Interview: Samina Mishra, author, Jamlo Walks
On her children’s book on the 12-year-old tribal girl who died as she walked back home to Bastar during the lockdown
Your book is based on the true story of a 12-year-old girl from the Muria community of Adivasis in Bastar. She died on her way back home from the chilli fields of Telangana where she had gone as a migrant worker. What about her story gripped you?
All of those things. That a 12-year-old child had to leave home to work, that she had to try and find her way back home without support. What kind of world have we created that allows this to happen? It is not just about the incident but also about all the things that come before, that make it possible for such a thing to occur.
The facts that went into the book were sourced from a story that Purusottam Thakur and Kamlesh Painkra wrote for the People’s Archive of India (PARI). What skills did you have to employ to retell the story for the age group that was your target audience?
I wrote the first draft just the way it came, without thinking about the reader. I wasn’t sure what it was going to be. It’s only after my editor, Smit Zaveri, and I spoke about it that I started thinking of it in the form of a picture book. The PARI story was more journalistic with a focus on the incident but for my story, the challenge was writing it to convey a sense of the journey, the texture of the space, creating a sense of character – all the things that can allow a reader to find a connection. There was not much to go on for these things, especially since we were all in lockdown.
For example, I had no way of figuring out what kind of child Jamlo was – these are things that I would normally have tried to get a sense of by actually going out into the field. So, I created a Jamlo from my imagination and I turned to her inner world to tell the story for which I drew upon my experiences of children and childhood. So, Jamlo tries to befriend a bird, she thinks of trees, of her parents feeling proud of her. I think children everywhere have similar experiences of this kind that are part of their inner worlds – different yet recognizable – and I hope Jamlo did too.
Why did you choose to contrast Jamlo’s life with the lives of Tara, Rahul and Aamir? Did you want to challenge the idea that the Covid-19 pandemic affected everyone the same way?
I wanted the story to record how the pandemic affected everyone differently, that it was more difficult for some than others. But I also wanted the story to have Tara, Rahul and Aamir because of the commonalities – all children suffered in the pandemic, in different ways, even those who were far more secure than Jamlo. For stories to work as window and mirror, we need to find a bit of ourselves (the mirror), and if we do, perhaps we may find a way to see what connects us to someone so very different from us (the window). Emotions can allow us to connect over differences. Sometimes, it can be joy and other times, it can be our experience of loss or suffering.
Tell us about your collaboration with Tarique Aziz, the illustrator of this book. Did he come into the picture after you had finished writing the book, or before that? Since you are a filmmaker, did you give him visual inputs or did you let him do his own thing?
Tarique came on to the project after the story was finalized but his contribution to the book is equal to mine. My editor, Smit, and the art director – Devangana Dash – at Penguin Random House get credit for bringing Tarique on. It was an absolute pleasure to work with him. Actually, I think Jamlo Walks is a wonderful example of the kind of collaborative process that picture book publishing can be. All four of us – Smit, Devangana, Tarique and I – held different parts of the project together in equally significant ways. There were many versions of the text, even though it is such a spare story, and Smit’s feedback was very important in the process as I kept trying to hone it. Devangana worked with Tarique and they shared their ideas with me – they wanted to draw upon my experience as a filmmaker too. So, I did provide inputs on the layout of the spreads and the visualization to some extent but it was mostly minor things, as feedback to what they had done. It was a wonderfully collaborative process.
How does it feel to have won the Neev Book Award in the Emerging Readers category?
I’m delighted, of course. It feels good for the work to be recognized. This one is special because of what prompted the book. In the last few months, those early days of the pandemic seem to have become such a distant memory that it’s even been possible to say that the migrants were instigated by opposition parties to walk back home rather than to take responsibility for the utter failure of institutions in providing support to the country’s citizens. An award to Jamlo Walks feels like that memory will not be completely erased, and readers will remember Jamlo and so many others who suffered because our governments failed us.
Tell us about the interactions that you had with children at the Neev Literature Festival.
