Children’s literature should come out of the world of fantasy to explain to young readers reality, said Malayalam writer N.S. Madhavan here on Sunday.
Speaking at a seminar on “writing for children today” during the two-day Vishwa Konkani Literary Festival, Mr. Madhavan said in today’s world nothing can be kept away from children. “The father or the teacher is no longer the only source for the child to get answers. There is Google,” he said.
Konkani Language and Cultural Foundation, at World Konkani Centre, Shakthinagar organised the festival.
Children’s literature in Malayalam and other languages were still stuck in old fairy tales where everything starts and ends well. There was nothing to show the reality namely recognising divisions in the society, equality, about environment and gender equality.
“Issues like single parenting, which is largely seen in Kerala, does not figure in our literature.” The literature was still with stereotypes namely depiction of mother as the one who cooks and gives milk and father as the one who works to relieve family of hunger.
India’s children’s literature should become more modern, progressive and less inhibited. India should see changes like the one seen in the U.S. and spoke about books namely “Sparrow Girl” of Sara Pennypacker.
Vice-Chancellor of Goa University, Varun Sahni, said in order to take primitive Indian languages namely Konkani and Dogra to the 21st century it was important to capture the spoken word.
“Instead of sitting in library and going through literature, research scholars should move out with their audio recorders and capture voice of native Dogra and Konkani speakers,” he said.
Mr. Sahni expressed the need of dictionaries and encyclopaedias on Konkani and Dogra that was relevant for this digital age. “Our university will be keen to associate with work on creation of such digital products,” he said.
