Home-grown mysteries

Afew weeks ago, I was driving through the streets of Kalbadevi, one of Mumbai's oldest and most colourful neighbourhoods, pointing out interesting historic landmarks to my eight-year-old son and nine-yearold niece. This is the building where cotton was first bought and sold, and this is the oldest temple in the city, I enthusiastically babbled. At some point, the children looked at me and said, "Can we please go to the mall in Phoenix Mills now?" And this is why I am grateful to Deepak Dalal for writing books like Sahyadri Adventure.

These two books, Anirudh's Dream and Koleshwar's Secret, are the latest in the 'Vikramaditya' series, adventures about two young boys Vikram and Aditya, who have been described as India's Hardy Boys. They love the great outdoors, live for adventure, and fight to save wildlife from poachers and evil traders. Dalal created his series of 'Indian tales for Indian children' way back in 1998. Dalal's first four books were set in India's most picturesque locales — Lakshadweep, Ladakh, the Andaman Islands and Ranthambore — and had a strong undercurrent of environmental activism.

Full report here Times of India