. Surprisingly well in translation too. There is a naturalness to the way it translates. Sometimes better than stories with short sentences which work very well in English but seem staccato in languages! This is something we work hard to get around.

Is there a particular format for submitting picture books?

Nothing specific for picture books. Double spaced clean text is what we expect for any manuscript. We actually get manuscripts which show track changes and corrected lines which is really shoddy. Please mention word count. And a synopsis is a must. Not just as information to us. It is also a useful exercise for you to describe concisely what the story is about, what it conveys and what its high points are. This makes you aware of the gaps in the story and gives you ideas of how to rework it.

Do you typically reject picture books that you think are too long?

We don’t. Sometimes we do ask the writer to shorten it to a more suitable word length and send it. Or it is done in the editing process. But it would help make a better manuscript to edit it yourself to the required word length, cleaning and tightening the story in the process.

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Read all about the unintentionally humourous side of a Tulika editor’s first experience of sending a book to press, in her own words.

After a couple of ‘settling-in’ weeks at Tulika, I was told that I would be taking over the editing process of a bilingual picture book. I was excited and mildly anxious but still didn’t know exactly what that meant. I had some idea but what I wasn’t prepared for was the multilingual factor because Tulika publishes in nine languages, so a bilingual book has English with Hindi or Tamil or Bengali… basically eight times over. Let me give you a peep into it.

Before I begin, I have to say this: I got clear directions from experienced editors and everyone has been the most helpful, kind and generous. As they say in the foreword, all the mistakes are mine.

The whole process started off quietly. I had gone through the all-important editorial workflow guide but I needed practical experience.

The bilingual book layout

The text, which had already gone through a few rounds of edits and was paginated, was ready for the layout. Here’s what our bilingual books look like.

The position of the text in each language has to be the same and has to be visually accurate since line lengths differ across languages. Any change in English, like a small edit in the illustrator’s bio, has to be reflected in the translations — all EIGHT of them! I came across this delightful fact exactly when tensions were rising.

Translation challenges

Since this was a picture book, the words were few but those that were there had to be accurate, free of biases and easily translatable. This fine-tuning is an ongoing process. Even the day before the book went to press, we (the editors) were debating on a word in Tamil, its connotations and denotations. With layers of meaning, a word had to be carefully considered till we were sure of the word. For example, in this particular book, the word in the Hindi original was ‘kurta’. For many languages including English, ‘kurta’ was used as it is. However, ‘kurta’ is not a Tamil word. The equivalent that was chosen, ‘chattai’, translates as ‘shirt’ as well as ‘an upper body garment’. However, one of our reviewers pointed out that chattai is a short garment whereas a kurta isn’t. We discussed this point with the translator. She explained that she used ‘chattai’ instead of ‘kurta’ since in rural areas ‘kurta’ is only associated with women whereas, in this case, the visual was of a boy so ‘kurta’ couldn’t be used. So ‘chattai’ it was!

Cover story

Next were the covers. Juggling the front cover, the back cover, inside covers and the title page was like playing football with four balls. I never knew which one was headed for me and which one could be tackled with a foot or the head. I wished I could just step aside and let the footballs go right past me. That was clearly not an option.

Typography

So by the penultimate day everything including fonts and type sizes was final. It needed one more round to iron out any problems — such as if a font was too fussy or too heavy or too small. You see, being perfectionists nothing was passed even if it was something that only we would notice. The cover, title page and inside pages of each translation had been printed out earlier and compared to check that their look matched across languages. However, it was done again now for a final time.

The Going-To-Press day

The next morning as GTP (Going To Press) day rolled along, I felt lost. In fact, I was told that "I am lost" was my constant refrain through the day.

The fine-tuning was still being done. Translations were all done, but done is not really done, I was finding out. If one thing was changed in one translation, it had a domino effect on all others.

Then came the fine art of replacing those pages that had minor tweaks: this I could handle of course but… all translations were merging into one. No, this is not a metaphor. I found some pages of different languages mixed up.

After sorting it out and putting all the items that the printer needs in an envelope, I could see that the process was coming to a close.

Wrapping up!

As I heaved a sigh of relief, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that I had just babysat eight babies (read books) who were crawling away from me in different directions. As soon as I got control of one baby, another slipped away. Controlling all eight of them was a Herculean task. Or so it seemed at that time. But as the wise say, this too shall pass. So it did.

Today, while I wait for the book to get back from press, and have got some distance between me and that day, I feel that it’s not so bad, I can survive this.

If you thought editing for children’s books was easy, think again!

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To buy our bilingual picture books, head to:
http://www.tulikabooks.com/bilingual-books/general-bilingual-picture-books/

Over the years we’ve seen that many of our books dot bookshelves in Montessori schools. The top two criteria that teachers are looking for are the content (no talking animals, simple story lines and familiar settings) and the illustrations (clear and bright).

Recently, teachers from a Chennai-based Montessori school picked up some books from their favourite bookshop – the Tulika Bookstore! We thought it might be helpful to share this list so you could build your own Montessori library. So here it is -- mast must Montessori reads!

