Ashok Rajagopalan, the creator of Gajapati Kulapati, on writing for children

The classroom erupted with an ear-splitting aaaachoooo. It was the chorus of over 50 little boys imitating the elephant Gajapati Kulapati’s sneeze. Joining them, was Ashok Rajagopalan, the creator of the popular children’s picture book series by Tulika Publishers. The 60-year-old was reading out two books from the series — it has five in total, including an activity book — at the recently-concluded Kovai Bookalatta Children’s Literary Festival. The two-day event, brought together children’s authors, illustrators, storytellers, and entertainers such as magicians and mime artistes, who interacted with children across ages.

Writing for children is not easy. “They can be brutally honest,” says Ashok, speaking on the sidelines of the festival. Which is why he spent a lot of time creating Gajapati Kulapati’s world. The story of the ‘gentle elephant’ who lives in a village, home to a friendly postman, a banana-seller, teacher, and grandmother, is known for its colourful illustrations and musical words such as kalicha, kulicha, gudu gudu, padaar, and thadaar. The story renders itself well for performance storytelling, and Ashok says that he initially wrote it as a read-aloud script.

“It wasn’t meant to be a book,” he recalls adding, “This is why it has all those words describing sounds.” Tulika, says Ashok, decided to publish it in 2010 and ever since, he has been adding to the series, with the latest being the origin story of the elephant, that explains how he came to the village in the first place.

“It can take months for me to get an idea,” says Ashok, after which the writing takes him just a day. Ashok lives in Korattur in Chennai, and says that he often sets out on long strolls in his neighbourhood, away from the bustle of the city, for inspiration.

Ashok is from Pulasseri, Palakkad in Kerala, but moved very early on to Chennai. His mother loved elephants, and he first wrote the story for her in 1989. “I called it Gajapati, and illustrated it when I assembled my portfolio,” he recalls. Apart from the series, he has illustrated over 30 titles for Tulika, including Storm in the Garden, Eecha Poocha, and Salim the Knife-Sharpener, and has also illustrated over 60 school textbooks since 1989.

Art is something that came naturally to him. “I started drawing from a young age, and kept at it since people around me, such as uncles and aunts, appreciated my work,” he says. However, he did not receive formal training in the arts and went on to do graphic designing for a company in Chennai. “It was there that I got to learn professional tools for computer graphics,” he says, adding that he also worked as a freelance artist, contributing to children’s magazines such as Junior Quest in 1989. Among his earlier works is Witchsnare for Penguin, which Ashok says can be considered among India’s first game books.

All of Ashok’s illustrations have his characteristic style; but he says that he tried something different for Perumal Murugan’s Out in The Moonlight. “I read up on the original in Tamil, Thondra Thunai to understand the little details,” he says. The children’s book is based on a chapter from the latter. “I researched on the landscape of the 70s’ Tiruchengode where the story is set in,” he explains.

Ashok is now working on a graphic novel for adults, called Variyaan for Yali Dream Creations. “It is a superhero fantasy story, set during the reign of the Cholas,” he says. He is also writing a detective story for children in middle grade, for Speaking Tiger. “In the story, Nila, a school girl, solves mysteries with her thatha and paati,” he explains, adding with a chuckle: “They are called Loganathan (Sir Log) and Dr Vatsala, named after Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson.”