Bilingual Indian Children's Books

Tulika’s Treasure Chest of Bilingual Indian Children’s Books

Taking advantage of my vacation in Chennai, I recently picked up a bunch of children’s books from Tulika – a publishing house known for its bilingual books. It was such a delight to see so many wonderful, entertaining children’s books in Indian languages and English in one place that exercising self control and choosing one book over another became almost impossible.

Tulika's English, Bilingual Children's Books

I’d like to say I was there solely with the noble intention of buying ‘Indian’ English books and bilingual books for my 3-year-old, but, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel like a kid in a candy store myself. A part of me was making up for the fact that publishers like Tulika didn’t exist when I was growing up and my peers and I usually had to ’settle’ for classic, western fairy tales and children’s stories which, though entertaining, were set in a place and time we could rarely relate to. (No offense Cinderella and Enid Blyton, but seriously, evening gowns, Royal Balls and secret tree-houses made little sense to a child growing up in the 80’s in southern India!)

So, you can imagine how refreshing it was for me to see stories about saris and street games, jalebis and rangolis, not only in English but in several Indian languages!

I’ve said before how much I enjoy reading with my daughter M in a language other than English and it’s no different now. I’m enjoying every minute of sharing these new finds with her. I’ve picked up a few titles in Hindi and Tamil – and she absolutely loves them. She doesn’t understand much Hindi and although she’s fluent in Tamil, she’s puzzled and amused at how different written Tamil is from the colloquial Tamil we speak. Every time we read from one of these books I can almost see her eager, young mind trying to put two and two together and make sense of the unfamiliar sounds. She may not master either language simply by hearing me read to her, but it’s clear that she’s developing an interest in these languages and is curious about the meanings of words and pronunciations. She’s now  trying to imitate some of the words and attempts use them in context, without fully comprehending their meaning, and you can imagine how much entertainment all this is providing for the entire family!

Reviews and my thoughts on some, if not all, of these Tulika books will soon find their way here. In the meantime, if you’re looking for well-produced, original children’s books from India – be it picture books, bilingual books, books for beginner readers or advanced levels, be sure to give Tulika a peek. You won’t be disappointed.