Growing up in Singapore, Ms Vidhya Nathan always felt the Tamil-language children books found in libraries did not quite capture the essence of a typical Singaporean childhood.
Determined to change this, the 29-year-old decided to pen such books herself, but with characters that Tamil-speaking children could better relate to.
Reading and writing are an integral part of Ms Vidhya’s life and she has always harbored a deep love for storytelling. Her late grandfather M.K. Narayanan was a prolific local writer and producer of more than 1,000 radio, TV and stage plays.
“Many of the Tamil stories available were either archaic or just translations of western tales lacking the vibrancy of local culture,” Ms Vidhya told tabla!
“I was inspired by my grandfather and the way my parents nurtured my sister and I. Language was always given importance and I always wanted to write a book.”
With the help of the Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism, she launched her three-part book titled Lalitha – about a young girl navigating her childhood in Singapore – on Nov 16.
“I used to read the Lalitha Saraswathi Namam – a Hindu religious text – with my dad everyday. The name struck when I was naming the character and the books,” she said.
“Juggling a full-time job while working on a book was not easy,” added Ms Vidhya, who works in human resources.
“I didn’t include English translations for the stories as children might be inclined towards reading them in English. The Tamil language is my identity. Though my mum is a Malayalee, I grew up speaking in Tamil and I want the next generation to treasure the language.”
The book does have a multiracial touch, however, in the form of the illustrations, which was done by the author’s Chinese friend.
The first book in the series is about Lalitha’s favourite hangout spot – the Bird Paradise, while the second and third books are on an MRT adventure and Lalitha’s love for sarees, respectively.
“A snippet of my childhood can be found in all three books. I used to visit the birdpark very often with my grandparents and I wanted to bring it back to life in this book,” said Ms Vidhya.
The three books are available at national libraries islandwide, and are regarded as reading resources for pre-school children as well.
