India, Feb. 16 -- It's like a door into the past, left ajar.
New books aimed at children are unwrapping the lives of some of India's most renowned artists, with a special focus on their childhoods.
The aim is to allow children to really see how an artist thinks, says Vaishali Shroff, author of one such book on the sculptor Meera Mukherjee.
Other works include The Secret World of Mehlli Gobhai (Pratham Books; 2021), which tells the story of a boy who found art in everything, even in the way a street vendor arranged his combs for sale. Written by Jerry Pinto, it explores, among other things, how Gobhai embraced mistakes.
As the artist once told Pinto: "A mistake can show you what you wanted to do, or show you what could be done if you let...