Conceptualized, written by Indian Americans Malini Sekhar, Kyra Khanna.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Kyra Khanna and Malini Sekhar are the two women behind a new children’s book series, aimed specifically at minority children, entitled “The Little Loka Series™.” The first book, entitled “Dances of India,” follows two elephant characters named Maya and Leela, as they learn about the cultural history of India in a way that is both entertaining and informative to young readers. Written by Sekhar and Khanna, and illustrated by Alyssa M. Torres, the book is the inaugural publication of The Little Loka (the Sanskrit word for “world”) Series™.
Khanna grew up in San Francisco, but moved the East Coast to attend Wellesley College where she studied International Relations and Psychology. She went on to obtain an MS in Foreign Service and an MBA from Georgetown University, focusing primarily on social impact issues. Khanna has always been passionate about global-minded work and in immersing herself in different cultures. She is married (her husband grew up in India) and has a two-year-old son, Arjun.
Sekhar grew up in Maryland and amidst the Kerala community in Greater Washington. She attended Wellesley College and graduated with a major in Political Science. After working on the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, she went back to complete a M.A. in International Development at Brandeis University. After a number of different work experiences involving: international development, research, fundraising, and writing and communications, she began her own communications consulting work. Sekhar also trained since childhood in Bharatanatyam and has a great interest in Indian arts and culture. After having a child in 2011, most of her personal and professional interests have come together through 2Lokas. She lives in Alexandria, VA with her husband and son.
The two met while playing on the tennis team at Wellesley College. Their shared backgrounds in international development, combined with a personal interest in ensuring that their sons were exposed to the very diverse cultures the world has to offer (including their own), prompted the creation of The Little Loka Series™.
In this exclusive interview with The American Bazaar, Khanna and Sekhar discuss the creation of the series, what kind of change they hope it instigates, and where they plan to take it in the future.
Excerpts from the interview:
Talk about where the idea to write a children’s book aimed at non-white youth came from. Was there a specific event in either of your lives that sparked the idea, or was this something that was on the back-burner for a while before it finally got done?
Malini’s family is from Kerala, while Kyra’s husband is Punjabi and grew up in New Delhi. Thus, we both have personal connections to India. This has driven our content for and approach to the first book and series. After our sons were born, we found that we were constantly on the lookout for board books about India in particular, but the age-appropriate options were limited. It was a bit disheartening, especially as we realized how much our children, even at such a young age, were capable of learning from books, including words like “Namaste”. The statistics on the amount of multicultural content in children’s books is pretty dismal in the U.S., and it gets even worse with younger age groups, we wanted to address that in a meaningful way through our book series.
Despite the India focus of our first book, however, we are not targeting non-white youth per se. We are interested, naturally, in targeting those with existing and personal ties to India in addition to those who may or may not be as familiar with Indian culture, but who have a genuine interest in it and in the world as a whole. In fact, already, we are finding that many non-Indian parents are interested in exposing their children to another culture through our first book. Not only are there very few children’s books available that focus on different cultures, there are even fewer that target children between the ages of 0 and 4. Ultimately, our aim is not necessarily to educate others in the academic sense, but rather to provide a learning platform for parents, teachers, and other adults to engage children in a discussion about culture.
We are also very passionate about the topic of parenting, and more specifically about encouraging other moms to take entrepreneurial risks, if possible. We are both working moms and it certainly has not been easy to set aside already limited time to take on this venture. However, it has been refreshing, almost cathartic, to go from brainstorming about an idea on the back of a napkin to watching our vision materialize in the form of our first published book! We encourage others out there, especially mothers, to pursue their dreams, both big and small.
What was the process like of creating the story, the characters, the illustrations, and so on for Dances in India? We hear a lot about how novels and such come to fruition, but the creation process of a children’s book is often neglected, so talk about how the book when from idea to fully published.
