by Agastya Awasthi, Grade 11
“Palwankar Baloo wanted a chance for everyone” – Mamta Nainy
Mamta Nainy’s session, ‘Winning Big’, based on her book Baloo’s Big Win, was one that took me aback in a good way.
The mood of the lawn was electric: kids’ eyes gleaming with interest and delight as they listened to vivid descriptions of shiny red leather balls spinning mid-air, accompanied by stunning visuals which enthralled everybody in the audience. The lively and energetic pace of the book matched that of the atmosphere, as we got to vault into a fast-paced story of an ambitious son of a leather worker rising up and seizing the pitch, captivating the world and defying all odds.
The crux of the session was to illuminate the zeitgeist of Baloo’s life, a time and place where life was hard for people like him. The masterful usage of analogies to break down the caste system for a young audience captured the hearts and minds of listeners across all ages, with everyone rallying behind the passion Baloo had for a sport treasured by every Indian, cricket. By using analogies, Mamta Nainy ensured that each moment in the book was deconstructed and made digestible for all the audiences. Further, the colonial setting of the book, not easily comprehensible to a younger audience to whom concepts like “untouchability” and “caste” were abstract, was artfully dissected and reorganized into simple definitions by way of a read-aloud of the book, setting the scene for the rest of the story.
Mamta Nainy made the brutal subjugation of people under the caste system accessible to children by her descriptive and chronological presentation of an average day in Baloo’s life. For instance, we learned that every day, Baloo fetched water and ran chores with his Aai (mother) for a Wadi (community) that sprinkled holy water on the same ground he tread to bring water for them, and how everybody looked at Baloo “as if they saw a ghost” when he brought back water a little late one day. Baloo’s internal monologue made the story relatable and understandable for the young target audience, with many parallels in routines being drawn between today’s children and those back then, along with similar ponderous questions the target audience asked their parents being posed by Baloo to his Aai.
Mamta Nainy’s love for cricket and literature propelled her into crafting this masterpiece, an underdog story that sheds light on one of India’s most legendary cricket players. In this story anchored on hope, which navigates every obstacle and societal prejudice Baloo had to confront, we witness an exemplar of Grit and paragon of Honor who evened the playing field with nothing short of Grace, inspiring us to believe that with hard work, someday we will all win big.
