Children's author Interview : Deepa Agarwal
Why did you choose to write about Vikram and Vetaal? Actually the request came from the publisher. My editor Sohini Mitra told me that they had a translation by the eminent Sanskrit scholar Chandra Rajan in the Penguin Classics series and wanted to bring out a child friendly version. As you know, these tales have passed into the realm of children's literature though the written Sanskrit texts are not really suitable for kids. Many years back, I had done a selection of 14 stories for Scholastic India titled The Tricky Tales of Vikram and Vetal so I asked the editor Tina Narang if it was OK to write them again for another publisher. She was kind enough to give permission. 2. How easy or difficult was it researching on those stories? Was the book easily available in the library? Generally libraries charge a lot just to allow people to handle these ancient texts and photocopy them? Did you face any challenges in the library? You are absolut...