CHENNAI: The past month has been one of accolades and appreciation for writer Yes Balabharathi. From chief minister MK Stalin to a host of fellow writers, recognition has been pouring in; ushered in by the grant of Bal Sahitya Puraskar for his children’s novel Marapachi Sonna Rahasiyam.
Bala is ecstatic with the hope that such an acknowledgement would help take this book — and its pertinent subject matter — to more kids. In a country that continues to report a rise in sexual abuse against children and boasts the statistics of a majority of it being perpetrated by people close to the child, Bala’s book treads the delicate arena of comforting a child faced with this very trauma.
Breaking the silence
“This is something that has to be talked about. The story is about how children can fight back against sexual abuse,” he begins. While this might seem like too much to chew on in terms of children’s literature, Bala’s bibliography is proof enough that he thrives in subjects of social concern. For someone who took to children’s books to share the many stories he couldn’t readily do with his autistic son (“I had many stories to tell him but he lives in a world of his own; so I thought I’ll share them with all other children,” Bala had shared in an interview), inclusivity has been an integral part of all his works. His Sundaikai Ilavarasan deftly delves into the matter of untouchability, using young characters and a little bit of magic to drive home the lesson. Marapachi too banks on surrealism to delicately discuss the dangers in a child’s world. A little girl’s marapachi bommai comes to life and helps her aid her friend talk about her abuse and seek the help of her parents.
The idea was to break the silence that children are forced into by their abusers, besides keeping up with the times and ensuring that the conversation around abuse is more relevant, he says. “All abusers seem to be using certain lines with the victims: you can’t tell anyone; if you tell anyone, it’ll bring you shame; they won’t let you go to school; they will beat/scold you. The abuser often happens to be a relative or someone very familiar with the family. When the child sees their parents be on good terms with the abuser, they tend to believe the threats and stay silent. I wanted to break this,” he shares.
Regional recourse
Bala’s two-decade experience in the world of journalism and the many victims of child abuse he got to interview during this period influenced this book and the nuance it demanded. “Times are achanging. We started by saying ‘disabled’; then, we moved to differently-abled. Now, we have started to say persons with disabilities, putting the person in front of the disability. Likewise, world over, the words we use, political stand and approach have been changing. In that context, good touch-bad touch is no longer correct; it’s a matter of safe touch-unsafe touch. But, we still haven’t started using these terms in Tamil or in our context,” he elaborates.
Bala’s Marapachi attempts to introduce these conversations to the Tamizh audience. In his book, the child finds the courage to open up about the abuse to her parents. But who can don the role of the marapachi in real life? “You have two very trusted options — one is the mother and the other, a very good friend,” he suggests, adding that it can be quite the challenge to find who fits the bill of a good friend. At a time when kids’ lives are cluttered with too many pursuits and activities, schooltime friendships rarely grow beyond one’s academic needs; very unlike what it used to be 30 years ago, he surmises. Pointing out that the concept of ‘area friends’ in itself has dwindled, he admits that the pandemic and the schooling-from-home system has brought some positive change to this state of affairs. Alternatively, a very good teacher would be able to help too, he offers.
Giving life to philosophy
Marapachi is also an endeavour to get children more enthusiastic about reading, he says. “Reading is not just about the act of reading or getting to know the story. It’s a tool to learn the language, commonness, and what it means to be a man or woman. There’s much you get out of picture memory,” he points out. Like with most things, children learn to read by mimicking parents who read, he adds.
Taking the practice of bavanai vilayattu (learning by mimicking) to other arenas of life, Bala says that children learn about concepts of inclusivity and compassion by watching their parents.
Having addressed the subject of autism in multiple books, he has presented the many challenges that come with living with the condition and the amount of misconception around it (from people thinking it can spread on contact and inclusive schools turning out to be grounds of discrimination). Setting a child’s response to such unknown territory straight begins with the parents, he says.
“The habit has to begin with the parents themselves. When introducing a child to a person with disability, instead of resorting to dismissive terms like nondi (crippled) or kurudan, parents should offer a reasonable answer to the child’s curious questions, fostering respect. That’s all it takes to raise good human beings,” he suggests. You’ll find more of that philosophy in his many books, and the two in the making as well.