The Girl Who Loved to Sing

by Lavanya Karthik

“The Girl Who Loved to Sing” by Lavanya Karthik. Published by Duckbill. A delightful and inspirational short biography of Teejan Bai, the world famous Pandavani singer from Chhattisgarh.

The story starts off with Teejan Bai performing on stage in Tokyo in 2018. She is singing a story from Mahabharata which is filled with sadness, pain, hardship and struggle. It could well be her own life story. The author then takes us through the childhood story of Teejan Bai and how she had to fight her way out for getting freedom to sing.

When Teejan was born in Ganiyari village of Chhattisgarh in 1956, there was no rejoicing or happiness. The villagers didn’t expect her to live long as they felt that she was weak and her voice was a mere whisper. But she proved them utterly wrong! Her voice turned out to be the strongest of all. She loved singing. Despite all the criticism from her family and community, she continued singing. Her mother got her married off at the tender age of 12 to teach her a lesson. But Teejan didn’t accept this meekly. She came back and started learning the art of Pandavani singing from her maternal grandfather secretly. Read the book to know about how she defied the norms in her community (Paardhi tribe) and ended up becoming a world renowned singer. She went on to win several awards and accolades.

My eight year old enjoyed reading the book with me. He was aghast to know about the struggle that Teejan Bai had to go through. He just couldn’t accept that girls were subject to such discrimination. He was amazed by her grit, courage, passion and determination to pursue singing despite all the setbacks. The book is part of the “Dreamers” series from Duckbill. We loved the illustrations which reminded us of the book “Poonachi Lost in the Forest” as both use just three colours (Black, White and Red) and create a magical effect. This was our third book featuring Paardhis, the first two being “The Trickster Bird” and “The Gular Flower”. This book however is a true story! Lovely to see such personalities being introduced through books like these.

As always, the book made us go and read up more about Pandavani style of singing. It is a folk style of singing where stories about the Pandavas of Mahabharata are sung accompanied by musical instruments. Typically Bhima who is one of the Pandava brothers is the hero of the stories. This form of theatre is popular in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. Traditionally this form of art was practiced only by men. Teejan Bai and Jhaduram Dewangan are the most renowned Pandavani singers.

Recommended Age

The book is apt for children aged 6 and above.

Reasons to Read

For an inspirational story about Teejan Bai who defied all odds and fought for freedom to pursue her passion through her immense courage and determination.

Where to buy from?

An independent indie bookstore, Funky Rainbow, from where I buy many of my books.