When we see what the world is going through right now and what kids are up against, real life is scarier than fiction. Kids cannot choose their environment or the people in it. They do not always have the power and resources to seek out solutions, but they have an appetite, and a real need…
The second important point raised in the introduction is the death of languages. Venkatesh notes that around 6,000-7,000 languages in the world are on the verge of extinction. This is alarming because the disappearance of a language is not just the loss of words, but the end of an entire knowledge tradition of the speakers’ community.
The collection of stories presented in this book have been carefully selected from the Puranas. Many of the characters in the stories would be familiar to children through reference to mythology in Indian homes. Through rituals, spiritual songs, and animated shows, children come across stories of various Hindu gods and demi-gods
Seth, however, consciously veers clear of this convention in the interest of simplicity and approachability. On the whole, through his careful attention to the rhythm, rhyme, and religio-cultural resonances of the Awadhi text, Vikram Seth pleasurably and deftly carries over the cherished hymn to English through this translation.
The most interesting aspect of the story is the natural disaster. The old man points to the sea and says, ‘Look!’. When they looked, no one was screaming; the scene was horrific—from the top of the hill they could see a wall of water approaching…a tsunami! There was water everywhere.
The children must not take the question freed from the confines of the bag to adults, rather they take it to other beings that are free of control; for instance, a crow, and they compile more questions that must be asked. Predictably the adult world of rule and control, the system and the administration, is weary of this development. But the seekers must not give up and the questioning must continue.