CHENNAI: I want my child to be an architect. I want my child to be a surgeon. I want my child to be an engineer. The list goes on. These words echo endlessly, towering over us like dark huge shadows since childhood till we don’t exactly know when. Is it acceptable if we deviate from parents’ expectations? Is it normal if a child finds peace in doing embroidery? Is it still fine for a boy to love embroidery?
The sturdy and stubborn roots of patriarchy have seeped in deep and become a major part of how the world functions. Appealing to both young readers and adults, ZardoZi, stitched with love, a book by Debasmita Dasgupta, opens a world that questions gender norms, that otherwise are ingrained in our minds like clingy monsters.
Quite strange yet normalised — each activity we do is gendered as masculine and feminine. Debasmita says, “It is to start questioning the things that we have been told to do. Questioning doesn’t mean you are being a rebel, but understanding what you are doing.” She urges to make choices on one’s experiences rather than just doing something because everyone is.
On the genesis of this book, Debasmita acknowledges that Rajat Mittal, the founder of the project Boyish, who approached her to write a book as part of it, was the main reason behind the publication. The project stands on the belief that gender norms impact not just girls, but boys, too, and they need to be reinterpreted for a gender-equitable society.
While there are pronounced discussions on girls breaking the stereotypes, there is a dire need for more works for boys and men who are caught in the pressure of masculine norms, to be ‘strong’, in many cases, leading to repression of emotions.The book, interspersed with narration and illustrations with minimum colours, is a visual feast for the readers — giving importance to the moods of each situation and emotions of the characters.
The author who also illustrated the book, says, “The colour palette is always chosen based on the emotional arc of the story. In the initial pages, there is more darker tones, that conveys Zi, the protagonist’s emotional space, where he has lost something, and there is a lot of noise around, where his own voice is not heard.” As we leaf through the pages, we see brighter and vibrant colours, “where there is more hope, he is going through a journey of self discovery. He is able to see another perspective.”
None of us know how our memory could act as a breeding ground for ideas and has the potential to be spun into a greater artwork. ZardoZi is an offshoot of er personal experiences and the surroundings Debasmita had seen growing up. Recalling an incident when she was young, the author says, “We had embroidery classes at school. I was terrible at it, but I remember my cousin, (he) was really good at it.” The book, it was probably an attempt to emulate this memory of an utopian world of childhood, free from gender norms.
Having spent her childhood in Kolkata, Debasmita says that she wanted to braid multilingualism and regional dialects, while retaining a local essence. While writing the book, Debasmita says that using a language for children, was a deliberate process, which involved finding out the words and phrases that today’s children use.
The story that is a perfect accumulation of personal experiences, imagination, and research, had seen phases of character building. On the writing process, she says, “Craft is as important as art. It first starts with a concept; then research. There were many ideas brewing, I try to collate all of them. I have a ZardoZi notebook, where I collect the ideas. I then visualise the characters, make rough sketches. I do a lot of visual research. I need to feel the character. I write short story for each character. They talk to me and I talk back to them, too. I get visual descriptions, and then move to the next character.”
As a piece of advice, she urges parents to support the kids in choosing what they want to pursue, and make them believe that they have the agency to be what they want to.