Interview by Aparna V. Singh

It is often said that history is written by the winners. If that is true, what does the absence of women from much of history mean?

Among the few initiatives to address this omission is Sound and Picture ARchives for Research on Women (SPARROW), an organization with a very unusual mission, “to build a national archives for women with print, oral history and pictorial material.” We interview here the Founder of SPARROW, the well-known author and researcher Dr.C.S.Lakshmi, who writes in Tamil under the pen name, Ambai.

Aparna V. Singh (AS): SPARROW has now been in existence for more than 2 decades. In today’s hyper-connected world, how relevant is the original mission – to archive women’s work in print, audio or visual formats?

Dr. C.S.Lakshmi (CSL): Why do you think [...]]]> Documenting women’s stories and work is very much a part of development. Noted writer Dr. C.S. Lakshmi tells us why.

Interview by Aparna V. Singh

It is often said that history is written by the winners. If that is true, what does the absence of women from much of history mean?

Among the few initiatives to address this omission is Sound and Picture ARchives for Research on Women (SPARROW), an organization with a very unusual mission, “to build a national archives for women with print, oral history and pictorial material.” We interview here the Founder of SPARROW, the well-known author and researcher Dr.C.S.Lakshmi, who writes in Tamil under the pen name, Ambai.

Aparna V. Singh (AS): SPARROW has now been in existence for more than 2 decades. In today’s hyper-connected world, how relevant is the original mission – to archive women’s work in print, audio or visual formats?

Dr. C.S.Lakshmi (CSL): Why do you think that a hyper-connected world does not need a knowledge heritage? We are archiving women’s history and lives and documenting various aspects of what we call the politics of everyday life.  Even if you are only dealing with the here and now history is being created and it should be documented and recorded.

Anyone who thinks that this is irrelevant would be a person who lives under the delusion that anything we need to know has only to be downloaded. So our original mission remains and our dissemination of this knowledge keeps pace with latest ways of sharing knowledge and we do differentiate between knowledge and information.

AS: You have mentioned challenges over the years with funding, with finding a suitable place to work out of. Is there a feeling that history as created by women is not a “critical” project in a country like India with more important issues? How do you answer such criticism?

CSL: We now have a place of our own to work out of. But it has been a difficult journey and we have been literally swimming against the current. It is not that history as created by women is not a “critical” project in a country like India but it is the kind of history that a developing nation is looking for and the kind of history that we want to archive.

I once wrote a paper called Archiving in Times of Development. Archiving women’s lives and history is not seen as part of development for development is a quantitative process and archiving is a qualitative process. Even funders from abroad wanted to fund only those projects which had “stakeholders” and “beneficiaries” and visible results that could be quantified. In a situation like this an archiving effort such as ours was not seen as an effort directly aiding development.

We answer such criticism by saying that our efforts are very much part of development as development needs to know what was there before and needs to cover areas of women’s lives not normally taken into consideration to know the quality of women’s life so that policies can be made to add to the quality of their life and alter their life and not merely see growth as development.

In my language Tamil, we use two words for development. One is “valarchi” and the other is “mempadu”. “Valarchi” means growth and “mempadu” means upliftment, raising the level of something. I feel that efforts such as archiving have to do with “mempadu”; it is an effort aimed at adding to the quality of life. This is what we tell our critics.

AS: What is the quality of the material that SPARROW seeks to archive? Are there certain criteria for material to be included in the archive?

CSL: Where women’s history is concerned I feel that any material is part of women’s history. A historian friend of mine opened the trunk of a friend’s mother and found receipts for books she never imagined she would have read in the thirties. They were just receipts and slips for books she had ordered for purchase or from a library but they told so much about her life.

Sometimes we visit people’s homes and find a painting or framed embroidery hanging in an obscure corner and will find that an old widowed aunt or some other woman had done it and that her creativity was not taken seriously. Any little thing has a story to tell. So we don’t leave out any material. So we collect print material, photographs, newspaper material, print visuals, brochures, pamphlets, films etc.

We don’t set limits as to the kind of material we can collect and are always open to surprises. But oral history is our anchor project and dialogues with women from various walks of life will continue to be our major focus. We try to cover a wide range of areas like literature, Indian freedom movement, Dalit history, environment, art and culture, women in the left and other progressive movements, tribal women, NGO women, health, traditional healers and so on.

