-IRAM JAHAN

-Ph.D -1

-Student id. 211001506087

Good and Evil: exploring the children’s world in the works of Paro Anand

Abstract
Every child in the modern era has their own opinions and chooses their own route. However,

they are unaware of their final destination. Actually, all young people experience this. They

are unable to distinguish between right and wrong. both true and false. In actuality, they are

unaware of both what is happening to them and around them. To shape them and educate

them about the world, there are numerous resources available. Literature is a first-developing

field that shapes children's mentalities. In reality, all we know is that literature offers a variety

of approaches to encourage kids to interact with a world outside their own. Writing for

children, adults, and young people is really important.This paper is exploring here children’s

psychology in the works of Paro Anand

Keywords; Children psychology, Parents, Environment, Peer Pressure Dilemma, Isolation.

Introduction
A well- known writer, Paro Anand is an author of children’s fiction, plays, novels, novellas

and short stories. She is a renowned story-teller in many parts of India, UK, Switzerland and

France. She has been awarded the Bal Sahitya Puraskar for her acclaimed work ‘Wild Child

and Other Stories’ which is republished with new title ‘Like Smoke’. She has always raised

her voice against child violence, child abuse, sexual assault and many more issues. Her

writing, projects the critical condition of children and focuses the contemporary issues of

teenagers. Literature, constantly comes up with new ideas and methods to entertain children

for instance - Aseop’s Fables, Panchatantra Stories and Jatak Tales etc. In an article, ‘An

overview of children’s Literature in English’ by Tulika Publication, a Professor of English

Literature in England said, ‘Children fiction is the imaginative creation of a cultural space in
which writers find ways of exploring what they want to say to-and about-children: an arena

in which children and adults can engage in various kinds of shared and dynamic discourse.’

Children’s literature is gradually evolving and is occupying a prominent place in the field of

literature. The family has a major involvement in Paro Anand’s works as they play an

important role in the upbringing of children. Therefore, there are many stakeholders who

have a significant role in socialization of a child. These stakeholders influence them and

shape their value system. Neighbours, friends, peers, schools, communities, relatives and

care givers are the primary agents in socialization of any child. They all are responsible for

their mental, physical and psychological growth and development This paper tries to discuss

the issues such as challenges of daily lives, dilemmas, peer pressure, in the child characters

Content
In the event that children's literature is what is composed explicitly for children or read by

children and the particular experience of adolescence differs both transiently and spatially

with the build of youth giving "both form and content to children's experiences" (Jenks 123),

the nature and constitution of children's literature also is liable to change. Both youth and

children's literature can be comprehended and conceptualized distinctly inside a particular

social and authentic setting.

Children' literature was viewed as a channel for the dispersal of grown-up thoughts of good

and bad, ethical quality and prevailing belief systems. Zohar Shavit contends that the

investigation of "both literature and culture can significantly profit by a top to bottom

assessment of children's writing, for children' writing, considerably more so than grown-up

writing, is the result of limitations forced on it by a few social frameworks, for example, the

instructive, the ideological, etc.

This great need has been completed by well-known children’s Indian English writer Paro

Anand. In an interview taken by R. Krithika (The Hindu) Paro Anand says that “I feel that

stories are the best way to make children aware of what’s going on around them”.
The world of children and their literature is a world of reality and fantasy, a magic kingdom

which completely control of adults and young adults. Actually, children’s literature is a

source of pleasure and knowledge for adults too. Now in present time there is need to write

for children. The present study focuses on the fictional world of Paro Anand and covers the

scope from children’s writing to adult fiction. Paro Anand is a Bal Sahitya Puraskar winner,

well known children’s woman writer. She has written books for children, young adults and

adults. She is the author of 19 books for children and young adults including plays, short

stories, novellas and novels. She has headed the National Centre for Children’s Literature,

The National Book Trust, India, which is the national body for children’s books in India. She

also set up libraries and reader’s clubs in rural India and conducted training programs on the

use of literature. Among notable works of Anand are Wingless (2003), No Guns At My Son’s

Funeral (2005), School Ahead (2006),Weed (2008), Wild Child and Other Stories (2011),

Like smoke (2015, Revised edition of wild child & other stories.) Elephant Don’t Diet

(2004) etc.

