Hurry, Hari, Hurry!

MY THOUGHTS

Kolkata, like many cities in India, has been romanticised to a fault. Movies show the beautiful Victoria Memorial, the sun rising over the Hooghly, and the expanse of the Howrah Bridge. Don’t get me wrong, Kolkata is beautiful, but it is also nice to see a city through the eyes of a young resident. Hurry, Hari, Hurry does just that in the most intriguing way.

As soon as we open the book, we see a bespectacled Hari in obvious distress. He sits in a tram caught in a traffic jam. All around him are trucks, taxis, cars, and scooters. Vehicles are honking; people are yelling. It is loud and uncomfortable, and he is getting anxious because he needs to be home soon! As Hari waits and looks around at all the vehicles that have stopped moving, he realises there is still a way for him to get home soon. He gets out of the tram and starts running so he can get home before his mamma does, so he can surprise her for her birthday.

Author Devashish Makhija recreates the all-too-familiar, uncomfortable atmosphere of a traffic jam and the anxiety that builds when you know you are going to be late. He uses onomatopoeic words, rhymes, and metaphors skillfully to make us feel like we are right there alongside Hari, sweating it out in a traffic jam. I also loved how we see a young boy’s journey from being in the middle of a problem to using his wits to solve it successfully. I enjoyed that the author did not translate but retained words like thela-gaadi, auto rickshaw, and Pishima, which are relatable to the young reader.

Charbak Dipta’s illustrations transport you to the middle of a busy Kolkata street where you can actually feel the sweat running down your face and the loud horns and angry shouts all around you. There are so many illustrations that stood out to me. Starting with the very first page, a close-up of Hari, worried he will be late, throws us right into the middle of the action. The saturated yellows, reds, and blues mimic a hot summer day in the city and somehow lend themselves to the rising tension. It is so hard to pick a favourite page — my top contenders were Pishima and the taxi, the vehicles colliding at a crossroads, the cars in a pickle jar, and I could go on! I enjoyed looking at the different ads on buses and street banners and could only wish I could read Bengali to understand all that is written in the illustrations.

This is one of those books that will help a young reader travel while they sit in their armchair reading it. This is also a book that will send them into peals of laughter at the funny sounds and words. It is a book that will never get old. Get this one for your child today!