Bhopal: Kanjar Girl's Story On Food Leading To Algav From Bestie Wins Award

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): A short story by 18-year-old Vandana Jhanjhoriya from Kanjar community has won The Room to Read: Children’s Book Creators’ Award. The story titled, Algav, (separation) is based on her personal experience as a child.

Vandana who hails from Bhopal has appeared in Class 10 examination from Madhya Pradesh Open School Board this year. Her parents are farm labourers. Their community, Kanjar, is a denotified tribe and is often victim of police excesses.

Vandana returned to Bhopal on Tuesday after receiving the award at an event in New Delhi. “I am elated. I never ever imagined that I would get any award,” she said, adding that “It is my first story as well as the first award too.”

She said that the message at the core of her story is, “We should not judge anyone by the food they eat or the clothes they wear.”

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The Room to Read, a national institution of New Delhi, has been working for children’s literacy for 25 years. The story, published in the form of an illustrated book by Muskaan, an organisation that works for children from stigmatised communities from Bhopal, is at once intimate and political, shedding light on how childhood friendships are shaped, and sometimes strained by larger social forces and prejudices.

It stands as a remarkable achievement by a young writer and an important contribution to contemporary children’s literature in India.

Short story

Algav is a story is about two girls studying in Class 3 who become friends. One is a Hindu and the other is a Muslim. They share their lunch.

When the parents of the Hindu girl come to know of it, they ask her to break her friendship as they fear that the Muslim friend may make her eat beef - a meat prohibited by their religion. She does as told. And food becomes the cause for her Algav with her friend.