The Little Girl and the Magic Needle
Sudha Bhandari Anand
An interesting
story from the series of tales and artwork of children from BOL is The Little
Girl and the Magic Needle. The Kantha stitch, typical of the Bengal
weave, is known in common parlance as “the running stitch’ and is among the
very first stitch taught to a student learning to work with the needle and
embroider pictures on cloth.
The story’s concept
is simple and extremely child- friendly; it promotes the togetherness of human
beings and their environment. Like any other child, Lali relates to her
immediate surroundings and looks for friends around her. The house of her imagination has all items that
she observes on a daily basis and it even has a garden and a play area. The
story emphasizes the special bond between children and pets (Lali & Tito) and
between children (Lali& Ashu). But these are all creations of Lali’s
imagination that is expressed through the magic needle. The precision of the
kantha stitches whether horizontal, vertical or concentric is graphically
immense. The image of the loose thread looped around the page adds touches of
realism.
Here is a story
by children for other children and it is important to note that the simple tale
is itself full of warmth and affection as depicted through the characters of
Lali, Tito and Anshu. This is a story I can expect my granddaughter to read and
enjoy without her pointing out that quite a few stories that are part of
children’s literature in India,
contain scenes of violence and bloodshed.
I highly
recommend this story of Lali and her magic needle from the House of BOL.
Authors: Debjani Mukherjee, Sayak Bandyopadhyay
Art work: Children from BOL workshops
Published by: Sampark
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