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Book Reviews
Aditi in Wonderland
by R Uma Maheshwari
 When
a little girl named Aditi embarks on adventures across the world, to
help strangers in complicated situations, it is exciting. When her
companions include a one-eyed monkey, a tiny little ant (named SRL
4369), an elephant named Beautiful, a fire dragon, Goldie and the river
dragon, Opal, it is fantasy stuff. But when the author is a feminist,
this part adventure, part fantasy tale is more than just a book: It's a
bold trend in children's literature.
In author Suniti Namjoshi's Aditi series - the fifth soon to hit the
stands - we have children's literature of a different kind, part
adventure, part fantasy, but set in a contemporary world. With Aditi and
the One-Eyed Monkey (first published by Tulika in 2000, reprinted in
2005 by Spark-Tulika) Namjoshi began the journey of a brave little girl
Aditi, and her extraordinary friends, travelling across the world,
pouring through books in the British Museum library, wandering about in
the Thought Submarine in the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, and doing
much more. With bits and pieces of information, not merely for the sake
of information, scattered across the tales, we learnt about Latitudes
and Longitudes, about how to get a story across on a televisions news
channel, about words such as "telepathy" and so forth. Each of these
were 'discoveries' for Aditi and her 'gang' in their quest for
adventure.
Aditi is Indian, wears salwar-kameez and plaits her hair. (This is how
illustrator Shefalee Jain imagined her). However, Aditi is not in a
limiting/closed 'Indian' world. Like any child in the world, she too has
desires to know more, about the worlds and peoples and creatures of
distant lands.
Namjoshi has already authored `Feminist Fables', `Building Babel',
`Saint Suniti and the Dragon and Goja'. Few of her books for adults have
been translated into Italian, Korean, Dutch and Spanish. Her books are
apparently being used as texts in a few schools in Delhi, Baroda
(Gujarat) and Pudukkottai (Tamil Nadu).
Namjoshi admittedly created Aditi for her own niece Aditi, who lives in
Devon, UK. Apparently, children in a school in London were so impressed
by the first Aditi book that they wished that Aditi - the book character
- visits London during her adventures. So, Namjoshi created `Aditi and
the Thames Dragon' (Tulika, 2002; reprinted by Spark-Tulika in 2005) for
them. In this story, Aditi and her companions go to London to help two
children, Rohit and Roshan, who believe the Thames is being poisoned.
They manage to save the River Dragon of the Thames and get an interview
on a TV channel.
The Aditi series include 'Aditi and the Marine Sage', `Aditi and the
Techno Sage' and the most recent, 'Aditi and Friends Take on the
Vesuvian Giant'. Some of the books are being reprinted this year by
Spark (a Hyderabad-based publishing house) in collaboration with Tulika.
There is a lot of 'today' in the stories - Ant SRL 4369, while telling
elephant of a simple 'web search' in the "Directory of Ants" reveals her
serial number 4369. And a lot of fantasy. There is the magical cloak
that makes people invisible. Or the magic potion that can shrink a big
elephant into a tiny creature, tiny enough to ride piggy back on the ant
or travel in a child's pocket.
The things that concern Aditi and her companions are universal -
pollution of the Thames, the Shark and its tale of survival. Without
sounding pedantic about any of these there is a lot to be said about
each of these as 'issues'. While Aditi and her companions are Indian,
their adventures are set in other parts of the globe - Australia, Italy,
Canada and so on.
Children's books in India have had quite a sustained presence for long
now. But unfortunately, with the hype created for books like the Harry
Potter series, many of these are pushed to the sidelines.
Says Deeya Nayar, Editor of Tulika Books, Chennai: "Tulika's association
with Suniti Namjoshi started when Sandhya Rao, our Senior Editor, met
her during a Readers' and Writers' Festival at Birmingham, UK, in 1998.
Rao attended a workshop by Namjoshi and Vayu Naidu (a Tulika author).
Later, over dinner at Vayu's house, Namjoshi mentioned that she had
written a story for children - her only one at the time, and published
it in UK. Sandhya asked if she could have a look at it, and so it all
began. "
"As children's publishers in India, we constantly attempt to break
existing stereotypes, including those related to gender. All our books
reflect that, in text and in illustration - e.g. a princess doesn't have
to be beautiful and delicate and coy as she is almost always described.
All of Namjoshi's writings do just that, and in a wonderfully natural
way. Her feminism doesn't dominate, but is always there. Aditi as a
'princess' is vastly refreshing! The Sages are all female; so are the
One-eyed Monkey and Beautiful the elephant...," says Nayar.
She adds, "However, it isn't as if we publish Namjoshi for that reason
alone. She is a great writer. Each time we read her books we find new
layers, subtexts, humour, notice afresh the way she phrases things.
There is no series like the Aditi series in Indian children's literature
today. It is contemporary yet timeless; juxtaposes 'fairytale' dragons
with modern technology in the most unselfconscious way. In children's
literature in English in India, there is perhaps no other example of
real fabulist writing (fable writing), in the eight-plus category, apart
from the Aditi stories..."
January 22,
2005
By arrangement with
Women's Feature Service
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Book Reviews
The Week of January 22, 2006
Middle Class Heroes by Rajinder Puri
Hamas Treads the Political Path by Sujata
Ashwarya Cheema
Power, Pelf, Torture & Terror by Gaurang Bhatt,
MD
Indian Prime
Minister's Image Takes A Beating by Dr. Subhash Kapila
The Chemistry of Romance by Rajgopal
Nidamboor
Nation Building by Dr. Anil K. Rajvanshi
Hypocrisy by J. Ajithkumar
No Chicken by Manjula Waldron
Unforgettable Times: Indo
English Poetry in the Seventies by Dr. Amitabh Mitra
The Art and Bliss of Sexual Union by Meena
Iyer
Growing up Girls by Nitin Jugran Bahuguna
Model for Safer Motherhood by Tripat Kaur
Aditi in Wonderland by R Uma Maheshwari
Fatally White by Andrée-Marie Dussault
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