shyamala's world

                                         I Need to Pee is a recent picture book from Penguin Random House India.   The picture book rakes up the vital issue of peeing when one leaves the comfort of our homes.   With an increasing number of crimes committed on children outside/inside toilets, I hope this book initiates a much needed discussion about providing a safe toilet experience for children and adults as well.   A must for every home and school library! Kahani Takbak interviewed both the illustrators (Meenal Sigh and Eric Egerup) and author (Neha Singh) about this book. Meenal Singh  and  Erik Egerup  are currently based in Bengaluru and have a studio called Runaway Mill. With backgrounds in architecture, industrial design and game development, they deliver a wide and diverse range of creative design projects. These include illustra...

Congrats on your latest play! Yet another woman’s oriented play. Is it a conscious decision or a coincidence? Very, very conscious decision! It’s funny that when a play written, directed by men that has an all male cast is made, no one calls it a ‘male - oriented’ play, but when a play directed by a woman that has several important women characters is made, it's called a ‘woman-oriented’ play. This just goes to show how deep seated our patriarchy and sexism is. I make plays that have interesting and complicated women characters, I don't want to call them ‘women oriented’ play, they are just ‘plays’ that have an equal representation of women, where women are not sidelined to ‘mom, sister, lover, wife, seductress’. Why did the play have to be a musical? It did not HAVE to be a musical. It was an artistic choice since I love music, am a singer and have acted in several musical plays. I also wanted to showcase the rich  folk music of Bundelkhand through this pl...

Red Turtle's latest offering, Moongphalli is part of Amazon's Memorable Books of 2017'. Written by theatre artist, Neha Singh and casting director, Mukesh Chabbra,this book of eight short stories scores high for its freshness and engagement. The accompanying colourful illustrations by Sonal Vaswani are a special treat.  This is one book you must read for its storytelling skills.                                            English language is not bereft of words.   Why did you choose a Hindi title? I think as a country where everyone is atleast bilingual, and most of the population falls in the category of being multi lingual, the demarcations of languages become blurred. We often jump from one language to another, and to another, in a matter of a single sentence, leaving most of the monolinguals in the world flummoxed. In this book too, there are seve...