While Nandita’s short stories have been published in collections like Talking Cub’s Dance, Nani, Dance, this is a first book which is entirely a collection of her short stories.
2023
These words from the book offer a beautiful summary of the story that is Afo and I. At its heart is Vinoka and Afo’s sibling relationship. Jimo superimposes Vinoka’s feelings about his sister Afo moving away with changes happening in their landscape.
It is indeed a special feature of stories that they travel, continuously; passed on from one generation to the next. With time and with the tellers, each story gets a new addition to it, appearing more and more relatable to the listeners.
2023
13 Kahaniyan is an enriching compilation of 13 stories in Hindi, each carrying valuable lessons, meticulously curated and edited by Kusumlata Singh and published by the Children’s Book Trust. Within this literary treasure-trove, the stories paint a vivid picture of diverse societal issues and human experiences.
The three books strung together can be read in continuation with one another. Laltu Se Gupshup has curious questions and observations of children yet to touch their teens, their little world cocooned around parents and their interactions to the sun, moon and the stars. Tuntuni and The Uprising deal with simple yet important issues of our everyday lives.
Children’s literature reminds one of life’s simpler joys and how everything is driven by curiosity alone. The book Wingless Flight and Others is published by Children’s Book Trust, a publication house founded by cartoonist K. Shankar Pillai in 1957.
