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Chandra Chari

All Pratham titles being reviewed here have been published on the digital platform Storyweaver (www.storyweaver.org.in)

KELAM KO CHAHIYE OONT

By Anu-Chowdhury-Sorabjee. Illustrations by Kalyan Joshi. Translated from the original English by Madhu B. Joshi

Pratham Books, Parag Initiative/Edelgive Foundation, 2019, Level 2, pp.18, `55.00

The original story titled A Camel for Kelam (Guest Editor Shabnam Minwala) and its Hindi translation, as the Hindi title makes it clear, Kelam ko Chahiye Oont, is about an animal-lover, Pabuji who lives in Rajasthan, and his niece Kelam who also loved animals. But her heart is set on a camel and so the adventurous uncle saddles his beloved horse Zafran and away he goes in search of one.

How he has to travel a long distance and reaches Persia, and not Lanka, as he had heard was where  horses came from, and brings back the first horse to Rajasthan makes a good story. However, to disseminate misinformation in a book meant for a beginner reader is not what is expected from Pratham (even if the record is set right at the end).