Sumati Mehrishi Sharma
These are good times to be a kid. With parents ready to disburse
their disposable incomes and the modes of entertainment abounding
— video games, mobile mix, TV masala, cricket, soccer — there’s
so much more of the world to explore. But it’s a world where Power
Puff Girls are taking precedence over Panchtantra and Beyblade is
whirling out Noddy and the Russian folk tales. Even as storybooks
seem to be pushed to the brink, several Indian authors are delving
into the not-so-prolific art of writing for children.
Take Harminder Ohri. Having seen the Panchtantra-to-Power Puff transition
up close, she decided to take matters into her own hands. Literally.
A wildlife buff, Ohri is not content with throwing up an arbitrary
script for the illustrator to work on. Instead, she does the illustrations
herself. ‘‘It’s the best way to make your stories understood to
kids,’’ says the woman who has done a series of children’s books
for the NGO, Pratham.
So there’s a spider who spins a ladybird’s fractured leg with a
web and becomes ‘famous’ in Chhutku Makda, and a cry-baby crocodile,
who saves a herd of butterflies from poachers in Rondu aur Mukki.
Ohri’s stories have been translated into Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Gujarati
and Kannada.
‘‘Somehow, translations never retain the spirit of the original
story,’’ says Manorama Jafa, who translates her own stories from
English to Hindi. ‘‘So Laughing Parrot (her picture book) can’t
be called Hansta Hua Tota.’’ It’s called Khilkhil Totaa and is being
distributed by Pratham. Her works have also been translated into
Pashto for children in Afghanistan.
‘‘It’s very difficult to write for children,’’ says Jafa, who has
done so for nearly four decades and is now taking up issues like
AIDS awareness. ‘‘Earlier, people rewrote traditional Indian stories
from the Mahabharata and Panchatantra. I wanted to write something
original,’’ she adds. The general secretary of Association for Writers
and Illustrators for Children (AWIC), Jafa often fuses her stories
with activities like origami, the directions for which are squeezed
in the text.
What makes Sanjeev Saith’s work interesting is that he has made
it interactive. The 48-year-old editor with India Inc has helped
Pratham compile Ganga, a book with pictures he clicked during his
trips to the Himalayas and couplets picked up from Hindi film songs
referring to the river. The couplets are sung aloud by bal sakhis,
the volunteers who read out stories to slum children.
‘‘Children like repeating the couplets from Hindi songs. It helps
them relate to the pictures in the book,’’ says the Delhi-based
Saith, who has also been involved with children on subjects like
photography and rock climbing and is planning a compilation of pictures
of children in India.
Ohri also reads out her stories to slum kids in Delhi and other
cities. ‘‘One has to be very careful while writing and illustrating
books for slum children. I drew a birthday scene with a cake, but
Pratham asked me to replace it with samosas and laddoos because
slum children don’t relate to a birthday cake.’’ There are many
other children who do but need people like Ohri, Saith and Jafa
to help them convert into captive audience.
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