She should be credited with being able to achieve a whole lot of things, but mostly, three very difficult things — getting children to read Indian fantasy books, getting people to walk in Bangalore, getting children to listen to history! Knotty tasks, huh? She has conjured up an exotic world for a whole lot of youngsters (and adults) — a world of Taranauts ruled by Emperaza Shoon Ya (aided by the able Miss Shuk Tee), inhabited by brave young Mithyakins, over whom lurks the evil Shaap Azur.
Co-founder of Bangalore Walks, a tour guide, and a writer, Roopa Pai is herself like a child. And maybe that's why her first in a series of eight books “Taranauts: Quest for The Shyn Emeralds” is a delightfully-told story. “I'm trying to make Indianism cool without being in-the-face Indian. And that's been difficult for Indian writers,” says Roopa. Most Indian children stay away from traditional and mythological storybooks for two reasons. The folklore is often forced down their throats by eager parents — a sort of “you must know your culture” thing. And very often, they lose out when competing with dazzlingly produced foreign books.
One must read Roopa's book to delight in how she's able to distil concepts and characters from Indian mythology and cloak them oh-so-cleverly in cool. It's almost like she lives that fantasy life herself. “I guess when I'm writing books, I do…” and after a thoughtful pause, she grins: “But perhaps yes I do. I read a lot of children's adventure books, and spend a lot of my time in a fantasy world. Now my daughter recommends books for me to read. It makes me share her world; I discuss the books with her friends, and I become one of them. Otherwise, I'm an adult,” she smiles her sunny smile.
She admits though that it's difficult for a writer to stay with the story's characters' age group for a long time!
The adventure series is meant for tweens — eight to 12 year olds who don't have too many books targeted at them. And yes, Roopa encountered the argument that this age group doesn't really read. Even if they did, it would mostly be girls. So she was advised to write a “girlie” adventure series.
“I didn't want a pink and purple shiny thing in my name,” says Roopa, wrinkling up her nose, and adds: “I didn't want any western things to taint my books. I'm really big on Indian mythology. But some children, like mine, can't connect to it. It is scary how anything Indian has become so un-cool. The younger ones are so finished off by Disney, and I don't blame them. Why can't we create stories which bridge that gap?” she argues. “Hindu mythology is my ocean of notions. It tells me there are no new stories in the world; they just manifest themselves differently,” she shrugs and smiles. Has children's ability to imagine weakened, what with them being fed images by TV and other media constantly? What we've really lost is the oral tradition of storytelling believes Roopa.
I enviously think she makes for a cool parent when she says: “Parents are overreacting about the impact of TV. We shouldn't essentially worry about our children too much. Nothing will happen to human imagination,” she assures me.
In fact, whenever she meets school children to gather feedback about her first book, they are brimming over with ideas for her next book. “It's all there and alive (imagination). It just needs to be stoked a bit.”
Writing for children has always been Roopa's passion — whether it's through the children's magazine Target , or books like “Sister Sister” (a four part science series), “Mechanic Mumtaz” and “Kaliyuga Sita” (published by UNICEF).
There's a “science side” to Roopa, who believes it must be demystified, made fun and engaging for youngsters. She promises that such concepts will be explored in the next two books in the Taranauts series.
The “history side” of Roopa makes her director of the Bangalore Walks School Programme, where she combines three of her biggest loves — history, children and Bangalore. Bangalore Walks was conceived by Roopa and husband Arun Pai as a walking guided tour of Bangalore, through its lanes of hidden history. She takes schoolchildren on an interactive “Explorience” of the city. “History is storytelling,” she agrees. “It can be used to teach values and how not to repeat mistakes.”
She also believes history is very sadly taught in schools. If only a century's history of the world was taken up in each class, it would connect in a child's mind, she suggests. And one must begin with local history — then you can actually take them around and show them.
Roopa Pai's next book in the series, “Taranauts - The Riddle of the Lustr Sapphires” published by Hachette India will be out in bookstores next week. To book your advance copies email: taranauts@gmail.com
