A Himalayan Endeavour
Nirupama Subramanian
YOUNGUNCLE IN THE HIMALAYAS by Vandana Singh Young Zubaan, 2008, 128 pp., 175
November 2008, volume 32, No 11

When I was a child, growing up in India during the eighties, I believed that adventures only happened to’ blue eyed children in some far off country’. Brought up on a steady diet of Enid Blytons and later the Nancy Drew mysteries, I dreamt of eating scones with butter and holidaying on islands with mysterious castles inhabited by jackdaws. This world was far removed from the reality of our daily lives which centered mostly around home and home work. Today Harry Potter might have replaced the Hardy Boys, but solving mysteries still seem to be the prerogative of children in other lands. Indian stories are drawn from mythology or the omnipresent Panchatantra. Even if the stories were interesting, the tone was usually pedantic with a heavily underlined Moral at the end. It was difficult to imagine that children like us in urban India could lead interesting lives. Vandana Singh’s Younguncle books are as welcome as the summer rain in our dusty plains. Younguncle first appeared in Younguncle Comes to Town with a tin plate on his head and a cup full of rain.

The first book is a collection of incidents and problems that Younguncle and the children solve in a variety of creative ways. The second book is a full length story.

In Younguncle in the Himalayas, Vandana Singh blends environmental activism and pseudo spiritualism with a rollicking adventure set in the hill station of Rampur. The children, Sarita, Ravi and Baby set off with Younguncle and their parents to a holiday in the hills to escape the heat and dust of their hometown.

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