Recognition could not stop her way as Paro Anand’s great contribution to children’s

literature. She was awarded by the Russian Centre for Science and Culture, New Delhi and

by President Dr. Abdul Kalam for her writing on Republic Day, 2007. She is also a world

record holder for helping over 3000 children make the world’s largest Newspaper. She works

with and writes extensively about young people in difficult circumstances. She runs a

program ’Literature in Action’ using literature as a constructive and creative outlet.’ Paro

Anand is also known as performance storyteller and she has performed her stories in many

parts of India, UK, France and Switzerland. She was a part of an Indo-Swedish workshop and

has written co-authored book for teenagers, with a Swedish writer Orjan, Persson that is
‘Two’, it is a graphic novel about uniform adventure of self-discovery. She has also travelled

across the UK, lecturing on children’s literature and conducting workshops and storytelling

sessions. She has been also doing a job as resource person with the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation,

working with children impacted by terrorist, separatist, violence in Kashmir. From coming

out of her experiences she has written very famous path breaking novel ‘No Guns at My

Son’s Funeral’, it is deals with reality fiction. It is a great beginning for young adults to start

to think about some real issues. Anand’s writing focuses on contemporary issues of a

multicultural nature of various characters. She has been described as a fearless writer with a

big heart. Her writing gives fearless inspiration to every children and adults. Her words,

language filled their mind and heart with optimistic, courageous and hopeful thinking.

Always she stresses upon the children’s literature for writing and reading by children’s. She

writes, “Stories can do anything, they can show that there is light at the end of very dark

tunnel. The wounds, problems are already there but stories can heal and solution”.

Her works Wingless (2003), Elephant Don’t Diet (2004), School Ahead (2010), The Tree

with a Travelling Heart, The Little Bird who Held up the Sky with His Feet (2015). Books for

Young adults includes: Weed (2008), I’m not Butter Chicken (2003), No Guns at My Son’s

Funeral (2005), Wild Child and Other Stories (2011), Like Smoke (2015). Books for adults

includes: Pure Sequence (2011), Two (2016 coauthored book with Orjan Persson) and Water

Wisdom (upcoming). However, it is possible in the course the author under study may come

up with some new titles but the study will restrict itself to the titles above mentioned .

No Guns At My Son’s Funeral, a book that has had extensive critical acclaim. The book was

nominated onto the IBBY Honor List, 2006, as the best book for young people from India.
No Guns At My Son’s Funeral (2005).This is a story of a mother who lost her son, a sister

who lost her brother and a wife who lost her husband The is about a teen, Aftab, a young

Kashmiri boy who leads a double life . In the day , he is normal ,a bubbly teenager whose

concerns are cricket , his family and his friends. In the night , it holds the secrets of the life

of a child who sneaks away with Akram and his group of terrorists. Aftab doesn't realise how

dangerous it is. Aftab is in complete awe of Akram and is willing to follow him and Akram

is more willing to send him there. Aftab mingles with the terrorists to make his own heaven

. Akram is desperate to earn a respectable place in his own eyes. Akram is a terrorist, who

lives to kill. He says" I kill because I love it" . Aftab has a small family : caring mother, a

demanding brother, an extra ordinary father and a sister Sazia who is mysterious. Besides

that,he has another family : a family of TERRORISTS and he lives between them.

It is very famous and path – breaking novel entitled ‘No Guns at my Son’s Funeral’ (2005),

which is about Aftab, young boy growing up with violence. Paro Anand creates a perfect

Kashmiri Protagonist. This story is compelling enough to leave us with a bunch of mixed

emotions by its end, and really which is also a ray of hope. It is a great motivated beginning

for young adults to start to think about issues of Terrorism because it is a grim reality of

present era.

