New children's book brings the Indian constitution to life with fun facts

Actor Swara Bhasker released a video six years ago looking at five cool facts about the Constitution of India This lsquofivefactrsquo structure caught the eye of the editors at a childrenrsquos publishing house based in Chennai Tulika Publishers ldquoThere were no picture books dealing with the Indian Constitution There are a few books for children but those are completely different they are more textheavy and for advanced agegroupsrdquo shares Priya Krishnan senior editor at the organisation For readers in the age group of six years and above a picture book providing a sneak peek into this massive but supreme document of the country through fun facts seemed idealOne of the five Fantastic Fact panels in the bookThe publishers collaborated with Ashok Rajagopalan for illustrations trusting his unique style of injecting humour into dull narratives They put together an endearingly designed title 5 Fantastic Facts About the Indian Constitution which carries snapshots of what our country represents Rajagopalan tells us ldquoThe book is based on diversity The Constitution is a book of rules with our rights and duties We are all kinds of people mdash we have different languages tastes in food and clothes and religions I tried to tell little stories through the picturesrdquoThe stories become evident particularly in the spread on religion which was Rajagopalanrsquos favourite to work on His research drove him towards interesting details which he incorporated into the illustrations ldquoOther Constitutions begin with phrases like lsquoin the name of Godrsquo ours is one of the few Constitutions that doesnrsquot It belongs to everybody and to those who donrsquot believe in God Thatrsquos why for example Irsquove drawn a couple whose religion is simply tending to animalsrdquo he says The idea behind a book like this was to celebrate 76 years of India being a Republic It took about six to eight months for the manuscript to reach its fruition ldquoWe didnrsquot want to make it jargonheavyrdquo Krishnan tells us ldquoThe main challenge for us was to break down the language without being too simplistic while keeping it easily digestible for a sixyearold How do you say what the Constitution is We decided to say itrsquos a book of laws so we introduced the word lsquolawsrsquo We also said that itrsquos a book of rules for the country Kids identify with that given a school scenariordquo she addsAn illustration depicting the many languages spoken in the country Illustrations courtesyAshok RajagopalanThe idea to end the book with an activity was a smart decision It encourages children to think about how the material relates to their everyday scenario They are nudged towards questions they wouldnrsquot have thought about otherwise ldquoWithin the school setting do you see yourselves as similar to your friends as possible or do you see yourselves as different Does that create problems Does that make for an interesting relationship What happens when there are no rulesrdquo reflects KrishnanPriya Krishnan and Ashok RajagopalanA major highlight for us was reading fact number two which spoke about the number of people to whom the final draft of the Constitution can be attributed to Rajagopalan reveals ldquoA lot of women were involved in the making of the Constitution Yoursquoll find their names if you look up but I didnrsquot want to include any names here There was representation from all overrdquo After the committee drafted the Constitution they took it to the common people for their feedback Rajagopalanrsquos illustrations depict these One can spot a teacher a farmer everyday men and women sitting at a tea stall sharing their inputs ldquoI remembered RK Laxman while working on this bookrdquo Rajagopalan recollects He believes today it would be interesting to see RK Laxmanrsquos lsquoCommon Manrsquo within such a setting taking readers on a tour through this principal documentAvailable At leading bookstores and estoresCost Rs 250