My Mother's Sari by Sandhya Rao; illustrated by Nina Sabnani

Balu's Basket by Chitra Sounder; illustrated by Uttara Sivadas

Neelu's Big Box by Nandini Nayar; illustrated by Shreya Sen

Work written and illustrated by Shreya Sen

Where Shall I Paint? by Nandini Nayar; illustrated by Anupama Iyer

I'm Going To The Zoo! by Narendra Jain; illustrated by Alankrita Amaya

I Will Save My Land by Rinchin; illustrated by Sagar Kolwankar

I Planted A Seed by Avanti Mehta; illustrated by Manjari Chakravarti

Salim Mamoo And Me by Zai Whitaker; illustrated by Prabha Mallya

The Secret God In The Forest by Anuradha Kumar; illustrated by Piyush Verma

Not Yet! by Nandana Dev Sen; illustrated by Niloufer Wadia

Barefoot Husain by Anjali Raghbeer; illustrated by Soumya Menon

The Veena Player by Anjali Raghbeer; illustrated by Soumya Menon

The House That Sonabai Built by Vishakha Chanchani; photographed by Stephen Huyler

Why Are You Afraid To Hold My Hand written and illustrated by Sheila Dhir

Boodabim written and illustrated by Alankrita Jain

Mala's Silver Anklets by Annie Besant; illustrated by Nancy Raj

Minu And Her Hair written and illustrated by Gayathri Bashi

Nabiyaby Chatura Rao; illustrated by Ruchi Mhasane

Stitching Stories: The Art of Embroidery in Gujarat by Nina Sabnani

The Magic Feather written and illustrated by Roma Singh

Kanna Panna by Zai Whitaker; illustrated by Niloufer Wadia

Ismat's Eid by Fawzia Gilani Williams; illustrated by Proiti Roy

Bulbuli's Bamboo by Mita Bordoloi; illustrated by Proiti Roy

Gone Grandmother by Chatura Rao; illustrated by Krishna Bala Shenoi

Let's Go! by Anthara Mohan; illustrated by Rajiv Eipe

Maharani The Cow by Christy Shoba Sudhir; illustrated by Nancy Raj

Let's Catch The Rain! written and illustrated by Vinod Lal Heera Eshwer

Let's Plant Trees! written and illustrated by Vinod Lal Heera Eshwer

Tenwritten and illustrated by Shefalee Jain

Pooni At The Taj Mahal written and illustrated by Manjula Padmanabhan

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Tulika author Sandhya Rao describes her experience of the Srinagar Bookaroo: Festival of Children’s Literaturein a guest post.

Back in the day when mention of Kashmir evoked filmy duets and romantic honeymoons, it was de rigueur to go to Jehangir for the best description of its beauty: Gar firdaus, ruhe zamin ast, hamin asto, hamin asto, hamin ast. (If there is heaven on earth it is here, it is here, it is here.) It was also the done thing for girls to return from a holiday ‘up north’ with a photograph of oneself fitted out as a Kashmir ki kali. Go to any of the tourist spots, particularly the gardens even today, and you will find Kashmir ki Kalicorners. The studio has spread its wings. But now, though, everywhere, there are also signs of siege. Military trucks, checkpoints, security forces… It’s a way of life. As artist Nishwan Rasool, a native of Srinagar, pointed out: There’s an Adnan Sami concert tomorrow, the roads will be blocked. Today is Friday, the roads will be blocked. And we said: Bookaroo’s in town, the roads will be blocked.

Students of DPS with mountains in the background

Delhi Public School, Athwajan, which hosted Bookaroo’s fourth outing in Srinagar on October 7 and 8, is located on the outskirts of the city, and sprawls over vast grounds from the back of which rise low mountains, now the site of pretty major quarrying. In June this year, the school was the site of a 14-hour gun battle between the CRPF and two terrorists who had run into the compound. It wasn’t very clear if they had entered the school deliberately, in pursuit of their agenda to bring education to a halt in the region, or if they were trying to hide from the security forces. Luckily, this happened after school hours. The two men were neutralised eventually, but in the bargain some parts of the school were destroyed and its main building was pockmarked with bullet holes. However, the management – the DP Dhar Memorial Trust – pulled out all stops to ensure that signs of the ugly incident were quickly removed and their children were back in school as soon as possible. The staff at all levels went all out to minimise trauma. Sticking with Bookaroo as planned was part of this effort. Therefore, all credit to the school and to Bookaroo’s organisers for standing tall. When you consider that Principal Balasubramaniam Murali had taken charge barely six months ago, you understand the enormity of the responsibility the school was willing to shoulder. Bookaroo proved that the children, too, were equal to the task.

My previous tryst with Bookaroo Srinagar, back in 2011, had seen a more mela-like atmosphere in the school, with children from other schools invited on one day, and parents trailing their wards. This time around, it was restricted to students of this school, from little ones right up to 13 and 14-year-olds. Children from the higher classes were volunteer organisers, running up and down the huge campus accompanying guests to their sessions, getting the little ones to behave, and occasionally stealing secret glances at each other. Truly, the sweetness and innocence of teenage is delicious to behold.

