Puu: India's first picture book on manual scavenging

Scholastic India's Puu has created a buzz even before its release.  Puu is the work of author

 C.G. Salamader and artist Samidha Gunjal. The pink on the cover is highly deceptive. Puu is
 the tamil word for flowers.  However there is nothing flowery about the book's theme.  

Puu is India's first children's book on manual scavenging. This dehumanising practice 

continues to exist all across India even though it was outlawed over two decades ago.          

                                        

There are many stages to solving any problem- awareness, finding optimal solutions 

and their successful implementation.This book creates awareness about manual scavenging.
Salamander's text and Samidha's visuals work in sync to highlight the much neglected issue. 
There are no cringeworthy visuals or provocative text . This is one of the few books which 
makes you ponder, revisit the text and explore the visuals after you have finished browsing once.

Salamander and Samidha shared some bytes about their forthcoming book. 

Author C G Salamander has written  comics,short stories, picture books, children’s novels,  

and animation scripts.   His stories for children has been published by Pratham Books, 

Ms Moochie Books and Talking Cub.

  

                       C.G.Salamande

1) How did Puu come into existence?

A couple of years ago, the Goethe Institute organised
 a residency for children's writers and illustrators.
Seventeen of us were brought to Santiniketan and were
 told to work on something that we cared deeply about.
I came prepared to write a semi biographical story about
 refugees -- it was what got me into the residency --
but manual scavenging had haunted the back of my
mind for a good five years and I knew I had to write
about it. I discussed my idea with the rest of the
group that night and got really lucky when Samidha
volunteered to illustrate the book. We had a rough
structure the very next day, the outline of the story took
about a day or two to reveal itself, and had a style
within a week. We continued to talk about the story
among ourselves and with our peers and mentors, and
 when we left the residency we left with a book that was
 90% complete.

2) Why did you decide to explore the topic of manual scavenging?

A friend of mine had just used a train toilet, and came back convinced that human waste
shriveled to dust before it hit the train track -- owing to the speed of the train. He was
shocked to learn that people were employed to pick the waste up, especially in railway
stations. That was the first time I actually thought about manual scavenging, and it
made me angry. I was angry that I hadn't seen it before; it was happening all around
me and somehow I hadn't seen it, I'd refused to see it. As adults we're desensitised
and we're more prone to making excuses for social inequalities -- we speed-walk past
men submerged in sewers, we un-see the women who clean the train tracks. Children
 aren't like that. I decided to explore manual scavenging as a children's book
because I believe that children have a greater sense of outrage when it comes to the
 injustices of the world. When they hear about something as dehumanising as manual
scavenging, they react the right way -- they're angry. 

3) Nowhere in the book is the word 'poo' mentioned.
Piles of pink throughout the pages makes the book
 visually appealing. Do you think younger readers 
will be able to absorb the message without adult 
guidance?

Children of different age groups understood the book
differently. When we shared the rough book with children,
 the youngest age group thought that it was a story
about acceptance, about a girl who finally realises that
she has no need to please anyone else. Children
above 10 years of age knew that there was something
 more to the story, they would pick up on visual clues and
 conclude that it was about a girl who has to collect
garbage. While most teenagers and adults knew exactly
what the book was about. 

So to answer your question, yes younger readers will need a bit of guidance to absorb
the message behind the book. We noticed that the youngest age group were the ones to
 ask the most questions: Why doesn't the girl like flowers? Why are there flies? What are the
pigs doing? And questions like these make it easy to start a conversation. I have always
believed that children who read complicated books at a very young age will return to them
a few years later and understand them in a completely different light. But with Puu, I am all
for a bit of guidance, I think it helps for parents to get involved and have difficult
conversations early on. It evokes empathy and keeps children from being desensitised.

Samidha Gunjal is a visual storyteller, artist and freelance illustrator. She was one
 of the two Indian illustrators whose work was showcased in the recent International 
bestseller Goodnight Stories For Rebel Girls.

1) Generally illustrators work on the text given by the publisher.
They may or may not get to interact with the author. However, you
 got to work on this project right from the start. How was this
 unique experience of working with an 
author from conceptualization to execution? What myths did this
 collaboration shatter?

I never really got to interact with the writers of most books I'd worked
 on previously. It was always coordinated by editors or art directors. 

But that wasn't the case with Puu, we worked on it together right
from the concept and development stage to the final execution stage. Salamander told
 me about a story idea on manual scavenging while heading to the workshop, and during
the workshop we decided to develop it further. It was such a spontaneous process that we
 were done with the final storyboard in just 4-5 days. The process was completely
 interactive, we took on the spot decisions about changes or additions to the text or
 illustration. Working closely with a writer or illustrator helps save a lot of time; you
learn exactly what the other person has on their mind in a matter of hours. 

2) What was the biggest challenge in executing this project? 

It's like I said in the previous question, 

it was a highly interactive and sometimes
 spontaneous process. We were convinced
about exactly what we had to do, and clear
 on how to do it. I think the biggest challenge
 was finding a suitable publisher, someone
who was ready to publish the book without
any alterations to text or visuals.

3) Of all the colours in the garden, why did you choose pink to depict 'poo'?

While brainstorming about visuals in my sketchbook, I came up 

with the character of a girl accompanied by a little pig holding a red

 flower in its mouth. We knew instantly that we found our character

 and the drawing style for Puu. I modeled the main character 

after us, with a darker complexion, and used minimal details to help

 the heaps of reddish-pink flowers pop. It was never a conscious 

decision to use a reddish-pink gradient, we just felt that the colour

 pink contrasted well against the white background and with the

 characters of the book. It popped out and made sure it was seen, 

which worked well because the flowers really are the most important thing about the book. 

To buy a copy of Puu, click here.

 To know more about C.G. Salamander, visit c.g.salamander.com 

 To know more about Samidha Gunjal, visit www.samidhag.blogspot.com