AS: Currently what are the ways in which ordinary people can access the collections that SPARROW has put together?

CSL: Students and researchers come and consult the archives. We conduct workshops and colleges, women’s groups and other groups request us to come and screen films which we do. They also come to the archives to watch films or consult books and other material. We have consultation rules. We also publish and take the archives out in different ways through exhibitions, workshops, camps and cultural festivals and through website postings.

AS: Finally, as a writer whose stories are often about the inner world of Indian women, do you see a continuity or relationship between your work as a writer and with documenting women’s work in India?

CSL: My writing and my work are very close to each other. They flow into each other very often. My archiving and research work involves a lot of travelling and meeting people and being in different cultures and situations. This expands my vision and my areas of experience. And some of these experiences enter my stories in an abstract way.

*Photo credit: AbsoluteJewelry (Used under the Creative Commons Attribution License)

Interview by Aparna V. Singh

In this 2-part interview with Moyna Chitrakar and Samhita Arni, we spoke to the artist-writer duo on how they found the collaborative process of working on Sita’s Ramayana and what Sita means to them. This interview is with Samhita; you can find here our interview with Moyna.

Aparna V. Singh (AVS): What was it like working together with Moyna and her art to write Sita’s Ramayana?  

Samhita Arni (SA): Moyna’s artwork came first and her images are the primary narrative. So, in the text, I’ve tried to remain true to the spirit of the images, and not impose my perspective if it doesn’t complement Moyna’s point of view as expressed in the artwork.

When retelling the story orally it’s not difficult to switch viewpoints. [...]]]> Sita’s Ramayana, a collaborative graphic novel by Patua artist Moyna Chitrakar and writer Samhita Arni, is a retelling of the Ramayana from Sita’s perspective.

Interview by Aparna V. Singh

In this 2-part interview with Moyna Chitrakar and Samhita Arni, we spoke to the artist-writer duo on how they found the collaborative process of working on Sita’s Ramayana and what Sita means to them. This interview is with Samhita; you can find here our interview with Moyna.

Aparna V. Singh (AVS): What was it like working together with Moyna and her art to write Sita’s Ramayana?  

Samhita Arni (SA): Moyna’s artwork came first and her images are the primary narrative. So, in the text, I’ve tried to remain true to the spirit of the images, and not impose my perspective if it doesn’t complement Moyna’s point of view as expressed in the artwork.

When retelling the story orally it’s not difficult to switch viewpoints. But in this book, we felt it would be best to stay with Sita’s POV. At a few places I had to ask Moyna to draw a couple of more images. For example, Sita doesn’t see the war as she is imprisoned in a garden. So I used a character from Kamban’s Ramayana, Trijatha, who can relate the events of the war to Sita and had to ask Moyna to draw Trijatha.

It was very interesting meeting Moyna finally and finding out what she felt about the complete product. There were certain details in her images – her plants have faces and so I made them into characters who talk to Sita. She hadn’t thought of that when drawing the images – and so was surprised when she saw the book!

The book was a collaborative process – the result of many back and forth conversations, and included besides Moyna and me, the editor Geeta and Publisher Gita Wolf, and the supremely talented Jonathan, a Japanese-Brazilian designer who did the layout.

AVS: In the Mahabharata you wrote as a young girl, you describe the female characters of the Mahabharata as being stronger and more interesting than Sita. Has your understanding of Sita changed as you grew older?

SA: As a child, I always preferred the Mahabharata to the Ramayana – I think because the ‘female characters’ in Mahabharata were more assertive – Draupadi, Kunthi, Amba – and so seemed more real and easier to connect with.

Growing up, I never really engaged with Sita’s character. She was a collection of virtues, the ideal woman and wife; submissive and demure.  Yet, when I returned to the Ramayana as an adult and read it carefully – the Sita I encountered was a complex, strong, wise woman. She has to be strong, she’s put through so many trials – I’ve tried to suggest that strength in the narrative.

The Patua version of the Ramayana is an oral, folk tradition. And the folk traditions are sung by women who have often expressed the restrictions and oppression of their own lives in these wonderful songs about Sita, in Sita’s voice. Nabina Dev Sen has done some wonderful work on these traditions, and her work was particularly helpful in thinking about other kinds of Sitas. Also as V. Geetha, the editor, mentions in her note on the book, there’s been a tradition of variant-feminist tellings of the Ramayana that date back to Chandrabati in the sixteenth century.

