BENGALURU : It was the challenge parents faced, including me, as we planned holidays for our children. I saw my friends printing notes from websites, putting together travel dockets, and searching for resources that would get their kids interested in their holiday destinations. But this wasn’t really an optimal approach, and the aspiration to create a travel resource for children led to the Cities of Adventure series,” shares author Rishi Piparaiya, discussing his latest book series.
The Secret of the Snallygaster, The Race to Phar Lap’s Saddle, Framed in Hollywood, and The Men from B.A.G.E.L — the first four titles in the series takes readers on whirlwind escapades, introducing them to global cities, including Washington, Melbourne, Los Angeles and New York. “My kids were 12 and 10 at the time, and spending time with them gave me several ideas.
Also, writing for children had been on my mind for a while; a consistent feedback I got while attending a creative writing course at the University of Cambridge was to look at writing children’s books. Finally, I love travelling, and this project allowed me to travel the world with a definite purpose. All of this came together to give birth to this series,” says the globetrotter.
Excerpts:
Writing a travel story amid a pandemic must have been challenging.
On the positive side, I finished my world trip a few months before the pandemic started. I had travelled for five months across 55 global cities and therefore, I did not lack material or inspiration. It is a good feeling to be able to wake up and escape, through your writing, to wherever in the world you would like to be, even though everything around you is in a complete lockdown. I did not have a specific writing ritual per se.
Do you think the aesthetics of characters in children’s books have changed in the past decade?
I have not kept up as much with children’s literature as I did as a child. Reading itself as a habit is slowly dying, and the concern is how we can protect that. But books tend to mirror society, so characters in books now are more mature and emotionally sensitive than they were a few decades ago.
The Race to Phar Lap’s Saddle also draws focus on the need for ‘slow living’. Does this school of thought come from your personal experiences?
It is human nature to dwell on the past or worry about the future when it is the present that is most important and in our control. Every Cities of Adventure, in addition to being a window to the global city that it’s based in, also has an underlying moral that I would like children to reflect upon. The message in The Race to Phar Lap’s Saddle is for families to live in the present and enjoy the time they have together. My personal experiences have certainly shaped this. I left a high-profile financial services career to focus on my passions. Because I realised that the corporate rat race never ends — one can keep accumulating success, wealth and honours, but that comes at the cost of time. Which, in my view is the most valuable asset we have.
For details, visit: citiesofadventure.com