Stunning illustrations by Maulshree Somani, and a lucidly told story make Bhakti Mathur’s Part II in Hanuman Trilogy, Amma, Tell Me How Hanuman Crossed the Ocean, worth a read. The picture book leads the reader on Hanuman’s journey of crossing the ocean in search of Sita. Humanising the mythological character, Bhakti shows how, Hanuman, using his wit, strength and determination, charms a mountain, defeats a dragon and a snake, and fought the guard of Lanka, to fulfil his mission and promise to Ram.
Launched recently at Sapna Book House, Amma, Tell me how Hanuman Crossed the Ocean captures the imagination of children and adults, alike. Bhakti, who lives in Hong Kong with her husband and two sons, is a private banker by day and has always been a lover of mythology. “As a child, I had a male caretaker, Bhagwan, who was aptly named as he would tell me stories from The Ramayana and The Mahabharata. My love for mythology grew. I wanted to tell stories that I loved hearing as a child. Very often, the way I write is the way I would tell stories to my sons, Shiv and Veer.”
In fact, the motivation to write the Amma Tell me Series stemmed from Bhakti’s desire to share stories with her sons. She wrote and self published her first book, Amma tell me about Holi in 2011, and has since written books on Diwali, The Ramayana and about Krishna and Ganesha, besides Hanuman. For Bhakti, Hanuman is her favourite god. “As a child, it was easy to associate with a naughty monkey. He is brave. Being brave doesn’t mean he isn’t scared. He feels scared, but he still goes ahead. Children should realise that it’s okay to get scared, but not to give up. Hanuman is also intelligent, selfless, and a patron of the arts and of literature. He was the one who introduced bhajans. The Sun God was his teacher and as a mark of respect, Hanuman made the Surya Namaskara. If you look at gods as humans, they are much more accessible. Hanuman is a depiction of the highest form of what it is like to be a great human being.”
Research is important for Bhakti. “I mostly read books. There are The Sundarkand and The Ramayana. There are so many books available for adults. There are some very nice Penguin series on gods, such as Rama, Kali, Hanuman,” says Bhakti, who says she admires Devdutt Pattanaik’s and Ashok Banker’s styles of writing.
Bhakti knows the nuts and bolts of self publishing. “The main thing is to find a good distributor. I was lucky to find the right people. In the US, you have the advantage of Amazon. In India, the bookstores started liking my work. I eventually found distributors in US and Singapore. When you are self publishing, you are running a business, so you have to switch hats from creativity to running a business. I also chose to self publish because a lot of publishers expect you to do your own marketing.”
Bhakti is a writer ambassador for Room to Read, a global non-profit that works in collaboration with local communities, organisations and governments in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Nepal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Vietnam and Zambia, seeks to transform the lives of millions of children through its holistic literacy and Girls' Education programs.
