The Miracle on Sunderbaag Street
by Nandita da Cunha and illustrated by Priya Kuriyan
“The Miracle on Sunderbaag Street” by Nandita da Cunha and illustrated by Priya Kuriyan. Published by Kalpavriksh. A beautiful story inspired by true events.
Young Zara sits alone in a dump yard on Sunderbaag street every evening despite her Papa’s advice to stay away from there. She is trying to avoid people. The only people who came to the dump yard were the Tod-Phod boy gang who would practice their harsh and hoarse rap music. Zara was thankful that they didn’t notice her.
Things changed one evening when old Miss Gappi landed up in the dump yard. She was Zara’s old craft teacher from school. This was not something to be happy about for Zara as the old lady had the reputation of talking a lot and was popularly called Bak-bak Gappi.
Miss Gappi has some plans up her sleeve and starts coming there every evening. She tries asking Zara to guess what the place was before it got to its current state of a dump yard which no one bothered about. She starts working on transforming things which have been discarded into useful stuff such as bird feeders and bird houses. Initially Zara ignores her but slowly starts getting curious and looks forward to watching her next move.
The dump yard was a garden in Miss Gappi’s younger days. The garden was a riot of colours with the likes of the Gulmohars, Laburnums, Lilies, Marigolds, Musandas and Madhumaltis. Zara is amused by this fact and starts picturing the garden in her dreams.
Miss Gappi not only managed to pique Zara’s interest but also planted an idea in her mind of restoring the place to its former glory. Zara has been grieving her mother’s passing away and become a recluse. Does Zara shed her reclusion and get involved? What steps must she take to restore the garden? Who all does she involve in the mission? How she comes out of her grief and gets involved in this task of transforming the dump yard to the beautiful garden that it used to be forms the rest of the story. The beautiful illustrations complement the story so well.
My (then) six year old loved the story. I had read it a couple of times with him in January, earlier this year. My father passed away this February and the grief has been quite overwhelming for both of us. Suddenly he mentioned that his Ajja (grandfather) has become a star now. I was wondering how he got this idea since I didn’t recollect discussing this. He told me that we had read it in the book where the girl’s mother had a rose plant and she helps set a garden. It took me a while to figure out which book he was talking about. That one line in the story about Zara’s mother leaving her for the stars had made a powerful impression on him!! Thank you Vidya Mani of Funky Rainbow for recommending this gem of a book.
Where to buy from?
The publishers Kalpavriksh here.
An independent indie bookstore, Funky Rainbow, from where I buy many of my books.