Wild Capers

Dalal,who,juxtaposes fiction with vivid descriptions of India’s natural landscape spins stories around the places he visits and whose beauty he basks in. “I have this great love for the wilderness. Since childhood,I have always striven to be in the midst of nature. For me these places are more than just mere dots on the map. The purpose of my writing is to give my young readers a glimpse of the immense natural landscape that our country can boast of,that is beyond their textbooks and the confines of their city-lives,” says the avid traveler.

The latest outgrowth from Dalal’s creative greenhouse is a dual-book set of stories reverberating in the ghats of the Sahyadris – Koleshwar’s Secret and Anirudh’s Dream. Both books come under the popular Vikramaditya series of adventure books. He says,“It took me four years to write these two books. It was a lot of hard work. The Sahyadris have always fascinated me,and I have always wanted to study in detail the history of Mumbai city. These books are reflections of that quest. I spent two months in Mumbai poring over historical books and researching on them.”

Indeed,Dalal’s books conjure up great adventure in the backdrop of awe-inspiring natural vistas,from the Himalayas and Sahyadris,to Ladakh and the Lakshadweep and Andaman islands. “We see a lot of campaigns around us to save the tiger,protect the environment,etc. But the children have very little real interaction with nature. My effort is to build that connect through my writing,to inspire them to go out and explore the natural treasure around them. I write stories that are beyond the cities,the fringe that is nature’s backyard. This is where true beauty is,” he says.

With the advent of Harry Potter,The Lord of the Rings and the Twilight series,the literary scene for children is tilted heavily towards the fantasy side. Dalal says,“All these books are,without doubt,excellent works of writing. They have bought back the romance of reading among children. Children’s literature has undergone a lot of changes. But,there are no books that are based in India and talk about it’s geographical wealth. Apart from Ruskin Bond,there is hardly any original effort in bringing out this aspect of out country to the young readers. My books attempt to fill this gap.”

(The Sahyadri Adventure Series by Deepak Dalal will be launchedon Saturday at Crosswords,ICC Towers,Senapati Bapat road,at 6.30 pm)