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The new Nonsense
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Anushka Ravishankar, a children’s writer who specialises in nonsense verses, has penned two new books
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PARTNER IN RHYME Anushka
“His ears were too large
His nose too long
His shape was quite odd
And his colour all wrong.”
That, in case you were wondering, is an elephant in the throes of an existential crisis. You see, he grew up amongst a herd of buffalos, and now he’s not quite sure if he’s an elephant or a buffalo. And in the hands of Anushka Ravishankar, the award-winning children’s verse writer, his story has been transformed into a series of lively, quirky rhymes.
Charming illustrations
It’s called “Elephants Never Forget!” and is one of the two new books the writer has recently released through Tara Publishing. Like her other 15 publications with Tara, they’re picture books, with every page containing a wealth of charming illustrations (German illustrator Christiane Pieper has done the drawings for “Elephants”).
“In a picture book, the words and the images shouldn’t say the same thing,” says Anushka. “So there’s always a close collaboration between the writer and artist to get the right mix and that’s half the fun.”
The other half of the fun is, of course, writing the rhymes themselves. “Writing verse can be challenging but it’s liberating too,” she says. “My theory is that the part of your brain that focuses on logic is busy with the rhyming, and that frees up the rest to come up with whackier stuff!”
But it isn’t easy — as an editor, Anushka is aware that too much randomness or too many trite rhymes can make the verses fall flat. “That’s why there aren’t very many people doing it,” she comments. “But there’s such satisfaction when something rhymes and makes the sense you want it to.”
For her other book, “To Market! To Market!” Anushka has collaborated with Auroville-based Italian artist Emanuele Scanziani. It tells the story of a little girl who visits the market at Pondicherry, and features some vivid, brilliantly coloured illustrations by Scanziani.
“Sometimes, parents are concerned that picture books contain such few words on each page — they want their children’s vocabulary to improve,” says Anushka. “But they forget that kids read differently — they pore over the pages again and again, they see every little detail and their imaginations take over.”
Over the years, Anushka has become well-known internationally for her Dr. Seuss-like nonsense verses for young children — she was invited to represent Indian children’s literature at the 2006 Frankfurt Book fair.
But at the end of the day, nothing’s more satisfying than hearing about her little fans. “There’s a boy who doesn’t sleep without ‘Tiger on a tree’ by his bedside and wants it read to him every night — his parents probably hate me!” she says laughing.
DIVYA KUMAR
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