Author: Rinchin
Illustrator: Vipul Verma
Publisher: Tulika PublishersÂ
About the book: The gular, or cluster fig, flower is very very beautiful, everyone says, and renchu is desperate to see it. But is it red and big, pink and small, or white and shining like a star? Does it Bloom during full moon in the month of magh or of Kartik? There are many stories, all different, and only the really lucky get to see it. As she goes about her day picking waste, renchu can think of only one thing – will she too see it sometime? The authors own wonder at discovering the secret of the gular flower, much later in life than renchu, led to this charming story. But being Rinchin, it is layered with more than just the quest for an elusive flower. Continuing from her earlier book, The trickster bird, she sets it in the world of paardhi tribals displaced from the forests. The strikingly textured, stylised illustrations take us through their dreams and reality.