Our pooches, our heroes!

We love to read stories about our pooches…their adventures, love and companionship always makes an interesting read. More recently, we interacted with two authors of two lovely books on canines – The Stupendous Timetelling Superdog by Himanjali Sankar and Bambi, Chops and Wags by Ranjit Lal. Here’s more from these pooch loving authors.

The plots…
Penned by Himanjali Sankar, The Stupendous Timetelling Superdog (published by Duckbill Books) is about a stupendous timetelling superdog, Rousseau, who belongs to Mrs Ghosh and her two daughters, Kaavya and Anya. It also features the Orange Marmaladies, the Original Timekeepers of the Universe, from the Black Hole of Time. A problem arose when the Orange Marmaladies wanted to watch the Miss Universe Contest on Earth and stuff like that.
While, Bambi, Chops and Wags by Ranjit Lal (published by Roli Books), is a heart-warming first-person narrative of the young author and his two sisters’ love for their new dog and their life-long adoration for this new friend and member of the family.
Inspirations behind the books…
Himanjali: An insane dog, a mid-life crisis and lots of good literature.
Ranjit: The dogs naturally…it’s about the lives of the three dogs we kept, the antics they got up to, their personalities, good and bad habits and relationships with human members of the family.
Characters inspired from real life…
Himanjali: My characters, their personalities and responses to situations, are derived from my own experiences with people and events. It is not that I consciously modelled my characters on people I know but yes, my editors, who are also my friends, were struck by the similarities between my daughters and the two girls in the book and Mrs Ghosh and me. And, yes, in the case of Rousseau, he is modelled on my own Labrador, also called Rousseau. Except that the real life Rousseau will not be able to tell you the time.
Ranjit: As I mentioned earlier, the characters are all in my family!
Target audience…
Himanjali: Reading levels vary widely so it gets tough to be sure sometimes, but I think children in the age group of 6 to 10 would simply love it.
Ranjit: I think my book would interest anybody above the age of 10 years.
On pets…
Himanjali: My family in Kolkata always had dogs. When I was growing up, we had a Cocker Spaniel called Coco who was marginally less insane than Rousseau. I am friend with several street dogs these days. There is a beautiful dog with red fur and triangular ears and a whole lot of attitude who I am particularly fond of. Then there is Spotty Dog who loves to dig and Scout who hangs out with us quite often.
Ranjit: Though I don’t have any dogs or pets now, I was blessed with pets earlier and that’s what the book’s all about!
Message to pet parents…
Himanjali: I would request our readers to please laugh loudly while reading this book or if that is not possible to at least smile widely. And most importantly, love all dogs and animals a whole lot because they are awesome.
Ranjit: Families must keep dogs provided they know this is a commitment that will last the life of the dog.