Experiment 1: Venkat and Friends

It was 2021. Self-publishing was emerging as a viable option for passion projects. So my cousin, Aditya, and I teamed up on a lockdown adventure. We took a few of my favourite stories, illustrated them, and worked with Notion Press to publish "Venkat and Friends". 

I left the book to its own devices and got back to "real work". And Adi went back to making short films.

But... The children who read my stories started sending me emails and voice notes. Lots of them!

Here are a few transcripts:

Aunty, I read all the stories in "Venkat and Friends". It was very, very nice and very interesting. I want many books. Thank you!

I like the Venkat stories. I read all of them. Because in the first one I read, it was Venkat's Cartwheel. It was interesting because... he did own up when he broke umm... the trophy. I liked The Mango Tree because when he prayed to Hanumanji he got his wish come true! I like "Venkat and the Kittens" most of all because the kittens have names and we learn a lot about kittens in the book.

Aunty, the story is very good. But I hate one thing in that. Upma and cabbage - Venkat hates very much. And I love the story "The Terrible Thursday" because it seems very much like tragedy. But I like upma and cabbage, both.

Good afternoon, aunty. I really liked your book because I like puzzles in my book. And I could learn a lot of things from those puzzles. And I really like pictures in my book. So I really liked that book. And I really like your book and how you write it. Thank you, Aunty!

Thank you for the Venkat and Friends book. I did the experiment with the purple cabbage. I put some lemon and the water turned pink. I loved the book, thank you!

Aunty! How did you know aunty? It's like you are in my house and seeing my brother and me.

From this, I inferred a few things:

Firstly, kids absolutely love seeing themselves in the stories they read. Things like upma, cabbage, spelling tests, and sibling fights are important to them. They like it when adults acknowledge but do not interpret these “tragedies”.

Secondly, kids enjoy learning through stories but they can detect “hidden morals” the same way they can detect unwelcome veggies in pav bhaji. Puzzles, yes. Writing prompts, yes. “Moral of the story”? Maybe not…

Finally, I knew I had to take this feedback seriously:

Hello, Sambhavi Aunty! I really like the book you wrote and I think you should write more books like this!

But could I really write more? I had no idea… This certificate of confidence kept me going, though!