Further works ‘Wild Child and Other Stories’ (2011) and revised edition of it that’s ‘Like

Smoke’ (2015), It is a collection of short stories helps to young adults. In these short stories

they may find themselves. ‘I am Not Butter Chicken’ (2003) this story is about teen aged girl

who flies into a temper against her parents. It ends abruptly but satisfactorily with a touch of

gentle humour. Last part of this chapter evaluates these all works thematically
Paro Anand's School Stories, I ‘m Not a Butter Chiken, ‘I’m not Butter Chicken, you can’t

order me!’ Not a very wise thing to shout at your dad. But then, that’s teenagers for you: so

un-wise, yet breathtakingly brilliant, all at the same time. Growing up in a changing world,

coping in a fallible world. The stormy years, the funny, wise, heart-wrenching years. The

precious years, the bandar years, the wonder years. Teen stories, heart-wrenchingly wise,

because they are so true.

I'm Not Butter Chicken,Impossible? Stories of the Unknown, underscore the present-day

bind and difficulties that encroach on the lives of Indian adolescents, subjects that are drawn

nearer circumspectly by the writer to help her young grown-up perusers. The accounts, in

any case, are brave as in the center pointedly around the covered up or stifled, and under-

spoke to, emergencies looked by adolescents, underlining the earnestness of tending to these

issues in a general public that is still to a great extent oblivious or impassive. However, the

artistic portrayal of social discomfort, mental injury, enthusiastic horror, and physical

damage in messages planned essentially for youthful perusers is never a simple undertaking

as there is a danger of such messages getting clearly instructional in their longing to advise .

Paro Anand's School Stories, I'm Not Butter Chicken, Impossible? Stories of the

Unknown. Perusing the nine stories in the assortment has clarified that it is a long and

exhausting excursion for the young people of India toward their self assurance

and how Paro Anand handles this involves enthusiasm, as her characters are

found in the narratives viable to move from being hapless survivors of situation, brutality,

unfairness, lack of care, and detachment towards turning out to be competent people. The

emergencies in the narratives are settled so that the objective perusers consider the to be of

going about as capable residents. In stories, for example, Figuring out how to Love Again.
Walk the Straight Line, and Going Off Grid, the youthful grown-up characters go to

acknowledge that they need the assistance of their folks, instructors and specialists, and the

asylum of home, school, and medical clinic. In different stories like She Walks among

Raindrops and Closest Friends Forever, the youthful show a more prominent

comprehension of issues, can practice self-governance, and even set models for others to

follow. In her similar investigation all-inclusives in 'Indian' customs. Broken families,

separate, children misuse, fellowship with the other gender and comparable issues were

banished topics for children's books New topics are being drawn closer with alerts by

creators and distributers the same. In any case, the very certainty that new waters are being

limits of subjects being pushed forecasts well for what's to come. Until a couple of decades

back, child marriage was common in India. Set forth plainly, this frequently implied there

could be no puberty for some: no upbeat secondary school or school, no play in the field

with companions, and no affection before marriage. Anand has made a huge commitment to

to the improvementof youthful grown-up writing in India with so many functions as

No Guns at My Son's funeral (2005) which investigates the situation of children against the

scenery of Kashmir militancy; its subsequent novel Weed (2008), which keeps on featuring

broken groups of children in war-torn Kashmir; Like Smoke (2015), which manages the

specific problems looked by adolescents; and her latest work, The 122 Other: Stories of

Difference (2018), the focal point of this article, which takes up for assessment the various

issues that puzzle Indian children and youthful grown-ups. The narratives move consistently,

starting with one perspective then onto the next, and the creator is all through aware of

her intended interest group, youthful grownups, and the issues they face in contemporary,
globalized Indian culture. It is fascinating to take note of that just in two of the nine stories,

Closest Friends Forever and Figuring out how to Love Again, do the focal characters have

names and in the staying seven stories, where the focal characters are additionally youthful

storytellers, they are anonymous. Moreover, the last story in the assortment, Going Off

Grid, receives the sexually unbiased term "children." This is Anand's strategy for making her

characters comprehensive in a country generally separated by standing, religion, and

language. However, despite the fact that a large portion of the characters is anonymous,

they are all around characterized and have one kind character attribute. With her

comprehension of the youthful mature psyche, and its encounters and capacities, Paro

Anand makes her composing open and relatable to her readership through topical worries

that frequently rotate around high school pulverizes and fixations. In any case, Anand's

content moves past these shallower concerns and further spotlights on more major issues,

for example, living with inability, enduring exploitation, and expecting a mindful job at

home and in the public arena. Over the span of every one of the tales, a noteworthy thing

occurs, which is the arrangement of personality. However, however, the personality

development is that of the characters in the tales, through the relationship of perusing, one

may contend that this 123 effects on the arrangement of character for per users themselves.