Children constantly challenge adult preconceptions but it’s always good to be reminded of that. At my festival reading, I again encountered how we underestimate children. I was a little concerned about doing a reading of the book in a short interaction because I think it needs a conversation with children and a longer engagement than a festival reading can allow for. So, I started my session with asking the children if they were OK with listening to a story that’s not happy. Many of them said yes to that and when I asked why they were OK with it, they told me that it was important to listen to all kinds of stories because life is not always happy, and that everybody’s stories should get a chance to be heard. How wonderfully wise is that!
This award is given to “outstanding writing that leads to a fuller understanding of India, Indian lives, and Indian stories”. Looking back at the process of creating Jamlo Walks, is this what you were setting out to do? Was Indianness an important theme for you as an author?
Indianness is a part of me as an author, a filmmaker, a teacher. I carry my experiences in what I create and being Indian is a part of that. I don’t think I am very conscious of that as I work because it is so naturally embedded in what I do. But I do think that it is important to me that what I create can help in leading to a more meaningful understanding of our lives today. In writing Jamlo Walks, it was important to me that children recognize and remember that there were different experiences of the pandemic because there are many Indias and many different kinds of childhoods. So Indianness in all its diverse forms is important to me – recognizing that there is no one singular way of being Indian.
What did you think of the other books shortlisted in the Emerging Readers category – Topi Rockets from Thumba, The Girl Who Was a Forest, The Homework, and That Night?
I think all the books are great examples of how far we’ve come in children’s publishing in India, both in terms of ideas that are being tackled and in terms of form. Bijal Vachharajani (who wrote That Night), Menaka Raman (who wrote Topi Rockets from Thumba), and Lavanya Karthik (who wrote The Girl Who Was a Forest) are, of course, old hands and I am a fan from before. But I met and read Ashwin Guha for the first time and I think his book The Homework is fun, playful and a great example of how children’s book writers need to remain in touch with their child selves! Each of the books in this category are special in different ways but they all keep the child at the heart. The winner could have been any one of us, really. I don’t know if you were there when the awards were announced or if you’ve seen the pictures, but there we all were – competitors for the same award, sitting together. And the cheer that went up was the best feeling. I feel privileged to be part of a community like this.
When you write a story that foregrounds issues of equity and justice, do questions of craft become secondary? Do you feel a need to add elements that soften the critique?
Craft can never be secondary. I don’t think one can privilege either content or form in creative work. They are overlapping and intertwining in the best work and the challenge for practitioners is finding the balance, finding the ways to let them overlap. If I don’t tell a story well, then it really does not matter what I am saying. And if I have nothing real to say, then all the artistry cannot create substance. Interrogating yourself during the process is critical and the answers to what critique and how much can only emerge from that.
Your book Nida Finds a Way, illustrated by Priya Kuriyan, released last year. What gave you the confidence to write a children’s book engaging with the Shaheen Bagh protests? Were you worried that parents, teachers, librarians might find it too political?
I think that when we write, we have to think of the story – what we want to say and how we want to say it. The rest – parents, librarians, marketeers – all have to come later. I wrote the story I wanted to. I had started writing about Nida and her overprotective father before the protests at Shaheen Bagh and the story was set in the area. I had written the first part by the time the protests began. Then I started going there and saw the children and the way in which their presence was becoming such a contentious issue. It was natural for Nida’s story to include what her neighbourhood was witnessing.
I wrote the story I wanted to and hoped that there were many others like me who would want to read that story. After all, there were thousands at Shaheen Bagh and there many Shaheen Baghs across the country. So, while I didn’t really think about feeling confident to write it in a conscious way, I guess all those people who came out on the streets to stand together in solidarity must have given me confidence.
When is your next children’s book coming out? What can readers look forward to?
I’m not sure when the next book will come out. I’m not so prolific and I also work in other spaces, which often become material for my children’s books. I am currently working on a couple of education-related projects for which I am spending time talking to children in different parts of India. So maybe something will come from there. I hope so!
Chintan Girish Modi is a writer, journalist and educator who tweets @chintanwriting
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