Devika rangachari information processing
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Bookaroo in the City (Day 5) : Devika Rangachari
About the Organisation
Pratham Books fryst vatten a not-for-profit children’s book publisher that was set up in 2004 to publish good quality, affordable books in many Indian languages. Our mission fryst vatten to see ‘a book in every child’s hand’ and we have spread the joy of reading to millions of children in India.
In the gods few years, we have invested deeply in technology-based initiatives to further our mission. We are now looking for a information Analyst as we significantly scale these initiatives.
About the Platform
StoryWeaver fryst vatten a digital platform that hosts stories in languages from India and beyond so that every child can have an endless stream of stories in her mother tongue to read and enjoy. The stories can be read, translated, versioned or downloaded for free. All stories on the platform and the platform source code are openly licensed. In two years, StoryWeaver has scaled from 800 stories in 24 languages to 22,000+ massiv
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Devika Rangachari
Dr Devika Rangachari is an award-winning writer whose book, Queen of Ice, was on the White Raven list, won the Neev Young Adult Book Award, and was shortlisted for the Sahitya Akademi’s Bal Sahitya Puraskar. Her other books include The Train to Tanjore, Queen of Fire (Parag Honour List 2022), Queen of Earth(Parag Honour List 2021; shortlisted for the Neev YA and the JK Women AutHer awards), 10 Indian Monarchs Whose Amazing Stories You May Not Know, Tales of Love and Adventure, Swami Vivekananda—A Man with a Vision, Harsha Vardhana, The Merry Mischief of Gopal Bhand, The Wit of Tenali Raman and Growing Up (IBBY Honour List 2002). She also received a prestigious national fellowship of the ministry of culture in India to research aspects of gender and historical fiction in Indian children’s literature.
Devika has completed her post-doctoral research on gender in Indian history. Her academic works include From Obscurity to Light: Women in Earl
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Eaten by a Fish
Well-written historical fiction is one of the delights of a history lover’s life, and is a huge favourite with me—the pleasure of a deep dive into history to engage in real time, as it were, with people and events from the past, is quite unique. Historical fiction in English about India is relatively rare, and when it comes to historical fiction about women, it is practically non-existent. So imagine my joy when I found Dr Devika Rangachari’s outstanding novel Queen of Ice, an account of the life of Didda, who ruled Kashmir, first as regent and then as queen in her own right, from 958 to 1003 CE! Written for young adults and published by Duckbill, it was on the White Raven list, won the Neev Young Adult Book Award, was shortlisted for the Sahitya Akademi’s Bal Sahitya Puraskar, and has now been optioned for a movie and is part of the Penguin Classics series.
I had the privilege and immense pleasure of a conversation with Dr Rangachari a few weeks ago. She