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My Life
Dheera Kitchlu, children’s author and illustrator, has been working with children for the last 30 years. Overcoming her learning disabilities, she has written extensively for children. In addition to her five published story books, she has been involved in story development and script writing for Indian Television, radio plays and skits, stories for audio-cassettes for children at the National Association for the Blind, in Mumbai. Serving the society is part and parcel of all her initiatives. Let us find out how.
Dheera Kitchlu had a unique childhood. Coming from an army background, she lived in huge houses, enjoyed horse riding, grew up with animals and was inclined towards social causes. In her college days, she ran a private school from her home for underprivileged children and was supported by the Red Cross and the UNICEF. Dheera reminisces, “I had a lot of helpers and maid servants in the house. I ran a home for their kids. Since I wanted to fund the initiative myself, I earned money by giving classes in conversational English to people. Later, international organisations supported me. Now all those twenty kids are grown up and doing very well.”
Dheera also owned a horse riding school in New Delhi, where she taught riding to children between the ages of 3-16 years. She was a nursery school teacher and then the Principal of Sophia School in Mumbai.
Coping with Learning Disabilities
One of the major blocks that prevented Dheera from writing for a long time was dyslexia. Dheera explains, “I spent my whole school and college life thinking I am very slow. At that time, there was no question of knowing about dyslexia. I couldn’t spell or write very well. I couldn’t read at all. After I got married and had children, I did a teacher training course. There was a paper on learning disabilities. That is when I discovered I was dyslexic.”
Dheera’s books are mostly autobiographical, “I wrote my first book when my children left home. I felt bereft. I wrote ‘My friend Sadhu Shiva’ then I was commissioned by Rupa to write ‘My Granny’s Greek tales’. I was no longer afraid of writing and reading. It was a handicap I had to overcome. I still do it very slowly. On some days, I can’t read at all. But I don’t panic. I leave it and come to it in an hour. I have written a fantasy book ‘Maya’ about a dyslexic child. It expresses all these feelings.”
Illustrating
For a long time, Dheera did not go to publishers. But when she did, it helped her in ways she had not imagined. For instance, she wrote a book on alphabet stories, helping children with phonetics and sounds. “I went to publishers for a picture book. I was trying to explore phonetic sounds. It had three lines on a page and no illustration. When it didn’t work out, I decided to write one story and illustrate it. I went to Navneet publications. They asked me to write six such books with exercises at the back. I was no artist but I ended up drawing 187 illustrations! It was a wonderful experience indeed.”
Writing to serve
In the year 2000, she wrote the book ‘Your Story’ for the Indian Association for Promotion of Adoption and Child Welfare, guiding parents in coping with adoption. In 2005, she wrote ‘From Darkness to Light’, stories of 25 blind women and their achievements. Dheera adds, “I also set up the library for the National Association for the Blind, Mumbai because they had no books for children. I voice recorded my stories and these cassettes are distributed free of cost all over India.”
Dheera contributes her profits from writing to St. Cathrine of Siena School and Orphanage in Bandra. Recently, she has launched an initiative called ‘Anyone can Write’ to encourage children to fully explore their creative potential through writing, with a view to being published in support with ‘Serene Woods’ publishing house.
Typical day
Dheera wakes up at 6:00 am and goes for a morning walk. She comes back and gets down to writing by 8 am. “I get up only for a quick lunch and then start writing again. I can go on and on till after dinner, if there is no one else in the house. I am very people shy so I like to be by myself and write. However, I feel that writing is not a lonely affair. It is a time when you can really be with yourself. I feel lucky that I can do it.”
Nothing is too much for someone with so many ideas. It comes as no surprise that on top of her writing work, Dheera aunty, as she is fondly called, also knits toys for children hospitals, mobile crèches and others!
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