E-Paper
BOOK OF THE WEEK: Bulli and the Tiger; Manu mixes..
These four books have the story of four children who live in hardship and still manage to win hearts.
Bulli and the Tiger; Manu mixes Clay and Sunshine; Mumtaz embroiders her Dreams; Biju spins some magic
• Price — Rs 75 each
• Publication — A Puffin Original
Biju, Bulli, Manu and Mumtaz are like any other children. They like to have fun, thrill in adventure, dream big and surround themselves in sunny optimism. But in the four books brought out by Dastkar Haat Samiti in collaboration with UNESCO, these children also let us take a peep into the lives they live as children belonging to rural artisan families.
So different is their world from that of the computer-savvy, information-loaded, jet-age city child’s that they may as well be living on a different planet. They are fictional characters but have been inspired by the people with whom the writers of these stories have worked.
In narrating their stories, the story-tellers lay bare the nitty-gritty of the system in which the craftsmen of our country work.
Quite often, the system is unjust and the odds heartbreaking but as the stories illustrate, the children are never without hope. They have an uncanny ability to fight back and rise above the odds. As Mumtaz finds out when she not only wins an award for the white-on-white embroidery she did, but also wins over her jealous cousins.
Or when left with only a very meagre amount, Manu manages to buy a wonderful gift for his father. Each of these books has beautiful illustrations by some of the country’s best folk artists.
If it is Shanti Devi’s madhubani paintings in one, in another it is Nankusiya Shyam’s use of the Gond tradition of art wherein contrasting colour blocks are made up from dotted sections and come together as trees, birds, animals and houses.
Even though at times the pages are too dark in colour and the small print not very inviting for little ones, yet the folk illustrations make it worth every rupee spent on the books.
