CHENNAI: A sense of wonder and awe, hope and excitement, a journey dotted with myriad narratives, meditative landscapes and the search for an elusive animal. In their latest offering, in association with the World Wide Fund for Nature-India, Valli’s Nilgiri Adventures, authors Arthy Muthanna Singh and Mamta Nainy write about the Nilgiri tahr, an ungulate that is endemic to the Nilgiri Hills. “We both believe that children are intuitively interested in nature. What they need perhaps is something that shares their excitement about nature, feeds their curiosities and piques their interest,” say the duo. The purpose of the book is to encourage awareness and appreciation of India’s wildlife, particularly, the rare Nilgiri tahr. “But, we didn’t want it to be a book with a mountain of facts. So, we came up with the idea of the protagonist Valli and her friends trying to spot the Nilgiri tahr on their school trip, which allows the young readers to take an armchair trip to the Nilgiris and get to know about the tahr,” they share. The entrepreneurs let us in on their writing process, discuss green literature, representation and more.
Excerpts follow:
This is your sixth book with WWF India. How different were the creative process and the journey of co-authoring this title?
The idea of this book came to us from WWF and we jumped at it! Their education division is committed to bringing out green books for children under their publication programme. Some endangered species like the Nilgiri tahr, we feel, tend to not receive much spotlight in books, which WWF wanted to correct with this book. During our many discussions with WWF, one thing we mutually agreed upon was that we wanted to create something that made all the information about the Nilgiri tahr accessible to young readers, something that would have all the relevant facts about the tahr but doesn’t sound like an expert explaining the details of the species.
Do you have a specific nature writing ritual? When writing for children, does the genre’s function change?
AMS: We primarily write for children, though I have been a freelance journalist for several years. We have both had many books published before we started this partnership. Our first set of books was published in July 2019. We found, to our surprise, that we seem to work somewhat seamlessly together. I cannot chalk out a ritual (we are both not that organised!), but there must be a method to the madness because we have had 24 books out since then with many more coming up next year.
MN: Well, I don’t think nature writing was a planned choice. But, we’ve both always enjoyed nature. Even now when we’re tired of the speed of our lives, of travel, real and virtual, of the demand of immediate replies to e-mails, of deadlines, we go to a garden or take a leisurely walk to central Delhi where there are a lot of old trees. I think this emotion kind of makes its way into our writing. So, in that sense, most of our writing, in some way, engages with the natural. It does not come from the erudition on the subject but a very emotional space.
There seems to be a dearth of books in children’s literature which explore wildlife…
We don’t think there is that much of a dearth per se. Publishers are venturing into the wildlife space, bringing out diverse perspectives on nature and the environment. Now that WWF India is co-publishing engaging books across age groups, we are sure things will change! Having said that, we feel that though green literature for children today has come a long way and there’s a much wider scope for authors to do different kinds of books in this space, distribution remains a roadblock. There are only a few well-stocked children’s bookstores; in regular bookstores, children’s books get very little space. Very few dailies and children’s magazines carry thoughtful book pages for children’s books. So, we need more bridges that connect publishers and authors with the readers.
In what direction will this book push its readers?
Although the book is on the Nilgiri tahr, the real thrust is on observation and discovery. The purpose of the book is to reinvent the ways of our engagement with our natural environment, tahr in particular, and increase children’s enthusiasm about it. It is an invitation to young readers to put their video games, smartphones or TV remotes down and just look around.
Using a school trip as the warp of the story, we’ve tried to bring the Nilgiris closer to the young readers, so they could experience the magic and mystery of the landscape, the excitement of spotting the various birds and animals, and have a great time in the process. An effort was also made to lead young readers to various resources where they can find more about the tahr and other creatures and can have an engagement with the natural world beyond the book.
Your choice of assigned gender for the protagonist — a girl, who is introverted and inquisitive — is refreshing. Was this a conscious choice?
Yes, it was. We are a two-women partnership called SYLLABLES27. And most people expect boys to be curious and explorative. Not true! We have both been very curious and adventurous children, growing up. I (Arthy) was in a girls’ boarding school in Ooty, where we were constantly looking out for some adventure or the other. We wanted young boys to also see that it is okay to be not always super-brave or super-adventurous. Just that all kids can have fun together.
Do you see such representations becoming a norm in children literature?
They should; without being too obvious. Kids are super-smart; we tend to underestimate them. I am a mother of a boy and have been a teacher at a non-formal school in Goa where I quickly figured out that leading by example was so important — whether it was about climbing a tree, cooking, cleaning a beach or riding a bicycle.
What was your takeaway?
It was a great deal of learning for us. There was a lot about the tahr that we got to know during the process of writing this book. That’s the thing about writing green books for children, you work on the subject, you research and internalise all the information and then you distil that information for young readers in a fun, engaging manner — and in that process, you are a changed person. You start looking at nature and its many creatures with new eyes. That’s what this book has done for us.
A peek into your next book…
Our next book for WWF is still in the planning stage. The book per se, is a secret! It has been a marathon task researching it, exhilarating too. All we can say is that it is about a phenomenal human being that we have been fortunate enough to have an opportunity to know everything about.
To place orders, write to: edu@wwfindia.net