Women today are confronted by so many complex choices – as we try to juggle the demands thrust upon us as daughters, wives, mothers, career women. I think we can find a lot in common with the dilemmas we face and the choices and situations that Sita herself experienced. It’s important to see Sita not as a just a wife, or queen, but as a woman in her own right – and one who, at times in various retellings, displays a great of sensitivity, maturity and insight.

It’s important to see Sita not as a just a wife, or queen, but as a woman in her own right – and one who, at times in various retellings, displays a great of sensitivity, maturity and insight.

AVS: Was it a considered decision to make Sita heroic? How did this Sita emerge?

SA: In Sita’s Ramayana we have given Sita a voice that hopefully makes a reader empathize, and engage more deeply with her circumstances  – her captivity, her hopes, her fears, the tragedies that consistently happen to her.

Close to the end of the epic, Sita rejects Ram’s offer to return to Ayodhya, if she proves her virtue again. It’s a powerful moment – she rejects returning to be a queen to a people who doubted her, rejects being a wife to a husband who abandoned her even though she was pregnant with his children. Through the ages, many have been uncomfortable with that ending – is it a tragedy? Why, when Ram comes back to her, does she choose not to return?

Over the years I’ve thought about this. I don’t think that decision needs to be seen as a tragedy. I believe it affirms Sita. She emerges as woman in her own right, with her own mind, making her own choices. She grasps, and controls her own fate, with that choice.

AVS: What is your favourite part of the book?

SA: Favourite parts – Moyna’s illustrations! I love the one the book begins with – Sita in the forest, crying, surrounded by plants with faces. It’s so evocative. And the one where Hanuman jumps across the sea – there’s just sea…and it’s a wonderful way of expressing distance.

Interview by Anjana Basu

In this 2-part interview with Moyna Chitrakar and Samhita Arni, we spoke to the artist-writer duo on how they found the collaborative process of working on Sita’s Ramayana and what Sita means to them. This interview is with Moyna; you can find here our interview with Samhita

Anjana Basu (AB): Did you find any difference between your scroll art and the book?

Moyna Chitrakar (MC): No, I found no difference at all. It’s the same thing actually. As chitrakars, we visualize the Ramayana when most people are used to reading it in words and that visualization was transferred from scroll to book form. And yes, the words were translated into English after I had written the words of my song down for them on the [...]]]> Sita’s Ramayana, a collaborative graphic novel by Patua artist Moyna Chitrakar and writer Samhita Arni, is a retelling of the Ramayana from Sita’s perspective.

Interview by Anjana Basu

In this 2-part interview with Moyna Chitrakar and Samhita Arni, we spoke to the artist-writer duo on how they found the collaborative process of working on Sita’s Ramayana and what Sita means to them. This interview is with Moyna; you can find here our interview with Samhita

Anjana Basu (AB): Did you find any difference between your scroll art and the book?

Moyna Chitrakar (MC): No, I found no difference at all. It’s the same thing actually. As chitrakars, we visualize the Ramayana when most people are used to reading it in words and that visualization was transferred from scroll to book form. And yes, the words were translated into English after I had written the words of my song down for them on the back of every picture.

AB: You described everything from Sita’s point of view. Why is that?

MC: This is a tradition that has been handed down from our forefathers. I have not heard of Chandrabati’s Ramayana (note: a narrative tradition dating from the 16th century which is mentioned at the back of Sita’s Ramayana). I learnt this story of Sita’s endurance from my mother and drew it accordingly.

It is very relevant to us here in the village because village women go through a great deal of suffering. They are abused by their husbands who beat them when they are drunk, they undergo many kinds of torture both mental and physical. As a result, the rate of suicide in the villages is high.

Sita was married to a hero king who nonetheless did not rescue her because he loved her but because he was worried about his honour.

So I talk to them about Sita, who started out with everything and ended up with nothing at all. Despite everything that she endured, exile, kidnapping, separation and then rejection from her husband, she did not take her own life. It was only at the end, when she was asked to face another test of her virtue that she asked the earth to swallow her up.

I tell the groups of women I speak to that their sufferings are nothing when you take Sita’s into consideration. Sita was married to a hero king who nonetheless did not rescue her because he loved her but because he was worried about his honour. If Sita could endure all the disappointments and cruelty that she had to suffer with humanity and compassion, so can the women of the villages in Bengal.

