Children?s literature in India gets a major fillip with three Indian books getting into the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) Honours List this year. Representing the rich Indian children?s literature, these books become suitable for publication worldwide, enabling them to reach a wider, diverse audience. We give you an insight into the works of those whose contribution to Indian children?s literature scene has made it much richer and exciting

Diana Ningthoujam

Children?s literature may not be such a thriving segment in India, but that has not impeded pioneering work in this field. Indian talent has got international recognition this year, with the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) awarding diplomas to three Indians and including their works in the Honours List of 2012. Ranjit Lal (author), Shanti Devi (illustrator) and Nirmal Kanti Bhattacharjee (translator) received their diplomas at the IBBY Congress held in London on August 25.

Bhattacharjee, the director of the KK Birla Foundation, was honoured for the translation of Sunil Gangopadhyay?s Bhoyonkar Sundor (Bengali) into English. This was the first time that an Indian children?s book translated from an Indian language into English has been commended by IBBY. The English version, titled The Dreadful Beauty, is published by Ponytale Books. Ranjit Lal, author of the acclaimed book Faces in the Water (Penguin), gives the issue of female infanticide its due attention with a simple and heartfelt story of a boy realising the loss of the sisters he would have had. And Shanti Devi, a Madhubani artiste, won acclaim for her beautiful illustrations in the book Bioscope (Katha). Bioscope is a simple story of a village near Mithila told by a young girl Guddu, and is given life and expression by Shanti Devi?s paintings.

This is not the first time that Indians associated with children?s literature have been commended by IBBY. The 2006 Honours List saw Viky Arya (illustrator) for Once Upon a Time in India and Paro Anand (author) for No Guns at My Son?s Funeral. The 2008 list included Deepa Agarwal (author) for Caravan to Tibet and Taposhi Ghoshal (illustrator) for Panna the Lonely Duckling. In 2010, Karthika Dass (author) for From Somewhere Out There and Bhajju Shyam (illustrator) for That?s How I See Things were honoured with diplomas.

With an aim to encourage international understanding through children?s literature, IBBY has been striving towards this since it was first founded in 1953 in Switzerland. The IBBY Honour List is a biennial selection of outstanding, recently-published books, honouring writers, illustrators and translators from IBBY member countries. The books in IBBY Honour List represent the best in children’s literature from each country and are suitable for publication throughout the world. The 2012 list comprises 169 titles from 58 countries in 44 languages.

Found in translation

His translation of Sunil Gangopadhyay?s Bhoyonkor Sundor was listed in IBBY?s Honours List of 2012. This is the first time that an Indian children?s book translated into English has been commended by IBBY

Diana Ningthoujam

Nirmal Kanti Bhattacharjee grew up soaking up the best of Bangla literature. His passion for the world of written words drove him to imbibe the works of some of the stalwarts of Bengali literature to translate them to English language. His first translation work was that of acclaimed writer Mahasweta Devi?s Armani Champar Gachh (Armenian Champak Tree). It not only brought Bhattacharjee critical acclaim but also drove him to take strong strides into this field. And his constant effort to enrich the minds of children with stories and tales was given further push when The Dreadful Beauty (Ponytale Books), his translation of Sunil Gangopadhyay?s Bhoyonkor Sundor, was listed in IBBY?s Honours List 2012. Says 64-year-old Bhattacharjee, ?It is a great feeling?a feeling of exhilaration, not so much for personal achievement as for the fact that translation of Indian children?s literature has been recognised by an international body for the first time ever.?

The incumbent director of KK Birla Foundation, Bhattacharjee has been associated with cultural administration for over three decades. His love for literature guided him to the portals of Sahitya Akademi and the National Book Trust?also incidentally the two forums which have consistently made efforts to draw our attention to regional translation circuits. ?When I worked with Sahitya Akademi, I was exposed to the rich fare of literature in other Indian languages. Later, when I worked with NBT, I gathered a fair idea about the variety of children?s literature being written in other Indian languages,? says Bhattacharjee.

