We waited keenly to meet up with India’s first children’s fantasy adventure novelist in the café where the sound of beaten omelets and brewing tea made up for some good background music.
Mrs. Roopa Pai (Read Roopa Pai Biography), arrived in high spirits, upbeat, almost immediately justifying why she is so popular among kids. We struck that question off our list then and there, for she had answered it already!
She initiated the conversation with a “So, you are engineers?” Our nods got us an “Oh, me too!” reply and we exchanged a few “engineering giggles”. We shared our engineering woes and soon were engaged in a full-fledged conversation.
Talk the Walk: BangaloreWalks
I left Bangalore after marriage and came back to this city after 12 years, during which I had lived in Delhi, Bombay, London and the US. Both my husband and I were keen to do something in the area of tourism and/or children’s edutainment. We had both enjoyed walking tours in many cities of the world, particularly London, so offering ‘history and heritage walks’ seemed a natural thing to do, except that no one, not even us, really perceived our home-town Bangalore as a ‘historic’ or ‘heritage’ city. But once we started our research, we were pleasantly surprised at the wealth of stories which had shaped the city. We felt that those stories needed to be told, and BangaloreWalks was born.
BangaloreWalks celebrates Bangalore. I am a proud Kannadiga and a Bangalorean. Part of the reason for this initiative is not only introducing our beautiful city to non-locals and visitors but also to tell the localities the stories of their own city which they might not be aware of.
Kid’s (Kids’) Superstar
I always knew I wanted to write. Write for children. My articles began to appear in print when I was still in Class XII, in the ‘middles’ column of Deccan Herald.
I always wanted to be a teacher too, but that hasn’t happened yet. Right now, I get my teaching highs from the history and nature walks I conduct for school children through BangaloreWalks. Conducting walks for kids and teenagers is challenging because you have to keep them constantly engaged. We try innovative methods of teaching history, using fun and games and music and dance.
I love the challenge of breaking down complicated concepts in science to make them easy for kids to understand (Roopa’s bestselling ‘Sister, Sister’ series, published by Pratham Books, tackles concepts like gravity, rotation of the earth, scattering of light, and electricity), and the challenge of making history, always considered a boring subject, fascinating to kids.
Turning Author
I started my writing career with the children’s magazine, Target, in Delhi, and learnt the craft of children’s writing from my wonderful editor, Vatsala Kaul-Banerjee. Ten years after I had moved on, she called me out of the blue and asked me to think about writing a children’s fantasy series for the publishing house Hachette, where she was now Editorial Director of Children’s Books.
I was sceptical about my ability to write a fantasy series, and didn’t give it much thought until she called again a few months later to ask if I was ready to start. I decided to take the plunge and think about it seriously. I was in Hampi at that time, and had been fascinated by the compass with the Ashtadiggajas on the ceiling of the Virupaksha Temple. I decided to write an eight-part fantasy series that would be completely Indian in spirit. I envisioned the story happening in an alternate universe called Mithya, which had eight worlds at the eight different points of a compass. And that is how Taranauts was born.
I was lucky to have got a series because children get attached to characters. One of the ways we kept readers engaged was by having contests where kids were asked to come up with names for Mithyan creatures and food and so on, which would then be used in future books.
Thus, she let out a writing tip for all of us.
Mouth the thought: Taranauts
There are some challenges in writing and promoting children’s fiction in English in India. Here are two of them.
Writing challenge: Here’s a simple one: What should a character call his or her mother? There are so many names Indian children across the country use to address their mothers unlike in the US or UK, where Mommy or Mummy is used by all. That’s why I decided to set the books in a different universe with different rules.
Marketing challenge: My readers are in the age group of 8 to 12 years. This is the age-group that does not use social media. One can promote books for younger kids by reaching their parents through social media. One can promote books for teenagers by reaching them directly through social media. But the 8-12 age group is tricky.
Here are some Taranaut snippets for KYS readers:
1. The 3 main characters are Zvala (From jwala, meaning fire), Zarpa(From sarpa, meaning serpent) and Tufan (from toofan, meaning storm).
2. The hired vehicles in which the characters travel are called Cabambas, derived from cab and the good old Indian Ambassador car.
3. The villain in one of the books is called Mog Ambow derived from Mogambo.
4. One of the dishes the characters love to eat is called a samchori, derived from samosa and kachori.
5. Tufan’s brother in the book has very good hand-eye coordination while playing a Mithyan game and so his nickname is Dead-Eye Darbin where Darbin is an anagram for Bindra, our Olympic ace-shooter.
Oh, we leave it to you to guess what Taranauts is derived from!
So, there is a lot of thought process which has gone behind the characters in the book. The kids might not understand all of it now but once they do, I hope they will get a good laugh out of it.
Advice for a fellow writer.
Write every day. Have a routine. Never say, “One day, I will write.” because that is never going to happen.
Any art has to be practiced. Any outcome is the product of all the hours of practice you have put in. Generally, it is said that writers should maintain a diary. I have never kept one but I make sure I get some assignment and keep writing.
You know what is the best cure for a writer’s block? A looming deadline!
So, have deadlines. Keep writing.
Author, Tour guide, Mother…
I enjoy all of it equally. The trick is to savour whatever you are doing. Being a tour guide needs me to be outward, outspoken and engaging. Being a writer needs me to be a little reclusive.
I think I can write only when I have deadlines. My work-time is from 9am to 3pm, until my kids come home from school. The door bell ringing, the cook asking what to prepare, I love those interruptions because they are my legitimate breaks from work. So, basically yes, I love balancing all my worlds.
Ideas: Ideals: India
I think the Indian education system should maintain its rigour. A lot of schools are dismantling and dismissing the curriculum as too much pressure for the kids. But the kids need some pressure, their intellects need to be challenged.
Kids today have a lot more exposure to the world, and access to information and knowledge. However, while information is readily available, children still need someone who can interpret that information for them. They need an adult who can curate it for them. Teachers shouldn’t get psyched and shut the kids down when they question them. Teachers and parents should go along with the kids on their journey of enquiry and discovery. My fear is that there aren’t enough adults who understand this and guide the kids through the right channels.
As parents, we need to be our children’s friends, but we also need to be their parents, responsible adults who set boundaries within which it is safe for them to operate. We need to give them the freedom to run and fly but at the same time, be there to pull them back on track from time to time. In the end, it all boils down to keeping the parent-child communication channel open.
We are posting this interview of our ‘tara'(star) when her eighth and final book of the Taranaut series is being launched. KnowYourStar.com (KYS) heartily congratulates Mrs. Roopa Pai and wishes her success in all her endeavors.