Bhooton ki Baraat — An Uttarakhandi folk tale in a picture book
This retelling of a folktale from Uttarakhand will have you grinning, for the comic timing and delicious thrill of fear that come with ghost stories that are told well.
Barkha’s beautiful illustrations evoke the fog of the hills as day turns into night, the darkness and silence deepens, bringing us closer to that unearthly hour where anything is possible.
Bhooton ki baraat is delightfully written and illustrated, with twists at every turn of the page. Writer and illustrator, Barkha Lohia talks about her process of working on the book and her take on storytelling and illustration. The book has been published by Jugnoo Prakashan, an imprint of Ektara Trust.
Me — Tell us about how the idea for this book came to you.
Barkha — The book was a part of our assignment at Riyaaz. For our final assignments we had to look for folk stories that haven’t been told before. I think it was meant for the Bhopal tribal museum.
So I was actively looking out for folk tales. My friend’s father narrated this tale to me (he’s from Uttarakhand). And I was instantly hooked. The whole story seemed like a fun caper.
We also had sessions later on, where all the students narrated the stories they wanted to do. The immediate reaction of everyone to this story convinced me to go ahead with it.
Me — Retelling a folktale that has a very local flavour… What was that experience like?
Barkha — The thing that I was sure about from the beginning was that I wanted to keep the narration style alive in the book. It’s a story being narrated within a storybook. It’s like one of those ghost stories that your cousins tell you in the middle of a summer night. You can believe it, or it can be a tall tale — all depending on your listener. I wanted to keep the tone similar, since that is how I came across it.
Before starting on the process of illustration, I wanted to get the story right. I wrote around 3–4 drafts before a version of it was finalized.
Since I was both the author and illustrator, at the back of my mind I was aware that there was a particular pacing required in text in order for it to work with the illustrations. I had not started the illustrations but had a mental image of them running along while working on the text.
So they kind of went hand in hand. As opposed to me simply working on illustrations where the story is already there for me.
Me — What is it like to write and illustrate a book?
Barkha — It was an enjoyable process. I learnt a lot.
Also, the freedom I had in world building here was a lot more than I would with other projects. So there’s room for a lot of experimentation.
Me — Do tell us about how you arrived at the illustration style. I loved the softness, the mood that they convey…
Barkha — I didn’t have a particular style at that point of time. Going into this book in that way was like a blank slate. I was just drawing and seeing if it resonated with me.
This being a class assignment, I don’t think I had that pressure to get everything right. It was given from the start that I could experiment with illustrations in whatever way I wanted.
For the medium, I think the story decided it. I did experiment with different media, but in the end decided to go for a heavy medium. I felt having lighter media such as watercolor and pen and ink wouldn’t have worked so well here.
Something that added texture and tactile feel to the book was needed.
I went with a mixed media approach to it finally. Most of it was acrylics and pencil colors. And some oil pastels for extra grunginess. I added white oil paint as well, wherever I needed some elements to glow. They all add a little richness to the story I feel.
Me — Indeed…It also has an interesting color palette…
Barkha — For the starting out spreads I wanted the colors and illustration to reflect that mountain vibe. So went for a brighter palette here, and muted browns and mustards for the mud houses.
It then transits into night time, and most of the action takes place in this time frame. A lot of blues, purples were used for the surroundings. White was mostly used for figures that needed to be highlighted. So I made sure the clothing choice reflected that.
Only the baraat spread later on has reds and greens in it but they too are muted. They are also added in a way that makes your eye travel throughout the spread.
Me — One of my favorite spreads is the reveal — the baraat. Tell us more about it…
Barkha — That’s the spread that hooked me initially. I already had an image for it before starting on the story.
I just had fun with it honestly. That’s by far the most fun I had in illustrating something. So I went all in!
The thought was what will a Pahadi baraat have? How exactly will a ghost wedding differ from your normal one? So I have weaved little scenes in the spread here, if one looks closely. There is a famous viral dance move in there, few tourists who unfortunately are now stuck there, different types of ghosts — bits and pieces like that. Something on the lines of who is roaming the mountains of Uttarakhand.
Me — Are there any personal experiences that you have tied in with the artwork?
Barkha — I have been to Uttarakhand before a number of times. So I was tapping into my own memories of the mountains, the terrain, houses and people while illustrating. Also, I have friends that are natives of Uttarakhand. So that definitely helped. From a research point of view, I didn’t have a lot of problem; I could always reach out for help on any particular aspect.
I watched a lot of vlogs as well on YouTube. The book has a few wedding sequences, so I watched a lot of wedding, dance and song videos. A lot of my own memories and experience came in while illustrating those spreads as well.
Me — Tell us about yourself…how did you journey into illustrating children’s books?
Barkha — I was always interested in illustration. Back in college, although my field was applied arts which mostly dealt with advertising, I would spend most of my time drawing/painting. I wasn’t really keen on advertising so I decided to give illustration a go after college.
I started working as a graphic designer/illustrator for a start-up. Since the work was mostly commercial, I would draw my own stuff on the side. I was interested in tattoos, so I learnt that as well. I worked at a tattoo studio for sometime before illustrating full time.
I got a chance to work on a book for Pratham Books — Walking in the wild… After finishing it, I realized there were things that I needed to learn particularly when it came to children’s book illustration, so I decided to join Riyaaz. This book is my second children’s book.
Me — What kind of things, for instance…
Barkha — How to read text, I think the biggest learning for me was in this sphere; that illustrations don’t necessarily have to follow or depict text as it is. It can support text, stand out on their own, form their own narrative parallel to the story.
Me — What excites you the most about illustration?
Barkha — The storytelling part of it…That you can create your own world with it. And not just with a book, even one single image can conjure up so many stories, emotions.
Also as an art form, it happens to be the one that comes most naturally to me. I have always been attracted to visuals, even as a kid. I would spend hours just looking at drawings, photographs…imagining scenarios, looking for stories in them.
It’s your imagination that gets mixed with the creator’s- also, a part that I enjoy about children’s illustration.
It is sometimes surreal to realize that as a grown up I’m making them now. For me it doesn’t just stop at children’s books. I do it because that’s the way I express, document life.
Also, In general, being an illustrator has given me a lot of freedom to simply learn. I have picked up new interests because of my practice. It demands that you pay attention to the world, immerse yourself in it.
Every new project comes with an opportunity for you to learn something new. I think that is what makes it exciting for me.
You as a person will evolve with your practice.
Me — Tell us about books and artists you admire.
Barkha — Too many to name! Rajiv Eipe, Madhuri Purandare, Shaun Tan, Anand Radhakrishnan, Emily Gravett — they pop up first…but a long list.
Arrival by Shaun Tan happens to be one of my all time favourite picture books.
I am currently really inspired by miniature painting and Japanese woodblock prints.
‘Bhooton ki baraat’ published by Jugnoo Prakashan is available here and here.
The idea behind this series of interviews is to give readers a glimpse into the world of children’s publishing and picture book illustration in India — what illustrators actually do and how they work their magic. Stay tuned!
Read the interviews with children’s book illustrators Ishita Biswas , Sunita , Deepa Balsavar, Bhargav Kulkarni, Ruchi Mhasane, Ashok Rajagopalan, Priya Sebastian, Karen Haydock, Archana Sreenivasan, Atanu Roy, Prashant Soni
