New Adaptations of Old Tales

Children’s books in India have always been relegated to the last place in anyone’s priorities whether it be the publisher’s or the parent’s! CBT’s pione­ering effort in providing some sort of reading material for children aside from the dull text-books that children are burdened with deserves to be highly com­mended. India Book House also with their Amar Chitra Katha and Chaturang Katha series have popularized the tradi­tional stories and legends of our country. Unfortunately, most of our publishers believe in serving our children a rehashed fare of mythology, folk tale and legend. The number of original creative works is almost negligible. Legends, mythology and folk stories seem to do extremely well. And while children would be tardy in reading a mythological story, they take to such tales in comic strips like a duck takes to water.While there is no denying the fact that IBH has done yeoman service in familiarizing our children with our culture and traditions which they would otherwise have shied away from, one wonders why they have not exploited the situation by producing original comic strips.