Payal is Lost
by a group of children from a classroom session by Muskaan and illustrated by Kanak Shashi
“Payal is Lost” by a group of children (Manjana, Aanam, Rangespal, Deepu, Nitisha, Binota, Meenasingh, Kumkum, Vinod, Surendra, Bhanuraj, Dilbaras, Aasif, Pradyamani, Raja, Rajveer, Diya, Savita Sohit, Shashikala, Maheen Mirza and Shivani Taneja) from a classroom session by Muskaan and illustrated by Kanak Shashi. Published by Eklavya. A book which resulted from a session of six to eight year olds who were asked to imagine a situation of their friend getting lost.
Muskaan conducts various classroom sessions to encourage children to express their thoughts. In one such session, a group of six to eight year olds were asked to imagine that their friend Payal was lost. They had to come up with all the possibilities of what had happened to her. Where could she be? They formed groups of 3-4 children and discussed all the options. Their imagination was so vivid and Payal could be in so many situations according to each one of them. The book has used some of what they said or drew to express their opinions and thoughts.
The children lived in Bhopal. So the places and the possibilities of what might have happened to Payal are all based there. The setting of the story is a basti (slum). All the people living there know each other and spend a lot of time together. It is a close knit community who live from hand to mouth doing odd jobs here and there. Some of the children started guessing where Payal could be based on who she might be with. They went around those places looking for her and asking people if they had seen Payal. But no one knew where she was.
Did they find Payal? Where was she? What was she doing? Had she found some work? Had she even realised that her friends were looking for her? The story gives us a peek into the lives of these children. They take us on the hunt for Payal and we get a glimpse of their surroundings.
My 7.5 year old liked the book and was trying to guess where Payal could be. It was so exciting for him to turn the pages and know what happened to her. We loved checking out the drawings made by the children that have been shown in the endpapers. What imaginary situations they came up with! Thank you Vidya Mani of Funky Rainbow for recommending this book.
Recommended Age
The book is apt for children aged 5+.
Where to buy from?
The publishers Eklavya here.
An independent indie bookstore, Funky Rainbow, from where I buy many of my books.