Catching Fish and Other Stories

In ‘Catching Fish’ the monsoon have flooded the streets; fish leap and swim about to the delight of a group of little boys, who try their best to catch them, only to encounter a marvellous talking fish who becomes their friend. In ‘Quilt’ a young boy has an enchanting meeting with a pair of magical quilt-makers, who pluck the clouds as stuffing from the sky. In ‘Growing Up’ a pair of childhood girl friends find that somehow the years have slipped by, turning them into demure young women. Meera Mukherjee was one of India’s leading sculptors, whose bronzes, inspired by wax-technique of the tribal dhokra craftsmen, have made her a major name in contemporary Indian art. A multi-faceted personality, she has worked as a cultural anthropologist, studied and practised music, written, sketched and drawn. Her involvement with the life of the village where she did her bronze casting led her to evolving creative and income-generation projects with the women and children. Whimsical, impulsive and deeply sensitive, her art moves easily from the physical to the spiritual, from nuanced detail to symbolic abstraction. It is this quality of simultaneously inhabiting both the everyday life and fantasy co-exist as in a child’s imagination, that comes to life in this collection of delightful stories, written and charmingly illustrated by her. Simple, tender stories, peopled with children off our streets and from our villages, stories full of wonder and whimsy in which the magical often transforms drab reality and becomes another way of seeing it. Her lively sketches and drawings enliven the text, and the result is a set of tales rich in unusual characters lovingly drawn by Meera Mukherjee in this set of unique artist’s books marked with her unmistakable personality and style. Anjum Katyal is an editor based in Calcutta. She has several translations to her credit.