Malli and the Lion

How 'Malli and the Lion' was born!

V.V. Gurucharan is a published writer of children's literature. His first book 'Malli and the Lion' was published by Rupa & Co, New Delhi (ISBN 81-291-0016-9), in 2002. This book is about a girl, Malli, who lives in the US with her parents. She goes to India, the native land of her parents, to spend her summer vacation with her grandmother. Randhir is an African lion at the zoo at the seaside resort of Chintanoor. Randhir is desperately looking for a friend. What happens when a lion choses Malli as his friend? What happens when notorious criminals plan to kill the lion to bring disrepute to the curator of the zoo....and the lion actually hears the murder plan?

V. V. Gurucharan wrote this story when his niece Gowri actually visited India. She was quite young (about four years old) and the writer wanted to take her on a visit to the modest zoo in Visakhapatnam (a coastal city in Andhra Pradesh, India). In the story, Visakhapatnam is Chintanoor, Gowri is Malli and Uncle Manoj is none other than V. V. Gurucharan, the writer of this tale). Sadly, Gurucharan did not get to show his niece the beautiful zoo of Vizag (Visakhapatnam) because his sister Sarada (Gowri's mother) thought that the zoo compared quite poorly (especially when it came to cleanliness and hygiene) with those in the US! So the writer-to-be had to be content with penning down the planned guided tour -- and that was how 'Malli and the Lion' was born!