The Sohrai Project is part of the project 'Education in One's Own Language Through Community Participation' (July 2022- June 2023), done by Dr. Asifa Sultana and her research team from the Department of English and Humanities, Brac University, Bangladesh, funded by the Open Society University Network (OSUN) under their Engaged Research Grant.
Under this project, I was responsible for making an illustrated storybook depicting a Kurukh folktale.
Why the moon is broken and has spots
Type: Freelance Project
Time Taken: 25 days | Software Used: Medibang Paint Pro, Adobe InDesign
Based on the Sohrai art style (Sohrai Painting is a folk mural painting tradition that is mostly practised in the villages of Jharkhand's Hazaribagh area), I had to illustrate an oral folktale for children. The final book would be used to rekindle curiosity in children to learn more about their community and culture.
The story within is in three languages: English, Bengali and Kurukh.
Once given the story, I interpreted it and used imagery commonly seen in Sohrai paintings, as well as a style that would be suitable and interesting for children to read to come up with concept sketches. Once that was done, fixing the layout for the text around the sketches was an interesting exercise where I used my knowledge from previous classes where I made illustrated books, especially considering that it had to be both in Bangla and English.
Conceptualisation: Indrani Roy and Ipshita Raj
Translation from Kurukh to Bangla: Franca Kujur
Translation from Bangla to English: Indrani Roy
Illustration and Layout: Ipshita Raj