NOVEMBER 2007 E-Magazine - Pravasi Today

s a mother of two young
children I am always on the
hunt for interesting books
Afor my kids. And as an Indian living
overseas finding good Indian story
books is always a challenge. Either
the grammar is not good or the
illustrations are not appealing. Either
the prose is too verbose or there is too
much crammed in a page. Mostly the
books do not withstand rough
handling and are in tatters after a few
reading sessions. Books provide a
link to our culture, our values and give
children a sense of identity from very
early on. Gone are the days when
grandparents would narrate stories to
children (since most of us now live in
nuclear families). Books are our
resource in keeping in touch with
what we grew up with and sharing it
with our children.
Retelling the traditional stories
of India in a way that makes it
INDIAN DIASPORA
A Tale of an
Indian Mom's
Search for
Children's Books
❒ Rachna Mathur, London
compelling for children of Indian
ethnicity or NRIs who live outside
India is an ongoing challenge. In the
digital media some great movies like
Hanuman and the excellent Indo-
Japanese Ramayana have been
phenomenal. The Karadi Tales books
and CDs are very popular as well. But
I was pleased to observe that some
great work is being done by small
publishers like Tulika, Tara Press and
Vakils Feffer & Simons. These
publishers are producing very good
quality children's books which are a
delight to read.
A book which tries to connect
with the younger generation of
Indians living abroad is Krishna The
Cowherd Prince (Author : Soumya
Ayer and published by Vakils Feffer
& Simons) is a collection of stories of
Krishna's childhood in rhyme
complemented with paintings in the
traditional Mysore style. The book is
meant to be read to smaller children
(4-6) and by bigger children ( 7+). It
has a collection of childhood feats
like Trinavarta , Aghasura ,Putana,
lifting of Goverdhan etc. The stories
are in verse which makes it easy for a
child to sing along with the mother.
This book is excellent for gifting
because it is of a very high quality.
Another excellent book is Kali
and the Rat Snake (Author: Zai
Whitaker and published by Spark-
Tulika). This book is about a young
boy Kali from the Irula tribe whose
father is a snake catcher. While he
wishes his father had a normal
professional like a bus conductor, the
book is about how the boy gets
acceptance among his friend despite
the fact that he is seen as different.
This is also recommended for reading
or gifting. Tulika has some very
interesting children's books and it is
worth visiting their website.
Tara Press also brings out
wonderful books in handmade paper
and use lot of traditional Indian
tribal art to tell their stories. It is
interesting to observe how these
small publishers are making inroads
and hopefully there will be better
choice of books for our children in
the future. The books mentioned
above (and the websites) are
definitely worth a visit. A few these
books may be available on
amazon.com as well. ■
November 2007 ✦ Pravasi Today
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