A new series of books puts tales of rural India from P Sainath’s PARI into stories for children

We often look to books to help our children expand their world view, but we limit this expansion to fantasy, creativity, and wild imagination. Why do we leave out harsh reality?

An immensely popular parenting book I once read suggested we take our children to the grocery store when we shop for fruits and vegetables so they understand where the food they eat comes from. See the problem? Turns out kids did too. They wanted to know the origin story of the lady’s fingers and tomatoes they were eating. They were curious!

We agree that most of our children lead very sheltered lives, far away from the harshness of climate change, poverty, rural living and what is reality for millions of children daily. Shouldn’t our young city slickers at least read about them?

That’s why I loved the StORI series, and was absolutely intrigued by the entire gamut of themes the books deal with.

Meeting real life

Chennai-based publishing house Karadi Tales and veteran journalist P Sainath’s publishing house People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI), have come together to create Stories of Rural India (StORI), a series based on people living in rural India, disenfranchised people and communities, and the challenges they face in everyday life. These...

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