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Kerala calls you ‘The Mathemagician’ and we hear that math was integral to your childhood. Tell us where it all began?
My father ran a tea stall and I used to help him there since I was 3 or 4 years old. He used to ask me to take care of the stall when he was busy doing other things. At that time, I had to calculate the prices of tea and snacks for customers to pay. This was before I started school. The stall also had newspapers and my father encouraged me to read them. I remember reading ‘ShriLalBahadurSashtri’ together as one word; I learned to read by making mistakes much before joining school, taught by my father. And mathematics was all around me, it was fundamental to our everyday. As I grew up, with support from teachers, I took up mathematics for my higher studies. I see mathematics in everything; it is the pulse of the universe!
What was your journey like in becoming a children’s author?
When I began working as a school teacher, I understood about the difficulty that students face with math as a subject. There were no literary books around mathematics at that time. I wrote an article for children, ‘Common Errors in Mathematics’ published in a souvenir publication. It was much appreciated by a colleague, but I was more interested in writing stories and publishing them. His words were an eye opener; he said that many may write stories but only few can write about mathematics for children. I considered this as a big suggestion and soon after I wrote my first book for children, ‘Prakithiyile Ganitham (Mathematics in Nature). It spoke about how beehives are hexagonal, how their communication through movement had a mathematical element etc. Based on books like these, I was invited to work on the school curriculum by the State Institute of Education. I saw a literary value in mathematics. Gradually, as I kept writing, it became a full-time occupation itself. And I resigned from my teaching job after writing a hundred books.
Your books take mathematics to children in a society where many are afraid of the subject. How do you connect the two?
If you see, children do not enjoy mathematics textbooks, because it is the subject that most of them dislike. I do not publish books that ‘teach’ maths the way it is taught in school. I publish stories, poems, drama or life stories like the book Pi Yude Aathmakatha (The Autobiography of Pi). Over the years, I have tried to develop mathematics as a branch of literature. If I write a book called ‘Textbook of Geometry’, not many will be interested. So, my aim has been to take mathematics to children in a way that makes their engagement with the subject an enjoyable one.
How do you write in a language that is comprehensible to children and yet scientific?
As I said, my aim is to present information to children in a manner that is scientific as well as be enjoyable. I try to have element of fiction in my books as children like listening to stories, and also make sure that science is presented in the works. I wrote Poojatinte Katha (The Story of Zero) as a story of numbers and how the concept of zero travelled from India to Europe through Arabia. The story is as important as the mathematical concept.
Can you tell us about a few of your books where you offer history within mathematics?
I wrote a book on the world geniuses of mathematics, Ganithasahtra Prathibakkal (Eminent Mathematicians), and that has history. One of the first mathematicians was Meghatithi who named the modern numbers, pancha, shashta, nawa. I have written about her in the book. I try to trace back concepts through history for readers to be able to visualize the larger context. While studying geometry or logarithms, it adds value and strengthens learning if children understand how and where they come from, the process of discovery. In another book, Nila Nadhiyum Nile Nadhiyum (Rivers Nila and Nile), I discuss how geometry developed on the banks of River Nile. People developed geometry to calculate land ownership in their riverine civilization in a time when there were constant floods in the banks of the river. To avoid land disputes, they devised a way to draw geometric picture (map) of their region and assign land according to landmarks that would not be destroyed by the flood. This led to development of geometry as a branch of study. But sadly, as it progressed, its rootedness to earth measurement and the story of its origin was lost. In this context, I must share with you that there was a mathematical centre on the banks of Nila River in Kerala 3-4 centuries ago. Many prominent mathematicians worked here. This is a history that many Keralites do not know. There are so many subjects in the world and I feel happy that mathematics can be found in all if we try to look deep.
What kind of readers’ response have you received for your books?
Through the years that I have been writing, I have received excellent and constructive responses to my books. Since my books address a subject important to schools, responses have largely been from teachers, parents and children. Feedback received has encouraged me to write more. Earlier, children wrote letters to me to share their thoughts, now it is through WhatsApp messages. Some of the best responses have been for Ganitha Vigyana Kosham (Encyclopaedia of Mathematics); it was the first and the only book of such kind in Malayalam. Another one is Ganithasashtra Prathibakkal (Eminent Mathematicians); this book has received much appreciation for the information presented of around 200 mathematicians. Poojyatinte Katha (Story of Zero) and Sangyakalude Katha (Story of Numbers) also received positive responses. Many teachers I meet tell me how they keep going back to my books for their leisure reading for the content and familiarity since their childhood. I feel that my books were more relevant in the 80s and the 90s. Now, children can find these information online, though parents and teachers continue to read. There may be no significant reduction in readership, but number of readers to my books do not seem to have increased when compared to the increasing number of children.
