All Free

by Mamata Pandya and illustrated by Srividya Natarajan

“All Free” by Mamata Pandya and illustrated by Srividya Natarajan. Published by Tulika and part of the under the banyan series. This one is a folk tale from Gujarat. Like I mentioned in one of my previous posts, we love the six books from this series that we managed to lay our hands on. The other two seem to be out of print unfortunately. 

This hilarious story is about a miserly man called Bhikhubhai. One day he felt like eating some fresh coconut. Well there was nothing wrong about it. But there was a small problem. There were no coconuts at his home. His wife Labhuben asked him to go to the market and get a coconut if he wanted to eat it. Now Bhikubhai did not like to spend money. But the temptation was too hard to resist. Off he went to the market and tried bargaining to no avail. The shopkeeper asked him to go to the big market where coconuts would be available for the price that he wanted. Off he went as he did not want to pay more money. 

When he reached the big market, they were offering the coconut at the price that he had mentioned earlier. But now Bhikubhai wanted the coconut for even lesser amount. This continues till he goes from the big market to the harbour to the coconut grove. Did he finally manage to get a coconut? How much did he pay in the end? The illustrations have been inspired by the painted paper scrolls used by the Garoda storytellers in Northern Gujarat. 

My son has loved this story from the time he was 3.5 years old. We had been to the Bangalore Storytelling Festival in 2017. Kiran Shah and Jeeva Raghunath had given a stellar performance of this story. My son hasn’t forgotten it till date. He still calls this the “Kopra Pak” story. Kiranji rocked as Bhikubhai craving for some “kopra pak” and Jeevaji was superb as Labhuben. When Vidya Mani recommended this book in one of Funky Rainbow’s buzzaars, I couldn’t resist buying it!