When Sarada Akkineni, Reema Gupta and Lakshmi Nambiar decided to bring out a book on women role models in India, they turned to their daughters. “They could hardly come up with a couple of names, some from Bollywood, a few from sports,” recounts Lakshmi. The three Hyderabad-based ladies, who co-founded Caterpillar Wings, curated The Dot That Went for a Walk, 51 short stories inspired by real women achievers of India, which combines storytelling and art in the most engaging manner.
Talking about what led to this book, Sarada says that they were disturbed with the kind of reading material that was available for children. “We realised that fairy tales are read the most, where the damsel in distress waits to be rescued by the prince charming. From the age of three, that’s the social conditioning for the girl child. So our question was, what about other aspirations for young girls? That’s how we thought about changing the narrative of storytelling — from fairy tales to stories of real women,” informs Lakshmi.
Right from queen and warrior Rani Laxmi Bai, to lawyer and activist Ela Bhatt, sarpanch Chhavi Rajawat and actress Deepika Padukone, the book contains stories of women who have left their mark in their fields. Nation builders, pioneers in their chosen areas, career women et al — find themselves in the tome. While storytelling forms one part of it, the other significant ingredient are the illustrations by 51 women artists, which accompany the stories.
Sarada Akkineni, Lakshmi Nambiar, Deepika Padukone and Reema Gupta at the launch of the book
“We believe that when a kid looks at the stories and the art, it will ignite something inside him/her. They will be exposed to various mediums of art, the ways in which the artist have represented them etc. That exposure will help them in the long term,” believes Lakshmi, who also runs the Shrishti Art Gallery in Hyderabad. The immediate plan for the book is to make it reach out to rural areas and government schools. Telugu and Hindi translations of the book are in the works, and the plan is to include Malayalam and Kannada as well.
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