Mehlli Gobhai Award for illustrator Rajiv Eipe
The book is based on a true story written in memory of Serow’s dog, Chitty. A year after Chitty passed away, Serow invited Eipe to visit the farm, in the western ghats, which is the setting of the book
Mumbai: Bangalore-based illustrator Rajiv Eipe has won the first Mehlli Gobhai Award for Best Work in Children’s Book Illustration on Friday. He received one lakh for his work on the book ‘Chitty: A Dog and Her Forest Farm,’ written by Serow, and published by Kalpavriksh, a non-profit organisation that works on environmental and social issues.
The book is based on a true story written in memory of Serow’s dog, Chitty. A year after Chitty passed away, Serow invited Eipe to visit the farm, in the western ghats, which is the setting of the book. The visit helped Eipe get a deeper understanding of Chitty’s story, see pictures of her, visit the pet’s favourite haunts, and meet her siblings.
Eipe studied painting at Mumbai’s JJ School of Art, and animation and film design at Ahmedabad’s National Institute of Design. He said, “I am a humble drawer of drawings, so I won’t even attempt to be eloquent.” He found it “a bit surreal” to see his name alongside Mehlli Gobhai, one of India’s foremost abstractionist painters (1932-2018), who the award is named after. Gobhai illustrated children’s books such as ‘Lakshmi the Water Buffalo Who Wouldn’t’, ‘The Tree Book’, ‘The Blue Jackal’ and ‘The Legend of the Orange Princess’.
The award ceremony took place at the Maharashtra Mitra Mandal’s (MCubed) Library, in Bandra, on Friday. Author Jerry Pinto, a representative of the estate of Gobhai, said, “We chose MCubed Library to manage the Mehlli Gobhai Award for the Best Work in Children’s Book Illustration because they are the kind of organisation that Mehlli loved: local in operation, personal in connection and international in standards.” Incidentally, Pinto has also written a children’s book titled, ‘The Secret World of Mehlli Gobhai: The Man Who Found Art Everywhere’. It has been illustrated by Kripa B, and published by Pratham Books.
Cartoonist Hemant Morparia was on the award jury along with Pinto and Vibha Kamat, one of the co-founders of the MCubed Library. Morparia said, “We unanimously decided to give the award to Rajiv Eipe because his illustrations have a clear appeal for children. They enhance the story and draw the reader in.” He added, “Three different publishers submitted books illustrated by Rajiv, so we saw a wide range of his work.”
The award ceremony was preceded by an hour-long illustration workshop with children, facilitated by Eipe. Apart from the prize money, he also got a trophy which was in the shape of a tree, drawing inspiration from one of Gobhai’s illustrations.