Ramayana By Bulbul Sharma Puffin books, Rs 75

Translating the Ramayana in English for children can be an easy task and also a difficult one. Easy because you already know the story by heart and difficult because considering the number of versions you’ve heard, starting with your grandparents, to the history books in school, it takes quite an effort to put all of it down as simply as you can.

We all know about the good king Dashrath from Ayodhya and how his not-so-good queen Kaikeyi, upon the advice of an evil Manthara, sends off Rama to exile, accompanied by Sita and Lakshmana. Rama spends 14 years in exile and when his time in the forest is nearly over, the evil 10-headed demon king Ravana abducts Sita and takes her away to his kingdom Lanka, which lies across the seas. Rama, with the help of the monkey clans and Hanuman, rescues Sita but only after a terrible battle where several heroes die. Unfortunately, the happiness is short-lived, as we all know, for Rama has to banish Sita to the forests where the twins Lav and Kush are born. The story ends with the earth taking Sita back into its folds and the twins go on to stay with their father in his kingdom Ayodhya.

But Bulbul Sharma is a master of her art, and she knows what children love. No wonder she focuses on the demons, the warfare and the magical prowesses of the princes. There are elaborate descriptions of “demons with no heads and a putrid smelling mouth set in its hairy stomach and a huge blinking eye set in the centre of its hairy chest”. And that is just one demon. There are many more, hiding behind trees in dense forests, or grey clouds in the sky, out to kill the good princes.

The book is fast paced and written keeping first-time readers in mind. It asks all the questions that arise when you heard the Ramayana and answers them. For instance, it tells you why Diwali is celebrated or why Hindus consider the solar eclipse a bad omen.

It helps that Bulbul has been involved with children long enough to be able to read their minds. She is an art teacher, which explains her picturesque detailing of nature, which abounds in this book. As you read through the pages you can almost hear the rain pounding on the rock cave and the hiss of the serpents as they slither along the cave walls. Or for that matter the sparkling leaves in the sunshine after a long spell of rain and the smell of fresh earth.

This is a book that celebrates the victory of good over evil, in short, all things good and nice.