Lights For The Jamuna

MY THOUGHTS

I love books that center themselves around festivities and help young readers understand and visualise how people celebrate the same festival differently. Add a healthy dose of history to that, and you have a book that is a winner!

Lights for the Jamuna is about Meera, whose parents are potters in the city of Shahjahanabad. The craftsmen’s neighbourhood beside the Jamuna is abuzz with orders from the palace for Diwali. They need more than a thousand lamps to light for Diwali and the potters are stretched thin making lamps throughout the day. Not just potters, the metal workers, the tailors, and even the oil pressers are working overtime to ensure the palace has the perfect Diwali. Which makes Meera wonder, if the palace has a perfect Diwali because of the craftsmen, should the neighbourhood and the Jamuna also share in the light? She hatches a plan with her friends to ensure the Jamuna, that is the city’s lifeline, is all lit up for Diwali. The children work hard, day and night, till they finalise a plan for Diwali, but they need oil for the lamps and every last drop is being given to the palace! What will Meera and her friends do now?

Lights up for Jamuna is a lovely book that takes the readers to a time when festivals were celebrated by everyone, regardless of their religion. We travel back in time to the early eighteenth century during the reign of the thirteenth Mughal emperor, Muhammad Shah. Arts and creativity flourish under him and we get to see a glimpse of how festivals were celebrated on a grand scale. This book also helps children understand different professions that live and work by a river and how important their work is to keep the city running. The story has themes of friendship, perseverance, courage, and a sense of a community coming together to make something happen. I enjoyed how the author highlighted the close links between the river Jamuna and the community that depended on it and by extension revered it. I also liked Bhavana’s illustrations of the ideas that children came up with and how they executed it.

I loved the use of Urdu words like Khansnama, Arzi, Chobdar, Farman and so many more! My favourite bit was the scene outside the Kahwa Khana where two bearded men indulge in a rhyming jugalbandi of sorts. The scene came alive in my mind and I could only imagine a young reader being introduced to this delightful tradition.

This book is a perfect read for the festive season and will keep your child entertained and reaching for it time and again. An interesting, heartwarming, and enlightening read! Grab your copy today!