Our Little World

The experiences with her daughter inspired her to write stories for children,many of which were based on their memories together. “One day she came home and told me about two friends who had fought in school. The entire fight was so illogical,” she says. It inspired one of Gundi’s stories,Bhandan,which follows a fight between two young school girls who eventually make up.

Gundi often goes to schools and reads to children there and she says that they always relate to the every day humour in her stories.

While Gundi’s experiences with her daughter led her to begin writing,there are quite a few authors who made accidental beginnings in children’s literature. Acclaimed author Dr Anil Awachat used to write non-fiction for adults. But after he turned 60,he began to write fantasy and slice of life stories. “I began to think,what if the trees could talk to us? I began to imagine conversations with animals,plants and objects,” says Awachat,who began to write about these imagined exchanges. “Later people told me they are good children’s stories. So I began to write children’s stories quite accidentally,” he adds. Simple as they may be,Awachat’s stories are enjoyed by people of all ages. “People tell me that the entire family sits together to listen to the stories after dinner every day. That is the beauty of these stories,” says the author.

Awachat says he also often uses his interactions with children as inspiration for new stories. “They think and visualise very differently and when I read stories to children,they suggest new endings and completely different plots,” he says.

Madhuri Purandare,a well-known children’s author,also began writing stories for children quite accidentally. As editor of a magazine for an NGO that supported the education and empowerment of women in rural areas,she was looking for people who could write stories for the magazine. “But I could not find many who could relate to rural life. So I began to do a little research and wrote a few stories myself,” she says.

Purandare includes a lot of illustrations,which she draws herself,in books for younger children who cannot read. For example,in Radhacha Ghar,a series of six small books,she tells the story of how a small girl sees her family members. One book depicts the grandmother telling Radha stories of her own childhood,while another shows how her parents love her but scold her when she makes mistakes.

“I write mainly about the experiences that children themselves have every day. For older children,I writes short stories about more complex topics,” she says.

Her book,On that Day,includes the story of a girl who is asked to pick a verb and write about her first experience with it. “The girl picks the verb ‘to die’,and tries to remember her first experience hearing and using the word and

what her emotional reaction was,” says Purandare.

However,Gundi points out that the audience for Marathi stories for children is shrinking. She says,“Children attend English medium schools and want to read English books. Marathi books are not even distributed to booksellers properly.” That has not stopped Gundi or her contemporaries from writing. “My daughter is now grown up and married but when she was little,I entered a child’s dreamland and have never left it,” she says.