Bhakti Mathur has taken young readers on a trip to the Golden Temple in Amritsar and the Venkateshwara Temple at Tirupati and now she is on a journey of discovery to Fatehpur Sikri and the dargah of Sheikh Salim Chishti. At a time when children are often confused by the battles over religion it is good to find a writer presenting the positive side of faith and speaking with reason, compassion and empathy.
Sadly the subject has become so absurdly toxic that a genuinely well meaning writer like Mathur has been forced to add a declaimer in the beginning. In the screeching world of social media you can be sure there will be some thin-skinned bigots ready to claim that their religious feelings have been hurt by this gentle and generous book. This is the world we live in.
The narrative voice is of a nameless Amma and her two young sons who are on a trip to Fatehpur Sikri. So the story is livened up by the questions and comments of the two boys who are not exactly enthused by a long car ride and the prospect of a day spent looking at a lot of old buildings. So Amma has to try hard to capture and hold their attention and that means research and Mathur has done her homework very well. To digress a little, in her bibliography I discovered my book on Fatehpur Sikri and smiled for a long time.
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