This prize-winning story (I Prize in the category Read Aloud / Picture Books organized by CBT) is a tribute to the child’s power of imagination.
Even as children are accused of being over-imaginative by over-strict parents and teachers (Nooo, an apple can’t be coloured purple! Nooo, a flower can’t have one big petal!), the modern toy industry works to repress the child’s imagination and render it redundant. It is therefore refreshing to find that Anjana Vaswani presents us with a child’s ability to imagine things that are not possible, and that she does not sit in judgement on it.
Anurag’s teacher had berated him that morning for being preoccupied and said that it seemed as if Anurag had a hole in his head! While walking home, Anurag wonders what it would be like to have a hole in his head. Would the teacher’s words flow into it like water from a tap? (And flow out as easily, of course!) Would it be like a volcano, spewing lava? Or like a whirlpool, sucking in fish, furniture, seals and whales? Would the yogasanas that his teacher taught him help? The sirsasana, maybe? Anurag imagines the world as seen while balancing on a rather large head full of ships and comets. And so it goes …
I like it that Bagchi shows the reader that Anurag is so taken up by the idea of having a hole in his head that he doesn’t notice his surroundings. Consequently, the road, the sky, the puddles are all grey in colour. And that’s because Anurag had other things to think about. (He couldn’t possibly waste his energy on painting the world around him in brilliant technicolour!)
Ashish Bagchi does a great job of creating the swirling, whirling, topsy-turvy effects of having a hole in his head. One is almost tempted to wish for a hole in the head if it is going to lead to as many exciting adventures as Bagchi visualizes!
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