Chalo Nahaane Chalein won the Second Prize in the Read-Aloud Category in the Competition for Children’s Books in Hindi organized by CBT. The other title published by the author for CBT is Khujli Aise Hui Chhoomantar.
The quirky little bilingual book is bound to hold the child reader enthralled. The English translation in particular has one chuckling with every turn of the page. For what would Mummy and Papa do when a summer day is hot and humid? Turn on the air conditioner, of course! But not the big elephant who fans himself with his big ears and leads the way when the monkey suggests a dip in the pond, followed by the monkey, cat, pig, buffalo and deer. And this is where the author slips in effortlessly morsels of information about the habits of various animals: the cat keeps herself clean by licking herself all over; the little sparrow by rolling in the mud, and lo and behold! No dip in the pond for pig likes best to cool himself by wallowing in slime and mud in a ditch. Each one to his own…and so on.
November 2023, volume 47, No 11