We live in a fascinating, complicated country, and a lifetime isn’t enough to see all of it. Every corner of India is steeped in history, culture and heritage, and learning about everything can be difficult. Is there an easy way out?
To begin with, you can start with the ABC of India. Kuchipudi dancer Shallu Jindal’s new picture book does exactly this, and beautifully too. Titled India: An Alphabet Ride , the book has been compiled by Jindal and illustrated by Priya Kurian and published by Etch, an Imprint of Natraj Publishers.
We begin with A for Anthem, with illustrations in bright colours and snippets of crucial facts acts like a tiny capsule of facts, figures and stories that give you a gist of the national anthem’s history and origin.
BCD and more
B for Brave has a two page spread dedicated to the country’s armed forces. These pages are especially impressive, and the illustration exquisite. C for Culture and Cuisine follows, along with the rest of the alphabets dedicated to Dances, Equality, Gandhi, Himayalayas and so on. Each page is a delight, and the facts are presented in simple, straightforward sentences instead of cumbersome, complicated chunks of texts. The pictures do the talking. The sketches are in simple, rich colours.
There are pages dedicated to the freedom struggle, Mughal history, different religions, arts and crafts, and scientific progress.
This is a children’s book, but it carries within its pages an impressive amount of information that even grown ups would find new and exciting. A balanced combination of the traditional, modern, contemporary and historical, the book paints a wonderfully hopeful picture of a country that needs, more than ever, to take pride in its identity.
India: An Alphabet Ride, Shallu Jindal, Illustrations by Priya Kurian, Etch
