Puu

by C.G. Salamander, Samidha Gunjal (Illustrator)

BRAND NEW, Exactly same ISBN as listed, Please double check ISBN carefully before ordering.

40 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2020

About the author

C G Salamander is a writer, comic journalist, and editor who's been published in India and abroad. He’s worked as a commissioning editor, has managed projects for educational publishers, and currently splits his time between Chennai and the Netherlands.

Reviews

[Littles Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Puu’ the metaphor used here means ‘flowers’ in Tamil and is also a play on the word ‘Poo’. Tackling the very very difficult topic of manual scavenging, this is a book which is both difficult and important.

A daughter of manual scavengers is ostracized by everyone at school. Though bright and full of dreams and hardworking and capable, she finds herself isolated. She doesn’t seem to have any friends and the character is portrayed as one who ‘doesn’t care much what others think of her’.

One day a little puppy falls into a sewer and while the entire class is gathered and helpless, our chief protagonist is the only one who has the courage to rescue the dog. Even when the dog is rescued and well, her classmates still ignore her, for she is shown standing in the corner, while the other kids try to clean up the dog.

Even in her courage, she finds no acceptance. Not until she finds it from an unlikely source, whose life she saved from the very depths of a sewer. This is a hard read. The metaphor is all beautiful and glorified and that just shows the shallowness of humans.

This is sparsely written and there is a lot left to interpretation. The creative choice of using Flowers in place of actual excrement is very hard hitting. Some of the choices in character portrayal were unnecessary- like the child being perennially unkempt, covered in filth even when she comes to class, portrayed as a few shades darker than her classmates as so on.

All these issues notwithstanding, the fact that she doesn’t find acceptance right till the very end is a striking example of how we fail as a community everyday. No solutions here, just a reminder!

[Sridipa · Rating 5 out of 5]

We get up on a train. Get ourselves freshened up and respond to nature's call as and when needed. We get down. But where does the litter go? Are we not supposed to know?

This picturebook, Puu (pun intended for 'Poo') meant for the age group under thirteen, covers the hard-hitting truth of manual scavenging. From dealing with caste injustice to discrimination, this book offers a fresh and pastel vibe to a subject which is harsh and stinging.

[Laxmi Priya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think CG Salamander, in many of his interviews, talks about the origin story of this paperback. With a very poignant POV and importantly affirming metaphor of flowers, the book brings forth a shadow reality of our systems in Indian society. A gift of this book to your child or yourself or your enemy is a point towards good faith in change and tirelessly working so that the flowers the child in the book is holding can become a metaphor for their strength and definitely change in our horrid systems of class and caste.

[Sangeeta Goel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Puu is a story that not only makes one think about manual scavenging in India, but how it impacts children who are forced into the profession due to casteism in India. The book does an important work of showing the heaviness and ugliness of discrimination and untouchability. It is a must-have book for everyone.