Namaste Gang, an online initiative for children's books in Telugu, Tamil and Kannada

The Hindu

10 hours ago

Niranjan Narasipuram, Vishwa Kumar Narasipuram, Veda Madhurya Kowturu and Medha Vaishnavi Kowturu, aged between seven and 12, walk into the Saptaparni Cultural Centre in Hyderabad with a sense of familiarity, drawn to shelves filled with books, activity kits, and board games. 'This is the team that approves the books we shortlist for Namaste Gang,' say their mothers, Visali Kopparthy and Shilpa Kowturu.
Namaste Gang (thenamastegang.com) curates books for children in the age group of 0 to 10, predominantly in Telugu, with a few titles in English, Kannada, and Tamil.
Visali teaches copyright and civil law at Siddhartha Law College, Vijayawada, and divides her time between Hyderabad and Vijayawada. Shilpa teaches English and Social Studies at Chaitanya Vidyalaya School, Hyderabad. The duo had been sourcing children's books in Telugu for friends and family and founded Namaste Gang in 2021 as an extension of the activity.
Visali and Shilpa come from families that enjoy reading both in English and Telugu. When their children were young, they sensed a gap in children's books in Indian languages. 'We've been reading in Telugu to our children since they were babies,' says Visali. 'We realised that this was not the case with other families, due to lack of awareness about the importance of reading to kids in their mother tongue or simply the lack of access to good children's literature in Indian languages.'
Reading in one's mother tongue is the easiest way to inculcate reading habits in children, says Shilpa: 'Children are first introduced to native foods of the region, so why not books in their mother tongue?'
As for the name, Shilpa and Visali wanted the traditional Indian greeting of 'namaste' and 'gang' to add the cool quotient for urban children.
The fun factor
Namaste Gang curates and resells titles from children's publishers such as Pratham, Tulika, NBT, CBT, and Manchi Pustakam. They also identify titles through bookstores, exhibitions, and storytelling sessions. Having read to their children, they have a fair idea of what would be of interest without being preachy. Then, the children step in. 'The books chosen by Niranjan are liked by most kids, because he reads for fun,' says Visali.
So far, the online bookstore has catered to more than 5000 families. Social media presence (@thenamastegang at Instagram) has helped tap new customers. To keep costs low, they rely on postal delivery as opposed to a courier service. They began with an investment of ₹5 lakh and broke even recently.
The team also ventured into publishing Telugu board books. 'There are 10 to 15 publishers in the Tamil board book segment, but we found none in Telugu,' says Visali. Their pictorial book Aakesi Pappesi, with visuals inspired by the 'Vivaha Bhojanambu' song from the Telugu classic Mayabazar, has been a major hit.
Telugu and Tamil calendars
A new addition is 'Manamaasalu', a pictorial presentation of the Telugu calendar. 'We wanted children to understand, through simple illustrations, that Ugadi comes in chaitra masam rather than March-April,' adds Shilpa.
Similarly, Namaste Gang also introduced a Tamil calendar and published a Tamil board book titled Chithirayil Enna Varum. Plans are on for a calendar and book in Kannada.
Their books take a simpler approach towards introducing words to young children. Visali reasons, 'Unlike our generation that grew up reading volumes of Chandamama and Balamitra, children today need to begin with simpler words, given their limited exposure to reading in Telugu.' The books also have a subtle gender equality undertone — think of images showing a girl playing hockey, a boy helping in the kitchen, or a mother working on her laptop.
(Check www.thenamastegang.com for further details; books are priced between ₹70 and ₹300. A few titles are available at Saptaparni, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad)