Writer’s Corner | Shruthi Rao breaks down the art of engaging a younger audience: ‘Can’t tell kids what to think’

‘Let them think, come to their conclusions’

Many of her books (notably India in Triangles, co-authored with Meera Iyer) combine accessibility for younger audiences with scientific themes. Rao said, “I am an engineer and have a Master’s in energy engineering. When my daughter was born, I realised that I liked to explain things to her and enjoyed the process of making very complicated things as simple as possible. I think that is what led me to write for children and about science.”

She also pointed out that children would not appreciate lectures or being talked down to. Rao said, “You cannot tell them what to think. Obviously, we have opinions, but we need to be sure to be careful to let them think and come to their conclusions.”

“Another challenge is that they do not have much context about the world – you might refer to a pop culture figure, etc, to explain something to an adult, but you have to think what children might know and start from there. You must also not treat them like they are stupid or talk down to them, because they can immediately figure out if you are trying to lecture them,” she added.

Writing about the Great Trigonometric Survey

India in Triangles, her most recent book published in India, follows the path of the Great Trigonometric Survey that mapped India in colonial times – an endeavour that saw the use of trigonometry, the most advanced surveying techniques at the time, and immense chains that aided in calculations. Some of the earliest groundwork for the survey was done in Bengaluru, and the markers of the time are still there if one looks in the right places.

Rao recalled, “I had seen British surveyor Sir George Everest’s house in Mussoorie and wondered what he was doing there and later read about the Survey. It was in my head for a long time, but I knew there was a lot of history involved that I did not know enough about. When I saw that Meera Iyer (convenor of INTACH Bengaluru) had written a couple of articles about this topic, I reached out to her. I thought I could do the trigonometric and scientific side, while she would handle the historical side.”

Like many other writers, Rao sticks to habit in her writing – she prefers to write at her desk. She reminisced, “When my daughter was young, I was used to writing when she was asleep. Now that she has gone away to college, I have lots of time but I’m finding that I am really used to working with some constraints. I do not know what to do with so much time.”

By way of advice to writers looking to follow a similar path, she said, “Read widely and always ask questions. There is so much information that is inaccurate, with people putting their own spin on it. If you want to share information with others, you have to make sure you check your sources in multiple ways – and when you read something you enjoy, it helps to analyse why you enjoy it.”