We know
we said we’d give you a post on Excavating History but that is in the
making right now. (It’s on archaeology so, you know, it needs some time!) In the
meanwhile, here’s something else that’s close to our heart that we’d love to
share with you.
Regular
readers of Tulika’s books would have noticed that we love publishing books
which are not just a good story but also say something about the wider world,
especially on current social reality. In this post, we feature Rinchin, who while
telling us a darned good tale gently draws our attention to the social,
political and cultural issues behind it. (We will be talking to her soon asking
her exactly how she does it. Watch out for this space!)
So
who is Rinchin? She is a writer and activist living and working with tribals in
Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. She loves stories, and feels that everyone
should have some to read that reflect the worlds around them.
What
we love about Rinchin’s style is her rare and powerful storytelling technique through which
she explores issues using her feather-light touch. She is our publishing gold,
completely in sync with our approach.
A
word here about Tulika’s publishing philosophy. Our focus has been publishing
books that offer a range of experiences that is inclusive and representative of
different childhoods, different social milieus and different cultural contexts.
Since the books are published in eight other languages apart from English, they
reach children whose lives are reflected in the stories and the children see
themselves in the books. While for the young readers – and often adults – of the
books in English for whom these stories show a far-removed reality, the books through
the text and pictures, sensitise them to how other children live. Books that
extend their ideas and sympathies beyond their privileged circumstances.
Now
you see why we are so excited whenever a book by Rinchin comes to us. To give
you a better idea, let’s look at some of her books that we have published. She
came into our orbit with her first book Sabri’s Colours way back 2009.
But we couldn’t just stop with one! So there was The Magical Fish (2013), The Trickster Bird (2016)
and now I Will Save My Land (2017).
In Sabri’s Colours illustrated by Shailja Jain,
Rinchin tells the story of Sabri, a Bhil-Barela girl of the Nimar region of
Madhya Pradesh who loves to draw. She draws everywhere – on paper from old notebooks
and the floor of her hut. She draws everything – the sun coming up from behind
the hills, her Ayti and Baba and little Chakuli crawling, the chicken and the
goats. One day at school, she sees paint flowing out of bottles... and her
world changes. No longer is she happy to just draw – now she wants to colour the
drawings as well.
Told
from Sabri’s point of view, we see her world both in – figuratively – black and
white and in colour. It’s a story full of yearning for something that should be
naturally and rightfully hers but has been kept away from her. Through the
beautifully illustrated story, we are introduced to the subtext of reserve
forests, which are the people’s area but have been closed by the government to
be ‘protected’ while the villagers including teachers in the school protest
against it.The clashing worlds of natural justice and manmade justice resound
through the story. The unfairness of the situation hits us even as the story
closes with Sabri chasing her classmates who have run away with the bag which
contains her precious drawings.
The
story of The Magical Fish is itself quite magical. It’s a story told by Gond
storyteller Chandrakala Jagat, a one-time construction worker and magnificent
storyteller. Rinchin and Maheen heard this story, put it down on paper in Hindi
and made a film out if it, in which Chandrakala Jagat herself plays the narrator.
Translated by Rinchin into English, The Magical Fish is illustrated by
Shakunlata Kushram who is a Gond and paints in the style done by her community
on the walls of their homes.
The story goes that the world slowly lost its happiness. People started fighting and were always hungry and tired. An old woman, a dukariya, who could see the real problem, thought and thought about what to do. Then she heard from the wind about the magical fish which lived in a lake made by the spring behind a mountain. So she took her daughters-in-law and set off to the lake. When she got there, she coaxed the magical fish to move to the river and return the happiness of the people.
As seen in the below lines from the story, Chandrakala Jagat’s own life seems to be reflected in the dukariya’s demonstrating physical hard work, courage, perseverance and practicality:
She had built houses that never fell, ponds that did
not seep, bridges that stayed strong... Now she set out to bring back happiness.
She ran home and called out to her two daughters: “Leave
your sadness behind or carry it with you, but we have to go to the lake behind
the mountain.”
In The Trickster Bird Rinchin narrates with the flavour
and affectionate humour of a grandma story, the history of a community condensed
into a bedtime story. While listening to the story of Renchu’s grandfather who
was fooled by a partridge, we get to know from the grandma the origins of the
Paardhi tribals and how they were once bird suppliers to the khansama (chef) of
the begum (queen) but now carry the stigma of having once being branded a
criminal community. The grandma in the story narrates with such placidity and without
complaint how they as a community went from being a people with a profession in
their village to becoming displaced ragpickers in a big city, who live in jhuggis.
The unfairness of it all again strikes us immediately.
This
year, we have possibly Rinchin’s most powerful book so far – I Will Save My Land illustrated by Sagar Kolwankar. It’s the story of a
small girl belonging to a tribe somewhere in North Chhattisgarh. Her name is
Mati (meaning intellect) and she is on a mission to save her ‘doli’ (field)
from being consumed by the big companies who are looking for coal. Carrying all
the overtones of maati (earth), little Mati’s story reflects and refracts the
stories of many farmer families in India.
Before
we wrap up, here’s a treat: a trailer of the book I Will Save My Land. Go
on, give it a watch. You can look forward to a long conversation we had with
Rinchin in the next post.
Happy reading!
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