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Children are not miniature adults. Their world is different from that of the adults. And writing for the children is not child’s play. That’s the basic premise on which Patiala-based writer-poet-critic Dr Darshan Singh Aasht works. Last month, his book Bujho Bacheo Mein Haan Kaun was selected for the Sahitya Akademi Award 2011 for children’s literature.
He has penned over 40 books for children, including Wapsi, a novel in Shahmukhi script that’s being taught at Quaid-i-Azam University at Islamabad in Pakistan. He’s working on a dictionary of children’s literature in Punjabi. The project is sponsored by Punjabi University, Patiala, where incidentally he works as stenographer. "I have seen varied colours of life. In the 1990s, I worked as a daily wager with the (now-defunct) Punjab State Electricity Board," says Aasht. He’s not embarrassed of his past. It’s part of his life. He has accepted it and drawn lessons from it – many of these lessons find a resonance with the characters in his books. Excerpts from an interview: With Potter mania still on, how does regional literature fare? We cannot discount Potter mania. That would mean being out of sync with the literary reality in the children’s world. Yet, we have to agree that regional literature is increasingly making itself visible. Does children’s literature have to be didactic and preachy? Not at all. In fact, it should eschew a preachy tone because sermonising robs the children of the joy of reading. Otherwise also, a book that spells out to-be-learnt lessons underrates the intellect of a child. It fails to tap into the experiential part of the child’s world. I believe that readers of all age groups should draw their own lessons from a book. This means that a writer would have a different level of communication with each reader. Absolutely. That’s the given with books. What do you keep in mind when you write for children? That’s precisely what I keep in mind. My writing is for children. They should be able to relate to it. Children keep alternating between the ‘overkill’ and the ‘insufficiency’ syndromes – the visual overload of television channels, the bombardment of information on the Internet, the abbreviated world of texting and twittering coupled with the children’s own truncated attention span. Altogether, it’s not a book-centric scenario. Books will never lose their value. Readers may find temporary diversions. They may take the path of least cognitive strain. But at the end of the day, there’s no substitute for a ‘good’ book. What is a ‘good’ book? Any book that appeals to our higher self and gives us a glimpse of universal values. You don’t need to be a litterateur to know which book is ‘good’. The judgment is almost instinctive. Have we failed to draw on our folklore? We could have been more innovative. We have a treasure house of folklore. Perhaps, we need to give a contemporary touch to it. Kings and queens may be pass`E9, but the adventures that made their stories exciting can be kept alive. Ecological issues can be very effectively woven into the folklore. Gender stereotypes can be questioned. How important are illustrations for children’s books? Without an illustration, a book is only 50 per cent complete. But we have to factor in the age groups while deciding about the illustrations. Do you relive your childhood when you write? Yes. Is writing for children cathartic? It’s satisfying. It’s cathartic. It’s stress relieving. The clich`E9d question – how is it post-award? An award is the recognition of your work. It has been a long journey for me. There was a time when I had to pay to get my books published. Thankfully, the last few years have seen a change – I have started receiving royalty on my books.
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