For someone like Bhattacharjee whose childhood was exposed to the wonderful world of children?s books of European languages (translated to Bengali), becoming a proponent of translation came as a natural thing to him. ?My interest in children?s literature continued even after I graduated to adult reading. I used to buy a lot of books as gifts for youngsters in the family (and we are a large extended family) and used to browse them before selecting for purchase. This habit kept me abreast of whatever was happening in Bangla children?s literature scenario,? he says.

India is, perhaps, the richest repository of oral narrative tradition in the world. But due to very little interest in translation, except maybe for a few dedicated publishing houses, this rich tradition fails to reach children all over the country. According to Nirmal Kant Bhattacharjee the greatest problem lies in the fact that no comprehensive nation-wide project has ever been undertaken in collecting and retelling these oral tales, riddles, and poems for children from rural dialects and tribal languages. ?For achieving this, a concerted effort from government, publishing houses, media and industry is needed. Once collecting and retelling (in regional languages) is accomplished, English translation work will be relatively easy? he adds.

But the other problem which lies in translation is that, often, these works come under fire for being removed from the original, both linguistically and culturally, thereby losing out on the essence of the original work. As a translator how does he respond to these charges? ?I don?t really agree that the essence of the original work is totally lost in translation. If there is a reduction in the process of translation, there is a renewal too. The most difficult hurdle in translation is the culture-specific transfer. When one is translating from one Indian language into another, one does not face this problem much. But when the translation is from an Indian language to a European language, the translator has to function as an intermediary between two cultures. And translating Sunil Gangopadhyay?s Bhoyonkor Sundar was not very difficult. The narrative is in urban language and moves at fast pace. The dialogues are smart and contemporary. The description of Kashmir, the locale of the adventure, was given by the author in a language appealing to the young Bengali readers. Transferring all these into English only demanded a solid bi-lingualism and an empathy with the child-readers? sense of wonder. There was not much of cultural interpretation involved.?

With an MA in English Literature and a post-graduate certificate in English teaching from the Central Institute for English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad, Bhattacharjee, before trying his hands at translation, taught at a Guwahati University college till 1985 and then at Jadavpur University for four years. He was also the editor of Indian Literature, a bi-monthly journal published by the Akademi, before he retired in 2007. Only seven-titles old, Bhattacharjee, rues that he has never found enough time to pursue the work of translation. ?I nurture in my mind the desire to take it up full time some day in future,? he says. We are hoping for the day to come sooner.

The Dreadful Beauty was originally written in Bengali as Bhoyonkor Sundor by eminent litterateur Sunil Gangopadhyay. The book contains the first adventure of Kakababu, an anti-thesis of a conventional detective, who has found a place for himself in the pantheon of Bengali fictional detective characters. Created in early 1970s, Sunil Gangopadhyay?s Adventures of Kakababu appeared in Bengali fiction when Nirendranath Chakraborty, who was at the time editor of Anandmela, a Bengali children?s monthly, asked Gangopadhyay to write something for children for their annual Puja number. The adventure series? enduring appeal and immense popularity lies in the character Raja Roychowdhury, aka Kakababu, earlier with the Archaeological Survey of India. He is not a sleuth in the conventional sense?he does not detect a crime. Instead, he is on a trail to detect the mystery behind well-known historical facts or to protect our cultural heritage or simply in the quest of the unknown. Kakababu is always accompanied by his 13-year-old nephew Santu. The Dreadful Beauty, which first appeared in 1974, unfolds in Kashmir. Kakababu is trying to discover an important relic from second century AD. Which means that while everyone enjoys the beauty of Kashmir, poor Santu is busy measuring the mountains of Pahelgam-Sonmarg. But Sucha Singh, a powerful don of the area, thinks that Kakababu is in search of the fabled, long-lost gold mines of Kashmir.

