Dialogue about exhibition held
at their school recently
Answers
READING these children’s stories reminds me of an article published in Spectrum about three years back. It was a long write-up by Juhi Bakshi, lamenting that most of the fairy takes that children read have lost their relevance. Quoting a few, she had made a case for tales that are more realistic and contemporary, tales that entrench a value system, glorify inner beauty than external appearance and focus on truth, honesty and compassion.
Well! For Juhi this book might be a little late, for her three-year-old daughter must have grown up now. But children are children, and Asha Nehemiah has something different for them.
An advertising copywriter and a freelance writer, Asha has the rare sensitivity to understand a child’s mind. In her stories, she dwells upon the fears and fancies of a child and the world it lives in. Her characters are ordinary and not well-to-do princes and princesses. Take for instance, Seema and Sushil of The Vampire Next Door who take a scientist for a vampire, a vampire without fangs and claw-like fingernails yet capable of sending a chill down your spine. Then there is Vinay Mathur who takes pride in his otherwise bad handwriting and whose "nose" reads "rose". It is only after a harrowing experience that he vows to improve it.