“Kids are very smart; hope they pick up on the subtle details through observation,” The Spirit of Diwali’ author Smita Bhandari

‘The spirit of Diwali’ is a children’s picture book. This story has been inspired by childhood memories of how the author, Smita Bhandari, celebrated Diwali in India with her family.

“I have taken creative liberties to foster interest in Diwali for my daughter. Living in regional Victoria in Australia my daughter has limited exposure to Indian culture and traditions. This story was a way to share the essence of the traditions, culture and family values that I have grown up with. I hope you enjoy reading this book and share it with the little humans in your life,” she said.

There is a glossary at the end of this book to explain some of the popular Hindi terms. There is also a synopsis of the traditional story of Diwali to understand a bit more about this beautiful Hindu festival. With adorable illustrations, and this book being out for its little readers, Indus Age spoke to the author to know more about the book.

How did you come up with the idea of writing this book?  

My daughter as she turned 3 was super excited about Christmas. I borrowed about 10 books on Christmas from the library to read to her.

Then, she got excited about Easter and Halloween.

But Diwali was not on her radar. To get her excited about Diwali, I decided to create a similar hype through books about the festival as is created for Christmas. Unfortunately, the traditional stories of Diwali were not working for her as she could not relate to it much. Her surroundings and childcare have a very strong western influence.

So, I wrote this story one night and narrated the story to her the next night. She got so excited after that and since then Diwali is as important to her as Christmas. I sent the story in a word document to my siblings to read to my nephews as well and got positive feedback.

Based on that I decided that I should turn this into an actual picture book.

Is there any story behind the name/or how did the name of the book come up?  Well! the book is more about how

Well! The book is more about how we celebrate Diwali and the emotions that go with it rather than the traditional reasons why we celebrate Diwali.

To me, Diwali is about getting together as a family, having a fresh start, spending quality time with family, eating and having fun together.

It is also about traditions at the same time – praying together. The story has everything that made Diwali very special for me growing up in India with my parents and grandparents. The simple details like cleaning up the house, how important it was before Diwali.

Most people who have grown up in India will relate to that mad rush. So, the title Spirit of Diwali was apt after a mini discussion with my siblings 🙂

The illustrations are to the point and absolutely adorable – Nidhi Dokania, is credited for the illustrations, how did all that come up so beautifully? 

I worked with Nidhi. This is her first gig as a book illustrator but she has her own creative business. I had given page by page brief of what I wanted. Indian looks with western influence representing the Indians who live abroad. She presented each character initially to me. We did regular zoom sessions late at night Australian time to go through looks, colour stories. She was excellent at interpreting my ideas. We looked at details like what everyone should be wearing in general as opposed to on Diwali day. There is a cooking scene where we ensured to have both male members shown cooking along with the grandmother. In a subtle way, I wanted to show what I have seen in my family where the men in the family were as involved in household activities. My grandmother being a housewife was a ‘Boss Lady’ which has been represented subtly through the imagery. My parents taught us respect for elders by their actions which is also represented subtly. Nidhi has been absolutely brilliant at making changes to represent everything I wanted to say through the images. Kids are very smart and hope they pick up on these subtle details through observation.

What do you want your readers to take away from ‘The Spirit of Diwali’? 

I think different demographics will have a different takeaway. The main message is That Diwali is a festival of togetherness. To be celebrated with family and it is filled with different traditions, so embrace it.

Read the adorable -‘The Spirit of Diwali’ paperback or the ebook version:

https://thespiritofdiwali.com/