children Radhika Menon – Radhika Menon can never forget the moment she held the first Tulika book in 1996. “It was a great feeling,” she recalls, adding: “It was literally hot off the press because we were at the printing press in Kilpauk.
” In its previous avatar, Tulika was a prepress services unit in Delhi, doing work for other publishers and organisations. “Somewhere in our mind, we knew that we would one day publish our own books,” she says. Their first office was near the Music College atop a screen-printing unit and with a small team of three, Radhika started the publishing house that would go on to bring out children’s books in nine languages.
For Radhika, who has had experience in teaching in Chennai and Delhi, getting into publishing “was a natural coming together of my interests and experiences”. Their first book, Line and Circle was a bilingual, a format that was not accepted in the Indian market back then, especially schools. “They were not used to having another language in the same book,” she recalls.
But to her and her team, it was a natural way to introduce children to reading. While they struggled to sell it in India, they sold rights for over 20 languages in the first year. “But we never lacked confidence; we were convinced that these books were needed,” she says.
After a lot of struggle — during which they brought out theme-based diaries to keep themselves afloat — Radhika recalls the market opening up from 2010. They have so far published around 450 titles in English; with over 3,000 inclusive of eight other languages, working with 176 authors, 150 illustrators and 120 translators.
Tulika brought in some refreshing changes to children’s books. It focussed on an Indian setting with relatable characters.
Its women also dressed in saris and salwars and sported kondais; there are several dhoti and lungi-clad men in their pages, with characters shown as dark-skinned, everyday people one would encounter in our streets. This was possible because of their illustrators.
“The thinking of a lot of young illustrators today is very rooted,” notes Radhika. Among their popular titles are the Gajapati Kulapati books by Ashok Rajagopalan.
“Ashok first wrote it as a fun thing for a story-telling session; I said let’s make a book out of it,” recalls Radhika. Today, it is the first book for many children, and she is amazed at how far the ‘gentle elephant’ has come. “We once heard from a Korean child that Gajapati Kulapati was his favourite book,” she says: “We had never anticipated it or planned for a series.
It was the children’s responses that inspired Ashok and that led us from one book to the next! The series took on a momentum of its own. ” Over these years, Radhika has worked with some exceptional minds, this includes their most-loved authors such as Sandhya Rao, writer and illustrator Manjula Padmanabhan, illustrators Proiti Roy and Sandhya Prabhat.
Radhika feels publishing “is no longer about conceptualising, editing, designing books but about events and promotions,” adding that it is not just about the printed book in bookstores and libraries but about online presence. “And there the possibilities and opportunities are endless and constantly evolving,” she says. Now that she has spent 30 years as a publisher, she too has evolved.
Her work, she says has made her “patient, reflective and more conscious of the responsibility we carry when creating for young minds. ” She is constantly looking for ideas: from conversations, films, books, articles, and podcasts.
“But translating those ideas into an imaginative, fully realised children’s book is a daunting challenge,” she says. Radhika adds: “Over recent years, there is anxiety about the world children are growing up in. As a publisher, grandmother, teacher, I see children’s books as offering hope: by creating a sense and sensibility that gives them tools and skills to deal with the world in a subliminal way.
A good children’s book is a safe space. A source of comfort, emotional support. ”.