|
 Intense
pauses and angst-ridden prose are not for Mala Mahesh. She doesn't take
herself too seriously though her work is marked by a studied thoroughness
and an understanding of the audience. The Story of Painting for Young
Readers (Har-Anand) is the product of a hunt that ended in frustration.
When Mahesh, 35, set off to buy a book on the history of art for her 11-year-old
nephew blessed with an artistic bent of mind, she did not quite think
the journey would be so fruitless. While most of the material was informative,
she found it too boring to keep a young mind interested. The thought of
writing a book crossed her mind, but was shrugged off almost instantly.
Though she had seven years' experience editing an in-house magazine for
her husband's cargo firm and some rambling stories from her younger days,
she knew this was not quite the same thing. A shift from Mumbai's cluttered
suburbs to Singapore's swanky Arcadia Road gave her time to visit libraries
and bring back tomes to ruminate on. Eventually, it led to the 80-pager.
Mahesh's commerce background and a peripheral learning in art has not
robbed the work of its depth. Instead, it has even removed the aura of
elitism, if any, that prevents children from pursuing art. A tasteful
selection of pictures and nuggets of history spice up the volume. "Beyond
a point, even I would go off to sleep while researching,'' she confesses.
Obviously personal experience has proved invaluable in putting together
the manuscript. But it was only after her two best friends gave it the
go ahead that she mustered the courage to take it to a publisher. Two
rejections later, Mahesh gave it a last shot and succeeded. She giggles
when asked if she feels like a writer. "I've just learnt that you
can do whatever you want once you put your mind to it.'' Next she'll be
tackling short fiction and historical adventures for children which are
educative without being drudging. And what did her nephew think of the
book? He loved it, she says smilingly.
-Himanshi Dhawan
 
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CURRENT
ISSUE APRIL 22, 2002
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