The Village with a Long Name
by Asha Nehemiah and illustrated by Suvidha Mistry
“The Village with a Long Name” by Asha Nehemiah and illustrated by Suvidha Mistry. Published by CBT. A lovely story filled with tongue twister names. Starting off with the name of the village itself as the title suggests.
Thaiyum-thatha-thaiyum-thaha-taka-dhimi-chimmy-shimmy-pur. Well this is not a Bharatnatyam beat or a set of meaningless words. This is the name of the village where the story is set. Also not the only long word in the book. Even the streets of the village have long names like “Anarkhali-masakali-kathakali-kuchipudi-kolattam-mohiniattam-pattinam”, “Kabaddi-babbadi-khokho-tohko-bambaram-nambaram-saddaguddu-chadaguddu-nagar” etc.
Imagine the plight of the people wanting to go there or write letters to someone staying there. I mean such long names. One would surely get mixed up trying to find their way. Anyone who needed help with directions would stop at the tea shop and check with Shekar who was the owner there. Or check with Gowri, the postwoman, who would go around the village with a bag full of extra long envelopes (what else when the name of the village is so long).
Things worked fine in this manner until a van loaded with sweets meant for the wedding in the village head’s home landed up in the school by mistake. Well not so bad huh 🤔 The school children were very happy but the village head was very angry. Who wouldn’t be! She ordered signboards to be put up everywhere so that such blunders wouldn’t happen. What follows next is a series of misadventures.
One thing I found very interesting and loved was how women don a lot of the roles in the book, like the postwoman (who goes around with her baby delivering letters), the village head, etc.
Loved reading this simple and charming story with my (then) six year old. We found the names very funny. Asha Nehemiah is now one of our favourite authors! And the seven year old is such a fan now of Asha Nehemiah that he keeps asking for her books :) This was one of those irresistible (for me) recommendations from Vidya Mani in one of Funky Rainbow‘s Buzzaars. Apt for children aged 5+.
Where to buy from?
An independent indie bookstore, Funky Rainbow, from where I buy many of my books.