We were kept on our toes – illustrators, animators, storytellers, writers, Bookarooers, all. While back-to-back events may have been too much for the children to digest, there was no option given the time constraints. I chose to preface Stories on the Sand with a physical understanding of where we were located. I held my hands out sideways and said, pointing to my head, “This is where we are, Jammu and Kashmir, the brains of India, the dimaag.” The heart, the dil, is located around the heart-stomach area, covering UP, Bihar, MP, and the surrounding states, with the states on the east and west, and those in the south constituted the arms and legs. What are we, I asked? Brains, heart, hands, legs… We are India. Oblivious to all the excitement was this one little thing who was upset because she had had a fight with her best friend. No amount of luring with pictures of green sand and black sand and red sand would distract her. That’s friendship. The Dream Writer group was smaller and more vociferous. Called upon to elaborate on their dreams, it was amazing how bloodthirsty they all turned out to be, with each one churning out a story scarier than the previous one!

Dastango Fawzia's session

I was lucky I got to attend one or two sessions by fellow participants. Fawzia is the only female dastango in India. She and Firoze presented Dastaan-e-Gandhi: a mesmerising hour of traditional dastangoi (Urdu storytelling) that brought Mahatma Gandhi alive in the mind’s eye. This is her dream project, Fawzia says, very close to her heart. As she explained to the children, she feels now more than ever we need to heed Gandhi. It’s true that our children are getting distanced from the real stories of our past, both in the course of chronological progression and by virtue of political disenfranchisement and lack of engagement. But we must carry on telling these stories because even one seed can grow into a tree. Kamal Pruthi is Kabuliwala, storyteller, performer, linguist. Although he was not entirely satisfied with his Mulla Nasruddin session, I felt the excitement pulsating among the children as he wove in and out of the concentric circle of children, provoking them, challenging them, entertaining them, goading them. Even more special was the way he spontaneously and generously undertook to introduce Dastan-e-Gandhi, contextualising it, stressing its relevance, and requesting the children to make an effort to listen even if they didn’t follow the language entirely.

Memories of Bookaroo Srinagar will be incomplete without mentioning the wonderful dinner at the Dhars’ beautiful, sprawling home where even the bathrooms are an aesthetic experience. The highlight was meeting Kashmir’s leading artist, Masood Hussain. He had lost everything in the floods save seven precious paintings. Still, he managed to rescue some 80-90 others who had been stranded during that natural calamity. What were those paintings you rescued, I asked, and got this story in response: Agha Shahid Ali was a leading Kashmiri-American poet. Some years ago, he had given Hussain seven couplets describing Kashmir, with a request that he render them as paintings. The couplets lay with the artist for a while, and then, finally paintings emerged. The floods came. These were the seven he retrieved.

Hussain shared thepoems and the paintings with me through an article in The Wire, and I know he will not mind my sharing one couplet, entitled ‘A mind of winter for the vale’ by Agha Shahid Ali:

Find the invincible summer in your heart when you, in the depths of winter, come to the slopes of the Vale where even gods have sought refuge…and then regard the frost and the pines crusted with snow.

When I read this poem and saw the painting, I couldn’t stop my eyes from welling up. How many Bookaroos will it take for the roads in Srinagar to be free-flowing, I wondered, and for all children and their families and friends to listen to stories without a care as it is the right of children anywhere in the world? Everywhere in the world.

Sandhya Rao can’t thank her stars enough that there are so many stories in this world and so many wonderful writers to bring them home to us. She loves the sound of words in any language. Her current favourite word is evet– yes, in Turkish! She is also a journalist and writer of children’s books. She believes that if we let children play with books, they will read them.

Here are her books available on our website.

DreamWriter

Stories on the Sand

Okaasama Otousama

My Mother’s Sari

Sunu-Sunu Snail: Storm in the Garden

Dosa Amma Dosa

My Gandhi Scrapbook

Picture Gandhi

And Land Was Born

In Bon Bibi’s Forest

Busy Busy Grand-Ant

Grandma’s Eyes/Nani ki Aankhen

My Friend, The Sea

Look, The Moon!

Kolaba

Ekki Dokki

Cricket!/Cricket!

Help! Help!/Bachaao! Bachaao!

Flower

Song

Shhh!

Mirror/Aaina

Mazzoo Mazzoo

Sweet and Salty

Wrestling Mania

India’s Olympic Story

India at the Olympic Games

The Story of Tipu Sultan

The Story of 15^th August 1947

The Story of Dandi March

The Story of Rani of Jhansi

Talking Gender

Bal Sahitya Puraskar 2015 for Mayil Will Not Be Quiet!

Tulika in 2015

Mukand and Riaz at Mumbai Mobile Creches

Ranjan De and the crow

Crow Chronicles 1

Crow Chronicles 2: Our Cathy Story

On Gone Grandmother

Tulika in 2016!

To Tulika, with love

Half baked cake!

Creative Non-fiction

Stories Through a Writer-Activist’s Eyes

Q and A with Rinchin

Ambedkar, a Library and a Boy Called Balmiki

Exciting History, Electrifying History…‘Excavating History’

(Sub)Mission Possible!

The Adventures of a First Time Editor

Montessori Book List

Guest Post by Sandhya Rao: Stories Are for Sharing