AB: What is your favourite part of the book?

MC: Most people concentrate on the golden deer episode, but my favourite part of the Ramayana is the section where the monkey, Hanuman comes to Sita in the garden of Ravana’s palace. She does not recognize him, but he gradually gets closer to her and begins to tell her that he comes from her husband. She is forced to listen quietly because she is surrounded by sleeping rakshasas.

We women in the villages are surrounded by many dangers. We have to learn to survive in the face of it all and to find our own internal peace.

AB: Are you handing your art down?

MC: I have 10 or 15 girls under me whom I’m teaching. They will carry on the work of bringing hope to village women and spreading the message through stories from mythology and the great epics. Women have an important role to play in this world and they must learn, as Sita did, how to survive in the world of the villages where the odds currently seem to be stacked overwhelmingly against women.

And of course, in English, Sita’s message of endurance will I hope reach many more women apart from making them see the Ramayana through different eyes.

Interview by Amrita Rajan

Kalamandalam Bindhulekha is a talented, self-assured young woman fast gaining acclaim for her work in a traditional male bastion – the temple art of mural painting in Kerala. Belying her matter-of-fact manner, she expresses herself through the use of vivid hues in her paintings. Elemental reds, blues and yellows reveal the rich landscape of her mind.

Here, she talks about following her dreams, creating her own opportunities and powering through life with self-confidence.

Amrita Rajan (AR): When did you start painting murals?

Kalamandalam Bindhulekha (KB): My guru is my brother-in-law, Sadanandan, so I studied at home in the Gurukulam style. He began practicing when I was 13 and that’s when it entered my consciousness. I learned the designs, style and patterns from him. But it was only after getting [...]]]> Meet Kalamandalam Bindhulekha, the mural painter who paints on temple walls – a profession that few women, if any, are involved in.

Interview by Amrita Rajan

Kalamandalam Bindhulekha is a talented, self-assured young woman fast gaining acclaim for her work in a traditional male bastion – the temple art of mural painting in Kerala. Belying her matter-of-fact manner, she expresses herself through the use of vivid hues in her paintings. Elemental reds, blues and yellows reveal the rich landscape of her mind.

Here, she talks about following her dreams, creating her own opportunities and powering through life with self-confidence.

Amrita Rajan (AR): When did you start painting murals?

Kalamandalam Bindhulekha (KB): My guru is my brother-in-law, Sadanandan, so I studied at home in the Gurukulam style. He began practicing when I was 13 and that’s when it entered my consciousness. I learned the designs, style and patterns from him. But it was only after getting my diploma for dance (Mohiniyattam and Bharatnatyam) in 1998 that I seriously pursued the art of mural painting.

AR: So you didn’t always want to paint murals?

KB: Traditional mural painting in Kerala has a rich history but it wasn’t always as well-regarded or famous as it is today. Only a few artists even did it. One of the last of the greats was the late Mammiyoor Krishnankutty Asaan. He set up an institute under the aegis of the Guruvayoor Temple and invited 10 students to learn under him. This was the first formal academic style institute to teach mural painting as opposed to the usual apprenticeship method. My brother-in-law was one of these 10 and that’s when my interest awakened in the subject and I began learning from him.

A few of Bindhulekha’s paintings

AR: How did you get your first commission?

KB: It wasn’t really a commission. By 2001, I was working towards an exhibition. But I really wanted to paint in a temple. Mural painting in Kerala is a temple art; if you learn a temple art, you obviously want to practice it in a temple. So my brother-in-law and I took my paintings and went to talk to the trustees at Tiroor Vadakurumbakaavu Kshetram. And one of them agreed at his own risk and made it all possible for me. It was an act of devotion that I offered as a prayer. Money was not involved at all.

AR: And what was your subject?

KB: It’s a Bhadrakali temple so I painted the three images of Devi – Saraswati (in shades of white), Bhadrakali (in shades of dark blue) and Mahalakshmi (in shades of red). I based the theme on “Rajas tamas satva”.

AR: And it changed your life.

KB: It was the greatest school I’ve ever attended. Painting directly on to a wall is very different from theory or painting on canvas or paper. You need to judge everything by eye and be careful as to the ratios of your color. There are lots of little secrets that are only revealed as you work on a wall. There was no time restriction, so I could take my time and learn as I worked.

AR: You mentioned it took you two years to finish?

