Writing for kids is no child’s play. That’s what author Manorama Jafa realised after writing 70 books, 600 stories, several research papers and conducting national and international workshops on children’s literature for over four decades.
An authority on children’s literature internationally, Manorama has been titled “Living Treasure of Children’s Books in India” at prestigious Nami Book Festival, Korea recently.
“While there is a lot of appreciation for children’s literature in the West, back home in India, there is almost no acknowledgement or support for the same,” says the soft spoken author, who over the years has not managed to take the children’s literature of the country on the international podium, but is working overtime to hone the skills of the budding authors by conducting special training workshops for them.
“Indian literature for children is rich in stories from traditional and folk tales, but there is a dearth of creative stories. We need to move ahead of raja rani ki kahani, and tell kids the stories of their times, in new ways,” says Manorama, wife of a former bureaucrat, who began writing only after the birth of her two children.
“The disappointment that I could not find any good recreational books for my kids served as an impetus for me to take up the mission of writing books myself,” says Manorama, who went further to take up a course in “writing for children” in America. She hasn’t stopped since.
Now Manorama is all excited about her Book Therapy project for children with special needs. “A book can become a tool to counter disequilibrium faced by children in conflict, personal traumas and disabilities,” says Manorama, as she reads from her book I Am Sona, which aims at spreading AIDS awareness among teenagers, and books she brought out for conflict-affected Afghan children.
“Books can reduce stress, instill positive values and build hope for the future,” she adds. But given their busy schedule and Internet and multiple gamming options, do book-reading habits among children still hold relevance? Manorama offers an interesting take. “Well, when we talk of the above, we aren’t talking of the millions of kids who live in the other India, who don’t have access to basic amenities like electricity, leave alone TV and Internet.”
That’s not all. She along with her husband founded the first school in Maushampur, a backward village in UP in late 80s.
“I have also adopted three villages where I distribute books among kids so that they develop an interest in reading,” says Manorama, who has been conducting workshops under Association of Writers and Illustrators for Children since 1976 of which she’s the founder.