Who can tell a story better than a grandmother? The level of creativity, fun and adventure that their stories have can’t be brought in any other kind of stories. Bot, a cheerful character is the product of one such grandma tale. Malini Seshadri’s lively little bottle, Bot, embarks on his first adventure through her book Bot’s First Adventure: Making a Splash, which was released on Monday at Landmark, Citi Centre. “The bottle sprang full-grown in my head around 10 years ago when I used to tell my grandchildren stories,” remembered Malini. When the kids used to insist that their favourite ‘paati’ narrated her own stories, Malini had to be at her creative best to come up with adventure after adventure for Bot. “And as each grandkid came along, the number of adventures also increased,” said Malini, who is best known for her Living in Harmony series, a set of eight books on peace and value education for the primary and middle schools children.
When she told her friends how much her grandchildren loved the stories of Bot’s adventures, it was suggested more than once that she wrote a book out of it.
In the first book of what is touted to be a series (a sequel to the book was announced), Bot travels through snow-capped mountains, rivers, oceans and sunny beaches. What Malini has tried to do through this book is give its little readers a lesson in optimism. As Bot interacts with various animals on his journey, Malini has also tried to include as much information about them as possible. “If you are attacked by an octopus, you need to be prepared in order to save yourself. So, I try teaching the kids that an octopus has eight tentacles,” says Malini. But she is quick to add, “It was never meant to be a general knowledge book, always a book of fun stuff.”
At the book launch, Bot was brought to life by nine-year-old Aryan, son of publisher of the book Gitanjali J B, who read out passages from the book and charmed the audience as he sang some of the songs, with a guitar in hand (It was Aryan who came up with the title of the book). The songs that Aryan sang at the event appear in the book as Bot’s songs. “It were these poems that I enjoyed writing the most because it excited me that these could one day be set totune,” admitted Malini.
The book was released by actress Kushboo and Dr Mini Krishnan, translations editor, Oxford University Press.