KB: The head priest of the temple was a very old man and he was a little doubtful about letting me work. He’d tell me, “You’ll get scared if you work by yourself, you can’t work when the temple is closed to the public.” But then if he didn’t like the person accompanying me, he’d send us away. So I could only work from 6.30 to 10 in the morning, 4 to 6 in the evening. By the time I finished mixing the colours, prepped the wall and started work, it was time to leave. So it took me 2 years to finish.

AR: Is it true you were the first woman to paint murals in a temple?

KB: I think I was the first woman to paint on the walls of a temple. I haven’t really done any great research on the subject but I haven’t heard of anyone before myself. When my brother-in-law was studying, he had no female peers.

I was only conscious of my gender when other people began talking about being a woman in this field. Some years ago, I worked with my brother-in-law on a fresco in a church and that was quite difficult – you have to work at a great height to reach the ceiling. So people used to come and gawk at this girl painting at a height of 24 ft. So that’s when I noticed. Other than that, I’m fully immersed in my work. I have a very strong work ethic so I concentrate fully on the job at hand, I always have.

AR: So people were mostly supportive?

KB: I’m very lucky; I’ve never encountered any negativity. At first, yes, some of the older people who came to pray at the temple were a little put off. They wondered why this girl was hanging around in the temple every day. They said you can’t go inside the sanctum, you can’t work while the temple is closed and there were lots of rules. But that’s about as negative as it got. My friends and family were always supportive.

AR: Tell me something about your work itself. Painting the mural in the temple was the first time you worked on a wall?

KB: Yes, you learn by painting watercolours on paper. It’s quite rare to get an opportunity to paint directly on a wall.

You have to use natural colours and traditional materials, especially in temples; water based colours and organic gum paste. Of course, this only applies to walls built with traditional materials. Natural colours don’t apply well to modern cement walls.

AR: But you also paint on canvas? You’ve had some very successful exhibitions of your work.

KB: I prefer to work on canvas from a longevity point of view. Also, it’s easier to store and move. It’s a lot more convenient to take care of your art when it’s on canvas rather than a wall.

Traditionally, in mural work, the subject is based on mythology and scripture. But my last exhibition was an attempt to do something more personal, something born of my own dreams and ideas. It was called Voyages of the Mind.

AR: Do you do a lot of private work now?

KB: I got a number of private commissions right after I finished work on the temple. But I wanted to paint what was in my mind and was apprehensive that commissioned work would interfere with that. So I chose to concentrate more on the art that I planned to exhibit. And I got my wish in 2007 in Bangalore where I had my first exhibition. And this year in August I did a show called Tradition and Beyond in Thrissur.

But I still do commissions off and on.

AR: Do you think of your chosen profession as a challenge?

KB: When you consider life as an ordinary girl, I suppose a lot of my life could be seen as challenging, but I’ve never thought of it as such. My family is fully supportive and lets me be. When people talk about challenges, in fact, I wonder what they’re talking about. I’ve never thought of it that way.

I have a very positive attitude and self-confidence. For instance, I don’t speak English. In fact, I don’t speak any language except my mother tongue but I don’t let that stand in my way. I’ve been all over India and communicated through my work.

Interview by Anne John

Anne John (AJ): You’ve talked about your growing up with music and starting Indianuance previously. Could you tell our readers briefly about what  Indianuance does and where it fits in the music world?

Aishwarya Natarajan (AN): Ours is an idea born out of the desperate need for professional management among Indian classical musicians, much like it exists in the Western world where managers are  respected for taking an artist’s career to new heights; and the need to see Indian music find a more ready audience amongst the young – to see them enjoy classical music as much as they would a rock music gig.

We work closely with artists to bridge the gap between them and the audience. With a strong focus on live concerts [...]]]> Meet Aishwarya Natarajan, Director of Indianuance – an artiste management firm – and  proud recipient of the British Council’s Young Creative Entrepreneur Award in Music.

Interview by Anne John

Anne John (AJ): You’ve talked about your growing up with music and starting Indianuance previously. Could you tell our readers briefly about what  Indianuance does and where it fits in the music world?

Aishwarya Natarajan (AN): Ours is an idea born out of the desperate need for professional management among Indian classical musicians, much like it exists in the Western world where managers are  respected for taking an artist’s career to new heights; and the need to see Indian music find a more ready audience amongst the young – to see them enjoy classical music as much as they would a rock music gig.

