पाले दाइ / Naomi Reed’s The Zookeeper

Thank you, Inge and Niel, for this wonderful piece “ पाले दाइ " from Naomi. It was the best gift that I had for the Christmas 2017. It would be unfair if I did not write few words about the book. Many years ago, I had an opportunity to buy a book, “My Seventh Monsoon; a Himalayan journey of faith and mission” written by Naomi. Indeed, it has got wonderful stories and experiences that she had while working with  Nepali people and culture. However, the book was mostly meant for English speaker.

But “पाले दाइ” was different. I was amazed how she could make the stories which grab kids attention. For me, I felt as if I am reading C.S. Lewis little “Nania”. The plot carries some parallel content as Lewis had intended in Nania. If we look at the book, you would encounter with ‘forest,’ river, ‘thick trees,’ ‘darkness,’ and especially the deuteragonist, “ little Lion’ who appears in the middle of the story. The depth of the story is so much of thought-provoking, full of Truth carrying a lot of symbolism where one can draw out the meaning.  The book is intended for Nepali kids. Of course, there is a challenge that Nepali kids, though they love to listen to stories as such. However, the schooling system demands a lot from this generation that they hardly get time to stories, games, and innovation. In opposite, they are rather loaded with heavy system and books and instructions.

Going back to the content of “पाले दाइ” again, I do have some feedback which would help to revise the upcoming edition. Some of the word like "कङ्गारु" is written as "कङ्गारुरु" in the middle of the book. At the same time, the word such as “oven” and “chocolate” does not really speak to Nepali kids in the mid-west and far -west region at least. “Oven” probably is not a Nepali word. While I was reading the storybook, I sensed, it would be hard to get it to kids with that word. And the next is with “कङ्गारु" which is not familiar here in Asia.  Partly, this animal does not exist in Nepal. Other than this, the translation is good and looks more literal though.  However, grammars, such as punctuation marks are needed in between the lines in order to give the flow. For example, let us look at page 60, “ उसले तिनीहरु प्रत्येकको नाम काडेर बोलाए अनि तिनीहरुले थाहा पाए । The right choice of the subject is necessary in order to bring a flow in the language. I would replace "उसले"  with "उनले" so that it would support the verb “बोलाए”. Even then the sentence looks vague here, if we have the literal translation as it looks so. At the same time, the consistency matters in the plot (I have just limited on the translated version only).  Kangaroo is presented as both male and female. It begins with ‘ कङ्गारु… सोधिन् ,भनिन् (page 11) , and when you go further, it turns to be  भन्यो (page 37)। I have not read English version which would help me to get it more.

Overall the book is excellent and wonderful literature for Nepali children. I hope and pray that our churches in Nepal would use it in the children classes (Sunday-schools or Saturday-schools in Nepal).