Real worlds and Ideal worlds

• 1. Childrens Books in India:Real Worlds and Ideal Worlds
  • Deepa Agarwal

2. Childhood As an Age of Innocence

• But trailing clouds of glory do we come

• From god, who is our home:

• Heaven lies about us in our infancy!

• William Wordsworth

• in Ode, Intimations of Immortality

3. Childrens Reality in India

• Vast social and economic divides.

• Tradition and religion are powerful forces.

• A host of problems affect the young but books ignore them.

4. Most Childrens Books IgnoreReal Life Problems

• The reasons are:

• Conservative mindset means that taboos still linger.

• Hidden censorship prevents authors from being realistic .

5. Whats Right, Whats Wrong

• Focuses on real issues:

• Lack of access to good education

• Child labour

• Gender discrimination

• HIV/aids

• Disaster

• Hunger

• Some writers and reviewers found it unsuitable for children

6. A Parent Found This Depiction of a Teacher Objectionable 7. Shantis Friend

• Exploitation of a child domestic helper not an acceptable topic.

• Changes were requested because it was felt it might upset readers.

• The child had to be transformed into a poor relation.

8. ThePanchatantraThe Monkey and the Crocodile

• The theme of friendship betrayed.

• In the end the monkey parts company with his false friend, the crocodile.

• In a contemporary story the traitor would repent of her/his actions and the relationship be restored.

9. King Vikram and the Vetal

• Gruesome setting.

• Gory ending.

• Extremely popular with children, parents and publishers.

10. The Death of the Saintly Prahalads Wicked Father Hiranyakashipu

• Writer and critic Nandini Nayar comments: I cringed at Prahaladscalmness in the face of the horrible death his father suffers.

11. Target Encouraging Realistic Stories

• A number of stories that addressed the real problems real children faced were regularly published in this magazine.

12. Manisha Chaudhry, Editor with Pratham Books Says:

• It really depends on the treatment of the issue.

• The authenticity and empathy that the writer feels or exhibits a lack of.

• Children sense out insincerity very fast.

• I would not reject a manuscript because it deals with a painful aspect of reality. If it brings up something in a way organic to the book and talks to children naturally, I'd go for it.

13. Suresh Readingat Pratham Library

• No adverse reactions from the children or theBal Sakhis (childrens friends), librarians or parents.

• I can say this with some certainty as we get feedback through questionnaires and at meetings

• Pratham runs 4000 libraries across 14 states of India Each library services 150-200 children.

14. Angry River by Ruskin Bond

• An amazingly calm portrayal of a village girl, Sita coping stoically with calamitythe destruction caused by a flood.

15. A Village by the Sea byAnita Desai

• A sometimes painfully realistic story about two poor children Hari and Lila trying to survive in adverse conditions and growing in strength and maturity.

16. Growing Up by Devika Rangachari

• A realistic depiction of middle-class life.

• Credible characters

• Real life situations

• Actual problems children face.

17. No Guns at my Sons Funeral By Paro Anand

• The making of a boy terrorist in Kashmir

• Compelling, even terrifying clarity.

• Climax as brutal as any television image of a terrorist attack.

• End strikes a positive note.

18. Paro Anands Comments

• We don't live in an ideal world.

• Today's young are more willing and able to confront reality and deal with it.

• Found it too much to handle when the hero, Akram is made to kill a puppy and a kitten during his training.

• Human deaths were somehow easier for them to handle than the animal deaths.

19. What Do Children Say?

• Q. Should stories always have happy endings?

• Purva,11not alwaysthey should show humans as they truly are.

• Saloni, 9sometimesI wish books would be more real.

20. Children Say

• Radhika, 10sometimesthey usually show the world as a better place than it is.

• Tanya, 8alwaysthey should show the world as a better place but make us think.

• Dhruva, 9sometimessometimes they do have children who seem real like us.

21. Nandini Nayar, Writer and Critic Comments

• To write books that conclude with all strings tied off neatly, no loose ends visible, is unrealistic.

• This does not happen because of the kind of 'safe' topics that writers in India stick to.

• Children are protected from reality, so serious subjects are a taboo. And so is anything like a reality check in the form of open-ended books.

22. Alison Lurie inDont Tell the Grown-ups

• Though there are some interesting exceptions, even the most subversive of contemporary childrens books usually follow these conventions.

23. Alison Lurie inDont Tell the Grown-ups

• They portray an ideal world of perfectible beings, free of the necessity for survival and reproduction: not only a pastoral but a paradisal universefor without sex and death, humans may become as angels.

• The romantic child, trailing clouds of glory, is not as far off as we might think.

24. THANK YOU!