New on StoryWeaver:

'Moonlight in the Sea' (written by Kartik Shanker, illustrated by Prabha Mallya, and published by the Dakshin Foundation) tells the story of Fatima who lives on an idyllic island in the Lakshadweep, watched over by Nihla, the moon. It introduces young readers to the underwater world of colourful corals, fascinating fish, mysterious manta rays, grizzled old turtles and dancing dolphins.

Learn more about the people and places that inspired the making of 'Moonlight in the Sea', in this blogpost by Kartik Shanker, author, ecologist, and founder trustee of the Dakshin Foundation:

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As an aspiring wildlife biologist, you learn pretty early on not to expect National Geographic scenes when you visit a forest. It may take months to see your first elephant, years to see a tiger. It took me weeks of turtle walks to see my first olive ridley. But, put on a mask and a snorkel and stick your head under water at a good reef, and it looks pretty much like that last NGS show you watched.

I still remember the first time I went snorkeling in the Lakshadweep in 2001 – ‘the flurry of colour, the shock of shapes’. We were conducting sea turtle surveys there, and I spent every spare moment paddling around in the waters of the Kavaratti lagoon. A decade later, as part of Dakshin Foundation, we started a project on the tuna fishery in the islands. We monitored tuna using a participatory monitoring programme with the fishers, and one of our researchers, Mahima Jaini, conducted in-water surveys of baitfish. Around the same time, my student, Anne Theo had started her research on mixed species groups of reef fish.

At Agatti, the two of them would use Jaffer’s fishing boat to conduct their dives. Throughout their time there, his support for their field work and dive surveys was invaluable. Jaffer looked after them as he would his family. In the evening, he and his wife would visit with their daughter Nihla, then an adorable 3-year-old. His boat was named after her, Nihla Fatima.  The gentle ethos of the Lakshadweep, the still waters of the lagoons, the richness of its marine life, the solitary charm of Suheli all cried out for a story to be told.

Nihla inspired that story – about a little girl in the Lakshadweep, and the possibility that such girls could one day become marine biologists like Anne and Mahima.

I visited them frequently – happy times were spent diving off Jaffer’s boat. One time, we dived off Bangaram, saw some sharks, and then ate the most delectable fish biryani cooked on the boat.  Another time, the three of us made a trip to Suheli, an uninhabited island several hours by boat from Kavaratti. In 1979, my mentor, Satish Bhaskar, had spent 5 months there by himself during the monsoon to survey green turtles.  Many of these memories found their way into the narrative.

And then Prabha Mallya made the story come alive with her amazing and evocative illustrations. In my story, Nihla, the moon was a quirky character; through Prabha’s illustrations, she became a co-star. My niece’s daughter Ariana, age 2, was heard to say ‘When I grow up, I wanna be Nihla moon!" I guess that says it all.

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Click to read 'Moonlight in the Sea' 

A big thank you, Kartik, Prabha and the Dakshin Foundation, for open licensing this wonderful book and making it available on StoryWeaver!

Illustrations in this post are by Prabha Mallya, from 'Moonlight in the Sea', written by Kartik Shanker, published by the Dakshin Foundation.

Kartik Shanker is a founder trustee of Dakshin Foundation. An ecologist by training, Kartik has interests in both mountain and marine systems. His work with marine turtles in the last 20 years has led to broader interests in coastal and marine conservation. Currently, he serves as an Associate Professor at the Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES), Indian Institute of Science (IISc.), Bangalore. In addition to academic research, he is also interested in strategies to improve environmental education and the public understanding of science. This interest encouraged Kartik to establish Current Conservation, a magazine that bridges conservation and art by bringing together research professionals, writers and artists from different parts of the world. He is the author of the book From Soup to Superstar, a historical account of sea turtle conservation in India. In his spare time, Kartik also seeks to distract young minds through children’s stories which include Lori’s Magical Mystery, Turtle Story, The Adventures of Philautus Frog, and Moonlight in the Sea.

Dakshin Foundation is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation. Their mission is to inform and advocate conservation and natural resource management, while promoting and supporting sustainable livelihoods, social development and environmental justice. They adopt interdisciplinary approaches in our research and conservation interventions, drawing from the fields of ecology, conservation biology, sociology, economics, and law. Their work aims at building community capacity for conservation and enhancing community engagement in environmental decision-making. Their goal is to promote ecologically and socially appropriate approaches to conservation and management in coastal, marine and mountain ecosystems in India.

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Saurashtra is a language spoken by a group that migrated from Gujarat two centuries ago to cities like Madurai, Chennai and Tanjore. The script for this language is no longer in use and while it does follow the Devanagiri system, many native speakers cannot read Hindi. The only languages available to write Saurashtram are English and Tamil. Pavithra Solai Jawahar asked us to add her mother language Saurasthra and has been busy translating stories and creating a book of rhymes in the language. 

In recent times, I found myself to be very jealous of people who speak Indian languages like Tamil and Gujarati. The reason: There were these lovely publishers in India, who were bringing out beautiful books in regional languages for children and young adults. But there were none in my language, my mother tongue, Saurashtra. Belonging to a group of linguistic minorities, I believe when your language has a very limited literature for children, it is an injustice done both to the language and the children who miss out reading books in their mother tongue. And when you read in your mother tongue, you also take pride in your heritage. A sense of belonging, you can’t find elsewhere.

That’s why I started to translate children stories into Saurashtra. And it wouldn’t have been possible without the help of Pratham Books StoryWeaver. They graciously added Saurashtra onto the platform as a part of their Freedom to Read campaign.

