Let the light in
Tanu Shree Singh talks about her book Darkless. The interview was published in Sakal Times
Darkless. If you are in a hurry, you are bound to read and mutter to yourself, Darkness. Let us tell you that it’s a common enough mistake, surrounded as we are by situations that are anger and sorrow inducing.
Why blame Ani who is awake one night when the moon shines on and little specks of light dance on the ceiling? In the morning, when the sun peeps in, the boy whispers, ‘It’s dark. Still dark.’ When Nani exclaims that it’s a bright, sunny day, just right for ice cream, Ani keeps quiet. It seems that everything has lost its colour.
Why is the boy so dispirited? It’s because Ani is missing his Mumma. ‘I wish she comes home,’ he whispers to Dobby, his dog. And, when he sees the familiar car, Ani rushes inside his home and straight into her arms. Mumma is home, but her hair is gone...She is ill with cancer and that’s why Ani is desolate.
But with mum’s arrival, life suddenly looks hopeful. ‘I was scared you’d never come back.’ Mumma holds Ani. ‘I am here now,’ she says. ‘And so are Dobby, Nani and your friends.
‘As long as you let others love you, you will be okay,’ she says.
‘Even if you are not there?’
‘Yes’.
This poignant tale written by Tanu Shree Singh and published by Penguin Random House, is quite different from other books written for children. Most books tip toe around the subjects of illness and try to keep the end positive. But not Darkless.
The author says, “Negatives are as much a part of life as positives. We unnecessarily protect kids when they need the whole spectrum of emotions and situations to be able to cope with everything that life throws at them.”
Singh is an Assistant Professor in Psychology, and has completed her studies in Positive Psychology, a relatively new branch of the subject. When asked if his work on parenting and studies in Positive Psychology helped her write the picture book, she replies, “More than work, I think life experiences in different roles as a student, teacher, parent, wife and a friend helped me write this. I have seen people suffer in silence. I have suffered quietly. And the only thing that pulls us out is letting in the light of love, be it a friend, a parent, a pet or people you work with. Even a random smile exchanged in a market goes a long way.”
In a few lines complemented extremely well by Sandhya Prabhat’s illustrations, Singh has captured Ani’s feelings and his Mumma’s sentiments.
How long did you actually take to pen those few lines, we ask.
The author quips, “Multiple drafts spread over more than a year is what went in to the few lines! The first draft that I sent to Richa Jha (editor of the picture book) was very long and text heavy. In the following months, the two of us exchanged a million and a half mails thrashing the text and removing a thousand unnecessary words.”
The idea for Darkless was sowed in Singh’s telephone call to a friend. She says, “A friend was working on a STEM book around the concept of light. She called me up to thrash out some ideas and I wondered how it would be to see the concept in the light of emotions. A bright sunny day also gets dark if one is low. That was the beginning of this book.”
And, would there be any more sequels to this book or subject?
“I do not see a sequel. But yes, I do hope to write more on darker, lesser-talked about subjects,” says Singh, before signing off.
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