A series of books designed and published by Tulika around thumb prints as illustrative motifs and tell of small tales in the lives of Thumbi and Thangi. From medieval periods the finger print has been a ready unique resource for identity marking. In the 21st Century we continue to use finger printing for authenticating our personhood for good and for bad. I have always wanted these books to be thumbed through, to be explored for both their little descriptive stories and the illustrations and I had a lovely chance to explore this possibility.
At Kathavana 2014, we set up a Thumb-ing in table manned by our volunteers of the day Pavan and Atul. They thumb through theoretical underpinnings on their way to a Doctorate degree, they never imagined thumbing through little picture books would be anything but a piece of cake!
But books , even little or specially little picture books have powers of their own. The thumb-ing table was all thumbs.
Thambi and Thangi are so thumbed through that now they have additional characters who are trying to get into the story and add even more value to a little book with big possibilities.