What Are Our Children Reading?

       What are our Children Reading?

An exclusive children’s bookstore is still a rare encounter in our country, but were you to come upon one and engage with it meaningfully, you would discover a world unto itself. A raconteur of tales would occupy centre stage, nostalgic of a grandmother of the bygone era of joint families, surrounded by her grandchildren. ‘In most Indian families, stories were, as A.K. Ramanujan puts it so delightfully, 'just a grandmother away'. But all this is part of a glorious past and there it has remained.’
The children’s literature industry in India is in a state of flux, with many voices. On the other hand, the chaos could be best for its evolution in the right direction. There are dissenting and igniting debates between writers, publishers, illustrators, international book distributors and readers. A totally different scenario from the post colonial India that I grew up in! I read Enid Blyton series, and later graduated to Agatha Christie and Perry Mason. Indigenous literature was available in the form of  Amar Chitra Katha or Chandamama. The lacunae of a rich Indian children’s literature was felt and explored by great writers like Satyajit Ray, Rabindranath Tagore, R.K Narayan, and later by Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth and Ruskin Bond who wrote stories, plays and verses, not specifically for children but their writings could be read, understood and enjoyed by children thoroughly. The publishers in the foray, CBT and NBT, contributed in their own way through adaptations of oral literature of ancient India, but sadly the publications lacked quality and lost the rich essence of the fables.

Panchatantra is a frame story, with story within a story, which was created by Vishnu                                                                                  Sharma to tutor the maverick Princes of the kingdom. An eighty year old man with twinkling eyes had set out to bring lessons on wisdom and truth, not through preachy dialogues but beautifully crafted allegorical stories. Gautam Bhatia, reworked , a multifaceted, layered, intricate Panchtantra for adults.  But rewritings for children, in an effort to simplify a classical text, loses its nuance, rich imagery and metaphor, a mere recounting of the outline story.  Illustrations through                                                       cave paintings and classical miniatures, which not only enhance the words but convey the happenings through visuals, became mere supplements of the text.  Radhika Menon puts it very succinctly when she says,’ An ascetic is shown doing the Suryanamaskara. It is a very sombre picture showing the serious business of the ascetics – except that there is a cat in a corner standing on its hind legs imitating the ascetic, with a few unconcerned mice playing nearby. What a wonderfully funny, detailed, sophisticated picture for a story!’

In the last decade, the story of Childrens’ Literature in India seems to have undergone a sea change with herculean efforts and a refreshing vision from publishing houses like Tara, Katha , Tulika, Rupa,  Navneet  and others which specially design books for children. The narrative, locations, language and culture is essentially Indian. The books are an enthralling blend of diverse children’s voices in contemporary times dealing with plaguing issues of our society. Others introduce our art and culture, geography, myth and science using illustrative visuals drawn from our folk arts, tribal landscapes, traditional paintings and graphics of the modern era. The stories are sensitively portrayed using rich imagery, metaphor and syntax.

Now, we would think that such treasures would flood the markets, libraries and the international bookstores in no time, but the process again meanders in lanes and by-lanes of controversy and disagreements. Meticulous productions raise costs which have to compete with those from abroad. Network of public libraries and school libraries, the base for channelizing and distribution of children’s books, is yet to be established in India. The melting pot global arena still views India as exotic and mysterious and would like to see the very same portrayal in children’s books, otherwise rejects it. We who devoured, read and were brought up on imaginations of British landscapes, are told now about our books being alien to children abroad. Maybe we could do it because plurality is in our roots of a multicultural, multilingual India. Sometimes you wonder, is it a strength or ground for battles? We seem to be rooted, but Dr K. Satchidandan, at the conclusion of his essay on 50 years of Indian Literature, says: "The best of our writers now know that unless we realise Swaraj in ideas, our great country is doomed to die without an individual signature of her own while she signs in different scripts.". Well then, this is a matter for another debate and reflection

Childrens’ literature in India has taken off, but has miles to go ……..to set right the grappling issues highlighted above. Reading for reading sake should be the mantra! The positive note is that it seems to have set on a course which is rooted and at the same time contemporary and sensitive. Considering the scenario , what are our children reading now? In a tech-savvy world with visuals and video games children especially teenagers are no longer interested in fantasies, moralistic and magic stories. They read what thrills and charges them like characters in a video game. Geeky personalities, technology wars and adventurous characters keep them glued to books like Hungry Games, The Heroes of Olympus, and Percy Jackson. Harry Potter and the Twilight series too seem to have taken a backseat according to V.K Karthika, the chief editor of HarperCollins.  Indian writers have not targeted the teen segment and with no other alternative, the teenagers read books from abroad. Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie, the bestselling murder -mystery books, too, do not count because teenagers look for bloodbaths and gory details in adventures.  Ranjit Lal’s fiction books like ‘Faces in the Water’, ‘Battle for No. 19’ have a following as the books deal with contemporary issues  like female foeticide , terrorism and riots, deftly using  children characters to tell the story. Similarly, the popularity of  ‘The Book Thief’ and ‘The Boy in Striped Pyjamas’ indicates that teenagers today want to read about gory facts in history and modern times without any soft packaging  and cuddling.  They want to contemplate and become aware of life with all its dark secrets and hidden details, the so- called adult world, of betrayals, greed, courtesans, marital breakups, alliances and so on.  They have come of age, and we as adults and writers need to wake up to the fact. ‘Alice in Wonderland’ directed by Tim Burton did not bag laurels just for the colorful portrayal of the Mad Hatter, but a complete reworking of the character of ALICE. Manjula Padmnabhan’s ‘Unprincess’ is a maverick girl who takes on her own battles and knows her mind. This shift in portrayal of female characters is liked and appreciated by all teenagers.

The perception that teenagers do not read, is a fallacy. We need to produce and render the readings that they want. Let us stop being didactic, preachy, and moralistic in our writings. The idea of reading books, with the sole aim of improving reading and writing skills to aid you in your academics, needs to be thrown out, the baby with the bath water. The baby has grown up – let us recognize the fact. The teen book segment is a huge market in India but the writers, educators and publishers need to tap it better.