We work closely with artists to bridge the gap between them and the audience. With a strong focus on live concerts a lot of our work is centred around programming our artists at festivals in India, abroad and conducting national and international tours. Our aim is to  help this music reach diverse people  and we design some concerts or workshops to achieve this end. Our efforts also include engaging artists in collaborative projects. In addition to this, for the artists we manage, we do a 360-degree effort  spanning digital presence, social media presence, record label contracts etc.

The result  is that, with time, Indian classical musicians will  have global visibility and be able to showcase themselves better.

AJ: Tell us a  little about your clients. What kind of artistes does Indianuance represent?

AN : While our focus is strictly classical and folk, we are happy and open to work in the larger scheme of collaborations and new age music that uses classical music as its base. Our artists include flute wizard Shashank, sitar maestro Shujaat Khan, semi classical vocal maestro Ajay Pohankar, the dhrupad exponents Gundecha Brothers, folk musicians Manganiyars and artists on special projects such as the prolific violin duo Ganesh Kumaresh and a host of young and upcoming talent.

AJ: How well has Indianuance been received by Indian musicians?

AN: Well, we were able to get off the ground with the support of our artists, but it hasn’t been easy at all. There is a huge cultural shift involved, not only for the musicians but also for organisers and third party associates to whom the concept is somewhat alien.

AJ: How has winning the British Council Young Music Entrepreneur Award changed things for you and for Indianuance?

AN: It has reinstated the faith we had in this idea and also  established credibility in the outside world. We have had a lot of artists and well-wishers write to us, wanting to associate one way or the other. The UK visit, which was part of the award, has been tremendously useful and opened up a lot of opportunities and contacts that we hope will bring new projects in this space as an India-UK tie-up.

AJ: Although it  definitely shows remarkable potential, Indinuance is still a fledgling company. As an entrepreneur, what are some of the challenges that you face? 

AN: Convincing artists of the need for such a system and for them to put their faith in us was a huge challenge. We have had a lot of difficulty dealing with organisers and partners in India, but again, because this concept is alien to them and I suppose people are just used to ‘name dropping’ and the usual ‘you scratch my back, I scratch yours’ attitude, as opposed to analysing things on merit.

But while there is an undercurrent of scepticism, there is also the positivity of bringing about change and when it is something that benefits everyone, there is no reason for anyone to shy away from it. I keep saying it’s harder for us because we are the first, so we learn as we go by and we are setting the standards for such a business. We have already noticed the change – we have more and more artists backing us –that’s the only way to fight a system you want to bring about change in.

 AJ: You have stated that Indianuance would be focusing on showcasing Indian classical music to an international audience. How has the response been so far in that aspect? 

AN: The response has been great. We have had a very successful tour this spring and we are already slated for 4 international tours next season. It hasn’t been that hard selling Indian classical music to the International audience, it’s more about educating them  on them how adaptable a form of music this is. We are also looking at programming some of our artists under distinct productions at some leading International festivals.  We are working with a few universities abroad to bring Indian classical music to a student audience there and tie it in with a social cause.

AJ: You have also mentioned that most Indian youngsters do not seem to be interested in Indian classical music and that you would like to change that. How do you propose to go about this? 

AN: We do our little bit by programming our artists at unconventional venues, opening them out to collaborations, make them more PR  and social media friendly, so youngsters know that these musicians are just as cued as they are into current trends! We also started something called the Bombay Baithak – an initiative targeted solely at youngsters by engaging them with the artist in intimate settings, to allow for dialogue, learning and appreciating classical music.

AJ: Apart from music, what are your other interests? 

AN: Most of my interests stem from music. I am a singer myself, although work leaves me little time for that. I love theatre, watching movies and would love to read more than I get to nowadays. My latest stress buster is cooking!

AJ: What plans do you envision for Indianuance in the near future?

AN: We would like a better presence in International festivals and over the years build a more solid digital arm that will help promote our artists’ music.

By Aparna V. Singh

We caught up with Praba Ram, the Founder of Saffron Tree, to talk about the wonderful work they are doing and especially to discuss CROCUS, an annual Saffron Tree event that seeks to ‘Celebrate Reading of Culturally Unique Stories’.

Praba is an accomplished writer, having recently co-authored Dinaben and the Lions of Gir with Meera Sriram, another Saffron Tree author.