The Dreadful Beauty

Sunil Gangopadhyay

Translated from Bengali by Nirmal Kanti Bhattacharjee

Ponytale Books

Pg 112

Rs. 125

The art of living

Art is resilient, it makes its way through adversity, and looking circumstances in the eye is one of its many virtues. Shanti Devi?s life and work is the perfect example

Sukalp Sharma

Since the tender age of 10, Shanti Devi has been engrossed in the exquisitely beautiful Madhubani paintings, enriching in her own way the legacy of the Madhubani district from which she hails. Today, she?s 55 and is settled in Delhi?s New Ashok Nagar locality, almost on the Delhi-UP border. It?s not an easy life and it?s written all over her abode in this concrete jungle of a city. But art is resilient, it makes its way through adversity, and looking circumstances in the eye is one of its many virtues. Shanti Devi?s name has been included in the IBBY list for her Madhubani illustrations in the children?s book Bioscope, published by Katha. But when we went to meet her, she said she really didn?t know that her name featured in such a prestigious list. But for someone whose life and livelihood depend solely on her art, such recognitions are merely fleeting moments of some joy and vindication.

For a character chiselled out of humility, adversity and equanimity, Shanti Devi?s relationship with Madhubani paintings is awe-inspiringly simple. ?These paintings are everything for me. We could marry a daughter, properly educate both our daughters and build a house in this city all because of it. Who would know Shanti Devi if it wasn?t for my art? Even you wouldn?t be here asking me these questions,? she says in Hindi, her diction laced heavily with Maithili.

Shanti Devi and her family moved to the Capital in 1990 from Madhubani at the insistence of an elderly relative, Ganga Devi?an exponent in Madhubani painting and a Padma Shri awardee. ?Ganga Devi was the biggest Madhubani artiste. She recognised my ability as an artiste and she wanted me to carry forward her legacy and our tradition,? says Shanti Devi. She has painted murals at Delhi?s Craft?s Museum, The American School, Delhi Cantonment, innumerable offices and even homes of the affluent. She?s been actively associated with SPICMACAY for over 13 years now and travels all over the country conducting painting workshops for children. ?I?ve also been lucky to have been able to demonstrate this art form in countries like New Zealand, Austria, Canada and Singapore, where I was sent by the Indian government,? she says. But the biggest honour, according to Shanti Devi, was when a book, similar to Bioscope, illustrated by her and written by Jaya Jaitley was inaugurated by the then President of India Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.

Bioscope itself is a simple story of a village near Mithila told by a young girl Guddu, and is given life and expression by Shanti Devi?s paintings. ?It took me one and a half months to get all the required paintings ready. But when you make something for children, the feeling is different. It somehow gives you more joy when you realise that you are playing a role in their development and education,? she says. One can only wonder about the extent of this joy for an artiste who herself never received any formal education.

Today, Shanti Devi?s two daughters have decided to carry forward the mantle of their mother?s art. She is the only earning member in the family and she confesses that it sometimes gets difficult to manage expenses. ?We don?t get work all through the year. And there is no source of regular income,? she says. Shanti Devi?s husband, who suffers from long-term speech impairment as a result of a serious illness, too, spends his days painting. ?After his illness, I taught him how to paint so that he can keep himself busy. He paints extremely well. His condition has left him unemployable and I didn?t want that to affect his personal dignity. I thought painting could provide an outlet and an expression to his feelings. Otherwise he would feel trapped and suffocated,? she says. Clearly, art is not just limited to Shanti Devi?s creations. Even her life is full of it?the art of living.

Shanti Devi?s humble, simple yet exquisite Madhubani paintings used to illustrate the story in Bioscope bring an age-old medium of storytelling back to the fore. It?s an extremely simple and beautiful narrative for children as Guddu, the protagonist, takes the young readers on a tour of her village, which lies in the heartland of Mithila. A picture is worth a thousand words and perhaps a painting is worth more?at least in Bioscope it is. And here?s the thing that probably is the highlight of this book: it is an implicit yet clear invitation for its young readers to take up painting and art. The way Shanti Devi?s Madhubani paintings are intertwined with the narrative is a beautiful example of a model picture story book for children. At another level, Bioscope also places one of the most celebrated and ancient forms of Indian art right in front of children in an attempt to forge a cultural linkage between the two. Shanti Devi toiled tirelessly for one and a half months to get the artwork for Bioscope ready. Often as it is with most things beautiful and seemingly simple, even this book?s artwork is evidently a result of painstaking effort and the genius of a master artist.

