Fall in Love With Books on Wheels!

NSoJ Bureau

Tucked away in a quiet corner of a quaint locality that is reminiscent of old Bangalore, one walks into a bright home full of colours and illustrations, not the office of a travelling book shop.

Funky Rainbow was founded in 2013, with a goal to promote Indian children’s literature and writers, catering to audiences below 18. Friends and founders, Vidya Mani, Shyam Madhavan Sarada and Muthamma Devaya believe in open conversations and normalising diversity though words. Their collection of books for example, feature characters with disabilities, from various social backgrounds, and more help young readers connect with their surroundings and find companionship. Contrary to popular belief, Indian books do carry a gamut of experiences. The trio put their skills together to curate a collection of books that is a representation of the way India is. “Life is not censored, so why should our books be?,” they ask.

Muthamma Devaya, a disability rights activist, believes books can help bridge the gap between perceived notions of disability and normalcy, especially amongst children. Asked about Funky Rainbow’s collection of language books, Vidya Mani, a writer and editor, stresses that India is in her languages. “There is not point in being an Indian children’s book store without having regional language books in our collection.” The bulk of such books here is meant for children aged eight and below. “The best part of our writing exists in regional literature and writing.” Also available are bi-lingual books and books in Khasi, a tribal language native to the state of Meghalaya.

An illustrator himself, Shyam Madhavan, emphasises the importance of illustrations and the role they play in attracting young audiences. Making a book look good is vital. “We do judge a book by its cover,” he says.

Igniting a child’s love for books

In this digital era, how does one pique a child’s interest in reading? Funky Rainbow’s approach to this is to let the children make their own decisions. They are particular about matching a child’s interests to the kind of books they want to read without being judgemental. That is not all, they also provide children opportunities to interact with authors in the hopes that this might inspire children to take to reading. As a collective, they make a conscious effort to talk to parents and schools about the importance of books in a child’s life.

It is endearing to see how passionate the co-founders are about the books they sell: almost every one of the 6,000 books in the collection is handpicked. This is especially evident when we ask them about their favourite books from the collection and they struggle to make a decision. In a span of five minutes, each person has nearly 10 books in their hands.

The books have travelled more than them, to different schools and even States, to rural areas, and also to children of jawans in Kashmir, no mean feat for an independently run bookshop. “We don’t want to work only with the urban middle class,” they say, “not all the books in our collection are from publishers. We also source books from NGOs that create books for specific issues or communities. If readers can make the effort to understand British stories, they can certainly make the effort to understand stories of Adivasis.”

Funky Rainbow

12B/2 Nandi Gardens Phase 2, J P Nagar 9th Phase, Bangalore, India 560108 Tel: +91 9900495665 http://www.funkyrainbow.com/