Restless Birds is a book that will do T S Eliot proud. Ten-year-old E Reflin of TVS Matriculation Higher Secondary school, Madurai, has returned the favour. As Eliot argues in his essay, ‘Tradition And Individual Talent’, every work of art is a back and forth with tradition. Reflin’s story complies perfectly with Eliot’s touchstones.
Rooted in the long tradition of storytelling, her tales are deeply personal. She draws from her personal experiences as a daughter, a student, and a passionate observer in shaping her stories. Each story has a moral fibre and carries a message that intrigues you in a subliminal way yet engages you without being preachy.
The pieces borrow eclectically from the old classics. Cinderella, Aesop, Grimms Brothers, and the like take an imaginative turn and come alive as characters any child can easily identify with.
The structure of the book is quite interesting with 12 stories told in a parable fashion.
Most of them revolve around the eternal conflict of good and evil. Love, friendship, jealousy, greed, and anger are personified as characters.
The first story, Restless birds, explores the theme of ecology. The nature vs nurture conflict is deeply embedded in this piece. Based on her real life experiences, her observations and empathy for the flora and fauna stand out.
The emotional investment in the story, especially the treatment of subject matter, speaks volumes about the love she has for nature and its inhabitants. She finds parallels in the parent-child equation in the world of birds.
‘Get united’ is a reunion story. There is the archetypal pirate, the typical king, and the missing son. The youngest son of the king, Namad (play on nomad), is kidnapped by pirates after birth. The turn of fate puts him face to face with another son of the king for a duel, only to make him realise that the opponent is his own brother. The happy ending seals the blood is thicker than water theory yet again.
Then there is the old wine, ‘The crystal ball’ - a Cinderella story in a new bottle. The idea of beauty and ugliness and how’s its hitched to worldly success is examined with fair comb perfection.
The ‘rags to riches to rags’ story is a wake-up call for people who steer off the moral course once fortune tilts scales in their favour. The moral of the story is to keep true in the virtuous path and not let temptations lead you astray.
Then there are stories of the prodigious orphan, wise woman, war, school, foolish robber - all cut from the classic cloth of evergreen stories.
As the saying goes, all good things come to an end. It seems she had taken it a bit too literal. The last story ‘Puss! Puss! oh pussy’ is a story of loss. And coincidentally, the saddest story in the book. The book ends on a sad note, yet stays with you because of the simplicity with which the stories are told.