It’s 1942 in Tanjore, and Thambi wants to know more about the Quit India movement. Encouraged by his father, he visits the library regularly to scour the newspapers. But there’s precious little in the papers about anything except the war raging in Europe. Thambi wants to know about Gandhiji and the other freedom fighters! Not Hitler and the Japanese!
Yet, he knows that the war is frightening too. In fact, his new friend Sumit has moved to Tanjore from faraway Bengal because of the threat of a Japanese attack. Is Sumit right? Are the Japanese all set to attack Thanjavur too?
Even with everything happening all around Thambi, Hitler, the British and the Japanese are only one small part of his world. Like all the other books in the Songs of Freedom series, The Train to Tanjore beautifully balances Thambi’s individual struggles with the larger socio-political picture. More often than not, Thambi’s annoying Periappa seems a much bigger problem than the British! And his birthday feasts, new clothes, a movie in the brand-new theatre … aren’t these exciting events in a young boy’s life, no matter what is happening in the world beyond?
Together with these boyish wonders, I love how delicately Devika Rangachari weaves social issues into the story. For instance, Thambi wants to eat at the Mani’s restaurant – oh! The smells! But no child from a “good” family can possibly eat there. And just like that, we see one of the problems that’s part of the social fabric of the country.
A quick read, The Train to Tanjore is a slim book that forms a lovely addition to a series that spans across various parts of the country – Bombay, Calcutta, fictitious Manikoil in south India, and now, Tanjore. Will we have a story from somewhere in north India next? I, for one, hope so!
| Title | The Train to Tanjore |
| Author | Devika Rangachari |
| Tags | Middle-Grade, Historical Fiction, Songs of Freedom |
| Rating (out of 5) | 4 |
| Age-group | 10+ |
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