The process has been eye-opening and organic. We are both passionate about writing, so developing characters and creating a storyline that would accompany them came fairly naturally to the both of us. It may sound a bit hackneyed, but since we went to Wellesley, a women’s college, we were determined from the beginning to introduce strong female characters – sisters, in fact – that were compassionate, playful, and adventurous. In the beginning, we played around with a variety of character types, including other animal spin-offs. We ultimately decided on a sort of hybrid between a human and an elephant, as we both love elephants!
Generally, it has been a really collaborative effort. We have worked closely with Alyssa, our illustrator, to develop and refine the characters. She has been invaluable throughout this process. Even though she is not from India, she has been able to capture everything incredibly. She has a unique eye for detail. In fact, searching for and finding an illustrator who was creative, who was willing to take the plunge, and who had a shared vision was one of our more exciting milestones. Once we found Alyssa, also from our alma mater, we were able to focus on the operational and logistical components of self-publishing a book, including finding a printer and identifying marketing and distribution channels.
What has the reaction to the book so far? Positive? Negative? Neutral?
So far, we have received a lot of positive feedback, both from those who supported our initial crowdfunding campaign last year and from those who have ordered the book from our online store and Amazon. We put a great deal of effort into ensuring the content was educational but fun at the same time, and that the illustrations were vibrantly colorful and captivating. As a result, people seem to be enjoying it. Of course, the more we are able to spread the word and get even more people excited about our journey and the book itself, the better!
This is intended to be part of the Little Loka Series, which is described a “multicultural learning experience” for children ages 0-4. Does that mean that each book will be about a different set of characters from a different country around the world? Will all the books be about India and feature elephants as the main characters, or will there be books about Japan, Africa, South America, etc.?
The Little Loka Series will follow the two main characters, Maya and Leela, as they travel around the world. Although we may eventually introduce additional characters or family members, we have always been drawn to the idea of following the same characters throughout the series. There is something exciting about wondering where they will go next! Once we have finished the India series, our goal is to expand to other countries. Interestingly, a number of people have actually approached us with ideas for the next country, which is quite telling.
We refer to this as an “experience,” for several reasons. Our aim is not only to encourage parents to read with their children, which in and of itself is wonderful, but to establish a platform for those initial cultural conversations to take place. If you visit our website, you will find that we have an online store as well as a dedicated Experience More page. This “experience” piece may involve reading additional information about a particular dance form. Or, it may entail exploring different ways to have fun through dance and play with your little one. In essence, we hope to connect people and to facilitate the learning process through our book and the curated content on the website.
You mention on your website that, in addition to providing stories for multicultural youth, you want the series to spark social change – talk about, specifically, what you hope these books accomplish. What kind of social change do you wish to catalyze, and how do you think/hope the Little Loka series will help in doing so?
Since we were both international development professionals in a former life, we decided fairly early on that incorporating a social change component into our venture was paramount. Undoubtedly, the multicultural angle is a critical part of this. Through these books, we hope to encourage that discussion about multiculturalism. However, we wanted to explore additional ways to embed social change principles and ideals. We have been fortunate enough to connect with two amazing, young social entrepreneurs, both of whom are from Mumbai – Aarti Naik and Sumeet Gade. Their stories are truly touching and we are grateful for the opportunity to donate funds to their respective projects. And, finally, we have found that, through these books and through our larger vision and mission, we have been able to bring children and adults together. These worlds are often siloed, so finding a way to merge the two, that is, allowing adults to embrace their inner youthfulness through play and learning while encouraging children to learn and connect with them through board books, has been challenging and exciting!
What is the time-frame on when the rest of the books in the series will be released? Is there a set number of books you intend to have in the series, or could it theoretically keep going on as long as you come up with new stories to tell?
Our thought is to develop several books per country, which will give us the opportunity to cover more than one topic. We may address the same topics in each country and we may branch out and tailor them a bit more, depending on the particular cultural elements for which a country might be known. And, although we would love to be able to churn out a book every month, we also want to create a high-quality product for our customers. So, that may preclude us from developing numerous books in a year. We do hope to keep the series going for as long as possible. Fortunately, we have an extraordinary challenge on our hands – there are so many countries to choose from!
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com