Tharaswin tells folktales
Jayanthi LIYANAGE
Sri Lankan children's writers have a fascination for folk tales. In
their hands, either the traditionality of the tales becomes biting and
hilarious, or the tales bounce with a new twist. Both approaches tickle
the imagination of children, specially if the tales are illustrated with
zippy cartoons.
'The Horse Egg' is the popular cartoonist Ruwan Tharaswin's first
folktale for children. Although he waited until September this year to
bring out the book, the
|
Ruwan Tharaswin |
colour cartoons and the storyline had already won in 1990, the Medal
of Encouragement of the annual Noma Concours Children's Picture Book
Illustration competition conducted by UNESCO, Japan. "It gives
prominence to the art work and my eight cartoons of the loony Maha
Denamuttha and his equally dotty five disciples bagged the award the
very first time I entered this competition," writer Tharaswin said.
The tale written in Sinhala is coupled with a simply translated
English version by the well-known journalist and writer Malini Govinnage.
With this, Tharaswin intends to cater to foreign readers looking for
local folk tales. "Lack of space restrained me from including a Tamil
translation in this book but my up-coming children's books early next
year, will be written in all three languages," Tharaswin said. He has
about seven sequels to the Horse Egg, entered to the same competion in
the later years.
"There is quite a good book demand for children aged 5-7 years,"
surmises Tharaswin. "Kids of Montessori age cannot read but loves to be
read to by their parents and grandparents. They have a flair for
recognising correctly the folk tale characters of Pol Be Moona, Kotu
Kithaiya or any other, even when an adult names them differently."
As in the Horse Egg, children prefer lightly coloured pictures to
intensely coloured pictures, Tharaswin states his experience. "Their
eyes are still tender and garrish colours are too harsh for them. Being
too close to moving colours on TV are not good for their optical
health." The Horse Egg illustrations are done with water colours. "Folk
tales are the life-blood of our country," he believes, stating that Sri
Lanka has a tradition of about 4,000 folk tales which are firm
favourites with children who are glued to the TV when folk tales and
cartoons are shown.
"Better than natural pictures, children like cartoon pictures which
make them laugh," says Tharaswin, citing the manner in which Captain
Haddock in TinTin is always planted in an absurd or ridiculous situation
as an example. "When a pot-bellied man like Pol Be Moona trips and
falls, children find that side-splitting. My illustrations are not quite
cartoons but have drawn their inspiration from cartoons. Children and
adults alike find them funny."
"Children want pictures to be cute and adorable, bringing out the
fairy-like aesthetic quality. When they go through the pages, rather
than the main characters what catches their fancy are the little figures
of cockroaches, puppies, squirrels, monkeys, butterflies and other
background illustrations that clutter the picture," is Tharaswin's
observation. "When children are children, they should have their dreamy
world of animals, birds, flowers and trees. We feed them by showing
Handa Maama (Moon). Its enough that they learn about the scientific Moon
when they grow up."
The local children's book publishing lacks standards, says Tharaswin.
He adamantly feels that both writers and publishers should be motivated
to give children products of high standards. "Some books have the story
running from cover to cover to reduce expenses. The cover should be
separate and the first page must print the ISBN No. and introduction.
The fonts should be appropriate for children. Abhaya font for Sinhala
and Times New Roman for English are easy to read," said Tharaswin,
recommending the Horse Egg, which fulfils these conditions, for children
aged 6-10 years.
Tharaswin is better known for his acumen in political cartooning,
winning him many international awards and exposure. Featured often on
Mul Pituwa program on Swarnavahini, Tharaswin became a children's artist
in the seventies by illustrating for the "Mihira" children's newspaper
of the Lake House.
His pictorial stories of "Rakusuwila" and "Aluth Tarzan" published in
Mihira were very popular. Drawing for Lake House even while being a
student at Ananda College, Tharaswin is one of its long-standing
artists, currently based as a Cartoonist in the Features Division of the
Dinamina newspaper.
|
