Karadi audio books tell tales of India

The Karadi series invites children to read along with their favourite icons. Each narrator begins by asking, “Will you read with me?”, and takes the child on a journey into the world of the story.

The audio books have been endorsed by secondary school teacher, Hanooman Singh, who pointed out that reading is essential for development of a child’s creative thought processes. “Reading along with an audio book offers the child an easy way of relating to a voice. Here there is no one who is preoccupied with other things but a voice that is relating the story to the child,” he said. Adding that this total dedication in relating stories is important for the child to understand the story being told,” he pointed out.

Singh pointed out that every story in the Karadi collection has an Indian sensibility – most of them are based on Indian folk tales and legends and create an atmosphere that is familiar to the East Indian way of life, completed with music of sitar and tabla.

Some are original stories that have been created for this series and depict urban settings that children can identify with. The purpose is to encourage children to read and to transport them creatively into another world that is filled with wondrous possibility.

Each story has carefully been crafted to provoke the child’s imagination; each illustration has been rendered with sensitivity to open up the imagination and set it free; music for each story has been composed to create a complete ambience for the story; most importantly, each narrator has lent his/her personality to the story and has told the tale in a delightfully engaging manner.

One of the popular books geared for secondary school students is based on the life and time of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. It says he inspired the spiritual and political souls of millions of people. It also stated that his concept of non-violent resistance propelled numerous struggles in the world. His own personal and political struggles recorded in his autobiography The Story of my Experiments with Truth continues to this day to be a source of inspiration to thousands of people. This story is narrated by Nandita Das with Shekhar Kapur.

Adapted by Anushka Ravishankar, Art was done by Thota Tharani.

Notes on Karadi books says that a few years ago, a young group of educationalist and musicians decided to recreate the joy of Indian stories for children through the medium of ‘Talking Books’. Those more informed about the children’s publishing scenario in India said this effort would not be sustainable because the market for high quality children’s books or audio books in India is too limited to offset the high creative costs. The television explosion has had children addicted to cartoons and similar programming that they have no inclination to read or listen to stories anymore.

Nevertheless, Karadi Tales was born, and the above assumptions have been proven decisively wrong. Each title of Karadi Tales has gone into reprint in less than 12 months of its release. Children have taken to Karadi Tales like desert weary travellers to water. Tens of thousands of parents continue to give thanks for providing an enriching alternative to television.

In these times of excessive television, westernisation and stressful education, Karadi has come to symbolise the antithesis of these trends: creating space for Indian culture in the child’s mind providing meaningful entertainment alternatives for kids and families bringing fun into the development of early learning skills.

Karadi Tales has brought together some of India’s finest artistes including Naseeruddin Shah, Gulzar, Girish Karnad, Usha Uthup, Nandita Das, Nassar, Manna Dey, Udit Narayan, SP Balasubramaniam, Shankar Mahadevan and many more.

The first title of Karadi Tales was launched in December 1996, featuring Naseeruddin Shah as Karadi, the bear. There’s been no looking back. The year 2004 saw Karadi Tales enter the world of audio books for young adults and adults.

With 50 titles spanning the catalogue, and many more under production, Karadi Tales is happy to be India’s leader in the world of audio books.