KOCHI: Our children’s literary world is resplendent with globetrotting mouse journos, nerdy wizards, teenage detectives, effervescent elves, wimpy kids and what not. It is sublime fantasy, adventures and quirky yet flawless narrations that affiance children to their books. Pushing aside simple folktales that used to hook them to reading came Blytons, Dahls and Rowlings with their share of gripping tales. Though such books succeeded in imbibing reading in children, they failed to ignite social commitment or environmental awareness in them. At a time, when reading is all about entertainment, comes Jeevanulla Muthu, an anthology of Russian shortstories, translated by Veena M.
Veena, a staunch environmentalist, with a few of her similar minded friends, have been conducting environmental awareness campaigns across the state for children.
“If you want children to understand nature in detail you have to tell them stories about it. Detailed descriptions about it only make them restless that is how I started telling stories from Russian Children’s author Nina Pavlova’s ‘The Live Bead’ in the 1990s,” says Veena. It was for a small environmental magazine ‘Soochimukhi’ that she first translated the stories.
The stories delicately delineated in a style unfamiliar to Malayali readers easily take your breath away with their simplicity and care for fellow beings. The title story Jeevanulla muthu, sneaks you away to little Galya’s world, where even a little bead is alive and kicking. Galya takes her beads - pairs of red, blue and yellow - for walks and chats with them about her day. One day, she stumbles upon a yellow bead, dark, smooth yet slightly heavy in its made. But it did not have a hole. Soon, Galya notices the changes happening to her favourite bead. Her mother, who watches Galya’s fun activities with intrigue, lets her into a little secret - the yellow bead is a living pea seed. Later, Galya watches her playmate grow into a pea plant. It gave more yellow beads to feed an entire family.
“These stories are special because Nina doesn’t separate children from plants or animals. She insists the flora and fauna around us are not inferior to us but just like us. The stories also endorse the fact that whether it is a mouse or a seed, everything in this world has feelings and emotions,” says Veena.
When Malayalam literary world is facing a dearth of good children’s books, Veena’s effort should be lauded. However, she says the reception from the readers was lukewarm.
Without mincing her words she says, “Our educational system doesn’t know what should be given to children. I have approached SCERT and many others with the request of including these stories in their syllabus. But no one gave a heed.”
The book which is a compilation of 11 stories of Nina Pavlova, one by Boris Lakhoder and another by Veena herself, uses original illustrations of ‘Live bead’ and follows the same style and design all through out. With its spellbinding connotations and simple narratives this book easily becomes a compelling read for children of all ages.