My Name Is Gulab

Gulab’s classmates call her ‘Stinky Gulab’, and it’s not because she smells. Her father is a manual scavenger — he is made to clean drains and gutters with his bare hands, even today! “Why do you do it?!” asks Gulab angrily. With a determination to help him, and a little help from science, she takes the first bold step towards change.

After Red, his acclaimed picture book on war and hope, Sagar Kolwankar addresses a deep-rooted social evil with the same lightness and sensitivity. This story too unfolds through the experiences of a child — nudging young minds to question the inequality and indignity that other children like themselves face in the same world. Sagar’s animated illustrations evoke the feisty Gulab as she refuses to let school bullies, or society, chip at her spirit.