shyamala's world

The latest recipient of the Bala Sahitya Puraskar for Marathi Literature(2017), Laxman Mahipati Kadu(L.M.Kadu) is a farmer, illustrator, and an author.  The esteemed national recognition has been bestowed upon him for his book, Kharicha Vata( Rajhans Publications). Published in 2013, the book is a middle grade novel la which deals with friendship of two boys, a squirrel and the displacement of families after the construction of a dam in a village.  The Bala Sahitya Akademi award is the fourth award for the book of over 200 pages.  The premise for the story came from Mr Kadu’s life.  It was while he was pursuing his primary schooling in Panshet that a dam came up in the vicinity.  The government provided land to the residents for resettlement. He moved to Pune where he finished his schooling and pursued his love for art by graduating through Abhinav Kalamandir, Pune.  It was in his youth that he met a few likeminded people and got involve...

Children’s author, Mr Rajiv Tambe spoke to Shyamala Shanmugasundaram after being felicitated recently by the government of Maharastra for his contribution to children's literature. Stressing on the need for change in attitude and approach to promotion of children books, Mr. Tambe first spoke about the need for children authors to step out of their comfort zone. “Even the biggest film stars like Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan step out and promote their films. Why should children authors hesitate to go out and promote their books?” Since literacy is the first step  towards promoting children books, he highlighted on the need for the print media to create child friendly content. He shared his successful efforts in bringing transformation in the regional newspapers of Maharastra. He was instrumental in getting the leading Marathi newspaper, Lokmat to dedicate a page to children in the local editions of their newspaper.  The experiment started with dedicating one page a week...