Shailesh Narwade
When I was asked to write a foreword for this book titled ‘BhimBaba’, I was a little apprehensive of my ability to do so. But when I agreed and started going through its pages, I realized that this book is so important in today’s time.
I know Dr Prashant Tambe for more than five years now. And during all the years I have known him as a person, I saw him as committed to the work of social transformation in order to realize a society based on equality and justice.
I find ‘BhimBaba’ as a very unique effort to bring the different aspects of Dr B R Ambedkar’s life and personality to the younger generation, and also in a language they would understand better. It is through such style of storytelling that we can inculcate our culture in young minds and help them in the journey of becoming responsible citizens.
In this book ‘BhimBaba’, children will get to read about Babasaheb’s courage to fight all odds he faced in the way of educating himself, his love for books and his struggle to survive tough circumstances at almost all the places he lived in.
Whenever we visit a book store, we see stocks of books and comics based on fictional characters and unrealistic stories. However there is always a dearth of literature on great social leaders, those who dedicated their lives to eliminating social inequality and establish a better world for all human beings.
‘BhimBaba’ certainly fills this gap. This book is not only for children but also for their parents because the writer has intelligently handled serious and important issues like the caste system and patriarchy in Indian society. He has also promoted the practice of asking questions among children.
I congratulate Dr Prashant Tambe for creating something so valuable for the present as well as the next generations. I wish our bookshelves will be enriched with more such important books by him in the years to come.
Shailesh Narwade is a filmmaker, writer and mediaperson.
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Raju Aarmugam
Bhimbaba is an amazing children’s book written by the passionate Prashant. He wove the narration in such a way that children will get glued to reading it. Its language is simple and the story telling methodology is just superb. The subtext of the narration is interesting and only Prashant could imagine and write this way. Milind is making Rangoli, Jaspreet is driving the car: these gender neutral and gender equal thoughts cannot be missed, throughout the book.
Prashant also inserted into his story sub-text relating to religious inclusion and diversity. That is very thoughtful, and it evokes the feeling he is not new to writing. The experience of Pench and the environment concerns expressed in it makes the reader endeavouring to imagine the place with its smells and climate — such is the story teller’s creativity. We are actually travelling in that car while reading the book: that’s the success of the writer.
Any one reading this book will be induced further develop their knowledge on Babasaheb. It will enable a long time retention of the story and its ideas among children. Written in small sentences Prashant’s book will be a hit among children. The book design and pictures are of high standards.
When children are moving away from the reading world this book will certainly kindle the reading habit of any child who gets hold of it.
Fantabulous is a one word description for this book.
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Raju Aarmugam is a Hubert Humphrey fellow in the US, with 3 decades of HR expertise. He is also the author of two books