There is something about a child’s imagination. You can never put a lid on it. It is unparalleled in a way, you and I, can’t imagine. So when I started to translate my first story, it was this fear that took over me. Will I do justice to this pure, boundless imagination of the child reading it? Also, Saurashtra is a dialect. A language whose script is in disuse. And so, I had to resort to transliterating Saurashtra into English. A language which would be easier to read for the children to read.

I have translated two books, as of now.

   

(Click on the above links to read these stories)

I have also created a “rhymes” book in Saurashtra, using illustrations from StoryWeaver. You can can read it here.

Now that I am able to create online story books in Saurashtra, my next challenge is to spread the word about it. And that’s where I discovered the  next tricky thing about my mother tongue. Saurashtra has several regional variances, that my transliteration couldn’t cover. (The variation of Saurashtra I speak is different from my dad’s. Yes, that’s how it is!) I am in the process of getting inputs from the Saurashtra community, on how best this can be handled. Also, I now realise, that I should print these translations as physical books which can help engage children with the language better. You can expect more Saurashtra storybooks from me and if you know of any Saurashtrians or if you are one (Avo, avo!), please do share these books and spread the word.

You love your mother tongue. Let it live! :)

Pssst: Since you have read the whole blog, here is another interesting story book, I created with my spouse, for our nephew. It was about a certain SpaceBoy who jumps to the moon to dance with a dinosaur!

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Last year, during the launch of StoryWeaver, we reached out to Guru Baliga at the World Konkani Centre who helped us get Konkani (in Devanagiri script) on to the platform. A few weeks later, we had another Konkani story on thanks to Sujata Noronha (who runs Bookworm, Goa) and her friend Jose Salvador Fernandes. This time, the script was Roman. 

To us, this was an exciting and hopeful entry into the world of Konkani. 

More recently, through a grant from The Oracle Giving Initiative we have been able  to create 20 STEM titles and make them available in 10 languages under the CC-BY 4.0 license. 

The 20 stories woven from the Oracle Grant project, they have feet. Feet that are meant to travel the length and breadth of this country and beyond. That’s the dream. That’s our dream for each and every tale that has ever been born.  

The endeavour to translate these stories in 9 other languages found us connecting with storytellers pan India. We were on the lookout for translators with an inherent understanding of the delicate world of children’s literature. Faced with this mildly daunting task, we turned to the community for support. And they came forward eagerly, to weave these stories with us in many, many languages.  

While these stories were being translated and reviewed across languages like Odia, Bengali, Kannada, Marathi…we wanted to hear these stories in Konkani voices too. Finding ourselves at the Konkan shores, we knocked on the doors of our friends at the Konkani Bhasha Mandal (Goa) who responded with enthusiasm and positivity. A couple of mails and some very quick reverts later, our Konkani captain Tanvi Bambolkar hopped on board for our Oracle odyssey. I call her the Konkani Activist. Armed with her energy and the passion of creating more and more stories in a language she strongly feels for, Tanvi and a like-minded Konkani comrade, Hrishikesh Kadam, translated about a dozen odd stories for us.  

There's a palpable energy and passion in the Konkani community across age-groups which Tanvi explains: "I think the main reason for it is we feel that there is a lot to be done for Konkani and we cannot waste time. So we try to give as much as possible in whatever ways we can." Perhaps this is how they both managed to carve out time while juggling examinations, paper setting and jobs at AIR on the side. 

                                                                                                         

And no, they didn’t stop at this. Tanvi introduced us to other Konkani Bhasha Mandal gems - Ms. Ratnamala Divkar and Ms. Kiran Budkuley – who not only ensured that they themselves signed up but also helped us with more leads of other Konkan linguists to collaborate with. 

Ratna personally spoke to each and every contact on her list, and set the wheels in motion for us. Sunetra Jog lent us her professionalism, Prashanti Talpankar her inimitable child-like enthusiasm; Chetan Acharya his diligence; and Nayana Adarkar’s quiet work ethic saw this dream through. Yogini Acharya, Sandesh Prabhudesai, Rama Murkunde and many more who signed up; we couldn’t have done this without these language stars. 

We also had stalwarts like Mr. Ramesh Veluskar (Sahitya Academy Award winner) coming in on this project and helping us raise the bar many notches through his wisdom and clarity.

“The Konkan community in Goa is so small - its not even a district. At home, we hear Konkani. Our children are growing up with Konkani. We don’t have to forget our own language just because we are learning another language.” shared Mr. Veluskar with StoryWeaver. “A mother tongue for any individual is a natural expression, its spirit comes from within. Every other language that one learns as we grow is an acquired understanding of a new language. The most natural quality of one's expression will reflect coherently in one's mother tongue. That is why there is a need to safeguard and replenish it.”

This collaboration is the fusion of the old with the new. The younger lot has worked on most of the story translations and their seniors have come in as reviewers for their work to help iron out the seams. 

As the end credits are about to roll on this chapter, we have names of 15 Konkani enthusiasts (and counting) of the Konkani Bhasha Mandal, Goa who have made this work. This group has a cognisance of the diminishing footprints of their mother tongue from the children literature landscape. They talk of trying to salvage the special subset; the children’s language that is lovingly nurtured within every language of the world.  The driver is their intuitive understanding of the lacuna that this loss will leave behind in the collective Indian heritage. They are working tirelessly to populate everlasting Konkani contributions in the field of literature, art, philosophy… so that the coming generations do not lose their sense of belonging. 

These Konkani stories are a potent mix of zeal tempered with the wisdom of storytelling and the comfort of the language of one’s origin. 

                                                              

Sometimes, we walk miles only to be able to come back home. And what a homecoming this has been. 

More power to our generous and enthusiastic translators, our sparkling community.

If you'd like to translate stories on StoryWeaver but can't find your language of choice, write to us at [email protected]

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