‘Save the tree, that’s a wood nymph you see!’
Readers of Indian folklore will immediately relate these words to India’s finest mythmaker and Jnanpith awardee, Chandrashekhar Kambar’s works.
When the Wind God Fell Sick and Other Folk Tales, a delightful collection of several folk stories and a play, opens up fantastical vistas in children’s literature while addressing environmental concerns like saving trees, conserving forests and keeping our world green and clean. With marvellous multi-layered plots, this book transports young readers into a world full of gods, demons, princesses, sorcerers and also common people.
These are tales of adventure, romance and good-natured humour. ‘Daughter of the Kino Tree’ celebrates the victory of love against hostile supernatural forces. In another tale, the eponymous Wind God ails with a strange sickness. In ‘Gullava and the Lord of Rain’ the evil king Bhupathi gets all trees chopped to prevent the Lord of Rain from visiting Earth. Naturally, there is a calamity.
‘The Tale of the Flower Queen’ is a play about a wood nymph who can transform into a tree. When the king of the land marries this Pushparani, his jealous senior queen plots to kill her. The fight between humans, who are bent on cutting a tree, and the animal world, which forms a protective ring around it, is a superb climax. The collection includes other fascinating stories too.
Krishna Manavalli’s brilliant English translation brings the rich folk sensibility and a vibrant Kannada idiom to readers of the younger generation and to those young at heart.