GRANDPA’S BAG OF STORIES

To children it does not matter if Sudha Murty is a Padma Bhushan awardee or chairperson of the Infosys Foundation or even if she is the mother-in-law of the former Prime Minister of UK. They ‘wow’ in glee because she is a great storyteller, neither preachy nor didactic, but one who talks to their level as a friend. The secret is that she becomes a child and thinks like one when she is writing stories for them. Stories originate from a single source, her heart, and flow down to the readers as pure entertainment. She’s aware that a child needs to have humour in stories and likes to see good things happening. Even if the protagonist is miserly, short tempered or unkind, happenings in the story make him a better person, and the reader breathes a sigh of relief to see the change in him. The change happens because of universal values he learns to adopt. Thus, these values which the reader should imbibe get seamlessly woven into the stories. They are not thrust on them. They surface via the characters and situations in the stories. I found that the stories do not have too much of description or long conversations, which are impediments to the racy build-up of the story. In one of her interviews, Sudha Murty confesses that she gives her script to some children to read before it goes to the publisher, and appreciates their free and frank criticism. Accordingly, she polishes the manuscripts and, hey presto! The stories almost immediately find their way to the printing press. Thereafter, the young readers can be seen chuckling and exclaiming as they get immersed in the printed book.