Bioscope

Mamta Nainy

Art by Shanti Devi Katha

Pg 32

Rs. 95

Child is the father of man

?If kids don?t read now, they won?t read as adults and then where will writers or authors as a species be? Writers for adult readers owe children?s writers a huge debt!?

Sukalp Sharma

?It was challenging. How does one make a story with such a dark theme, fun, light and enjoyable for children (without grossing them out)?? asks Ranjit Lal. It must have been quite a task?taking a subject as sensitive and with as morbid and horrid undertones as female infanticide and spinning a story out of it, primarily for children?s consumption. But Lal, driven by his passion to write relevant stories for children, wasn?t going to be deterred. Result? The highly acclaimed Faces in the Water, which gives the issue its due attention with a simple and heartfelt story of a boy realising the loss of the sisters he would have had?had they not been silenced and their lives cut short by regressive stigmas and social prejudice, all working through the very family they would have called their own.

So how difficult was it to write a story on such an issue which children could read and understand? ?I decided to highlight the aspect that is usually missed out in such cases: the fun and togetherness siblings have and share while growing up together,? he says. Lal is quick to add that today?s children will be the parents of tomorrow, hence it is necessary to introduce them to the realities of the society in which they live and which they will shape. ?You have to keep nibbling at the issue. If it makes a change in the attitude of children ?then the job is done.?

Lal has been an active writer for about 16 years now and has written for both adults as well as kids. But he finds his true calling in writing for children. ?They are much more open, frank, receptive and objective, while adults, on the other hand, can be extremely rigid and stuffy,? he says, adding that children?s literature, no matter how na?ve it might seem at the surface, is critical for the survival of literature itself. ?If children don?t read now, they won?t read as adults and then where will writers or authors as a species be? Writers for adult readers owe children?s writers a huge debt!? responds Lal, who describes his age as ?25 years old since the last 32 years?.

More often than not, behind a gifted writer, there is an obsessive reader. So what did this children?s author read as a child? ?When I was in school my elder sister (needless to say, a teacher) used to produce a long list of hefty classics at the beginning of the summer holidays, which I had to read, with a dictionary and notebook by my side. That’s paid huge dividends now, though at the time I might have preferred reading comics!? he responds.

And although it?s a clich?d question, it still must be asked: how is Ranjit Lal taking the recent honour from IBBY for Faces in the Water? ?It?s certainly nice to see that the work is getting recognition. But the maximum enjoyment for a writer is derived from writing the book, the rest is all bonus,? he says. But writing was not something he had planned for himself. ?I did a BA in Economics and Sociology. I particularly disliked Economics. What I really wanted to pursue was automobile engineering and design. Writing was plan B, which worked.?

This touching story is about Gurmeet who is warned by his mother not to wander around the well at the family?s ancestral home. Like most kids, Gurmeet has the knack to do the opposite of what he?s told. What it leads to, of course, is something Gurmeet couldn?t fathom. The Diwanchand family, which boasted of having only sons and no daughters, has some unnerving truths, which they?ve kept submerged in the waters of this well. As Gurmeet peeps into the well, faces of three girls stare back at him ?his three dead sisters who were killed quite literally by the desire of his family to be ?blessed? with only male offspring. Gurmeet is drawn to his dead sisters and together they create a world of their own full of fun, games, childhood revelries and bonding between siblings?all of which was missing from Gurmeet?s life. The underlying tone of the story is what a family misses in the absence of a girl child as Gurmeet comes to terms with the dark and gory secrets of his family. Female infanticide is an age-old stigma in India and what is striking about Ranjit Lal?s treatment of the issue through this story is his ability to take such a sensitive social issue and weave a story around it for children?without the eerie and morbid shades that the topic attracts otherwise. In no way is it suggested that female infanticide is a trivial issue and in no way should the writing be considered trivial and dumbed-down. In fact, it is a bold move to get such a sensitive issue on the reading table for young children in an appropriate manner to get them abreast with some harsh realities of the society. After all, they are a part of a society, which they have to lead in the years to come. It is for children, but it?s no child?s play.

Faces in the Water

Ranjit Lal

Penguin, Puffin

Pg 208

Rs. 199