Little children, Saudamini, and a kid from her group, Aarav, are closest

companions who regularly meet in Saudamini's home against her mom's desires. The story

takes a turn when another kid joins their school. Saudamini informs Aarav regarding her

pulverize for the new kid, and he is anguished by this. Saudamini gains later from Aarav that

he prefers the new kid similarly that she does, and Aarav reveals to her that he isn't a kid yet

a young lady – that he is a young lady mentally. Even with this horrifying disclosure, the
smashes are pushed to the foundation. As Saudamini thinks about this disclosure, she starts

to comprehend and chooses to remain with Aarav. The kid young lady stories would only be

standard romantic tales if Paro Anand had 124 not intensified the contentions inside the

accounts through individual conditions and subtleties, for example, in her portrayal of

incapacity and sexual orientation. Expounding on the treatment of handicap in youthful

grown-up fiction, Karen Harris and Barbara Baskin watch, "A few stories contain splendid

messages however are lacking in components that characterize great writing: tenable and

fascinating characters, a very much created plot, handy and unique utilization of language,

and so on. It is well to dismiss books in which instructive aim supersedes different

contemplations. Three stories in The Other present handicap, all things considered, yet with

a comical inclination. These accounts stay away from cliché characterizations of inability

that inspire stock reactions as they dive into parts of physical incapacity, hereditary

diseases, and the sexual orientation personalities of adolescents. The writer has depicted

him as a canny character so as to underscore to her young perusers that physical handicap

and knowledge are irrelevant. Moreover, the primary individual portrayal encourages

perusers to all the more likely to comprehend the speaker. His tone is unconcerned;

however, this presumably emerges from the way that he has just met the young lady (the

story is in flashback) who has had any kind of effect on his life, and accordingly, he is

not so much prohibited but rather more confident. The message for youths who are

crippled like him is that there is life past handicap. Another case of the creator's

accentuation on incapacity and the requirement for social incorporation is found in the

youthful female storyteller of Cinderella, who has the hereditary or ailment of dwarfism, as
does her twin sister. Conversely, the third sister in the story, a cutting-edge Cinderella, is

depicted as nervy from the 125 storyteller's perspective. The area of the activity is a

gathering at which Cinderella is loved by everybody while her smaller person sisters are

disregarded. The storyteller, who normally feelings in spite of her sister's benefit, alludes to

her as Cin, play on words expected. With the acknowledgment of one's condition, there is

relief trailed by a goal, a point made with sour humor in this story, which isn't simply

extraordinary yet unmistakable, and which isn't thought up yet persuading. As a further case

of those people who are frequently seen to exist outside of the social "standard," the

character Aarav finds that his own feeling of sexual orientation doesn't compare with his

introduction to the world sex in Closest Friends Forever. When he shares his sentiments

about his sex personality – with much trouble – with his closest companion Saudamini, she

is bewildered, causing an emergency in their kinship and thusly their comprehension of one

another. Strikingly, in making Saudamini the storyteller of the story, Anand gives a point of

view that portrays the storyteller's generally everyday household life before giving the

snapshot of Aarav's exposure as a sudden arousing — as a suggestion to perusers of the

mind-boggling nature of our lives and its surprising turns. Saudamini, at last, gets up by her

companion, yet the narratorial structure gives a clear page after the story as a space of

reflection for her perusers and, besides, the story closes, out of the blue, with the creator's

immediate mediation. Taking the peruser outside the regular account, the writer talks

straightforwardly to her readership as she admits that she felt clear, a feeling of a mental

obstacle, in attempting to accomplish the goal for her story.

Nowaday,s many writers are involved in writing for children. They are focusing on thier psychy

highlighting their issues and trying to give a proper direction to the readers. We need to understand

the responsibilities of primary agents and family towards children. They should give a healthy

environment to the children. They need to appreciate and motivate them. This paper discusses the

situation of different children in different manner such as psychological disturbance, suffering, grief,

pain and her isolation from society.

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---. OTHER : Stories of Difference. Speaking Tiger, 2018

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