eShe TV: Author Roopa Pai on simplifying ancient Indian scriptures for today’s kids

Bengaluru-based children’s book author Roopa Pai studied to be a computer engineer but soon veered into writing children’s books. She has the knack of simplifying complex scientific and spiritual concepts into engaging stories using colloquial language for the young kids of today. She’s written 20 children’s books so far and many of them are bestsellers, enjoyed as much by adults as by children.

Among them is the award-winning The Gita for Children, which was translated into several languages and is listed by Amazon India as one of ‘100 Indian books to read in a lifetime’. Roopa’s TEDx talk ‘Decoding the Gita: India’s Book of Answers’ has received over two million views to date.

In this episode of eShe TV, the mother of two talks to eShe founder and editor Aekta Kapoor about her unlikely journey, what kids today are reading, and her latest book The Yoga Sutras for Children (Hachette India).

Roopa studied computer engineering on the instructions of her mother, but always knew she wanted to write children’s books. After years of writing stories and comics for children, she was approached by her publisher to write a Gita for children.

“When I began to read the Gita, I was so rivetted, so charmed, so captivated that I thought, ‘My God, why haven’t I read this text before? It will be so useful for children to read while growing up, it will change the quality of their lives’,” she says.

The process of studying the ancient scriptures and implementing their wisdom had a beneficial side-effect for her too: “It enhanced my life at so many levels,” she says.

Having taken up yoga during the pandemic, she says of her new book, “The Yoga Sutras talk about how to liberate yourself from your fears and all the veils that obscure your view of the world. Whether I get there or not, each time I read it, I am full of hope that one day I’ll get there. And that itself makes me a happier person.”

This episode is also available as a podcast: