Ten-year-old twin sisters pen a book on first female spy of Indian independence struggle

Bhopal: Devyani and Shivranjani, 10 years old from Madhya Pradesh, have taken everybody by surprise by penning a book at this young age. Devyani and Shivranjani, one of the country's youngest writers, chose Saraswati Rajamani, India's youngest spy, as the subject of their book. The book titled 'Saraswati Rajamani-The forgotten Spy', is the story of the youngest soldier of the Azad Hind Fauj, an anonymous freedom fighter. This book is also a gift of these twin sisters to the country when we are celebrating 75 years of independence. Now after this noble work, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has released the book.

What was the contribution of children to India's independence? Devyani and Shivranjani ran after this question and reached Saraswati Rajamani, the youngest soldier of the Azad Hind Fauj. With the help of the Internet, they gathered information about them. And then both decided that the book would be written only on that brave girl, who had donated all her ornaments for the Azad Hind Fauj.

Devyani and Shivranjani completed this book about a year after the summer vacation gave them enough time. Since this book is a joint effort of these two sisters. So, how to present the story? From this idea to the inclusion of pictures in the book, both used to discuss first, then they used form an opinion before proceeding further.

Ten-year-old Shivranjani says, "This book was written so that our generation does not forget the patriots, due to which we got freedom." Devyani says, “That was the reason why we searched and chose the story of an anonymous freedom fighter with Saraswati Rajamani, about whom people do not know much. She donated her entire jewellery to the Azad Hind Fauj. At a young age, she became a part of Azad Hind Fauj and became the youngest spy in the country. Not only children like us, but elders should also know about her." Shivranjani said, "How many such anonymous martyrs will be there, because of which we got freedom? It is our duty to honour their sacrifices and dedication." It was not so difficult for these little writers to put the story of a patriotic fighter in sequence in a 36-page book. The challenge was to tell the story of that era in pictures. The speciality of this book is that every page has pictures related to it, which have been painted by Devyani and Shivranjani.

It was not easy to paint India and Burma in the pictures. We have done a lot of research on this, too. Devyani says, "Saraswati Rajamani was born in Myanmar, she was India's first female spy. Staying in the Azad Hind Fauj, she spied on the British and collected much important information. We had to show the India of that time in our pictures, If we wanted to show the Myanmar of that era, then we had to do a lot of research for that."

'Saraswati Rajamani- Ek Bhuli Bisri Jasoos' is the second book written by Devyani and Shivranjani. Earlier, they have written a book based on yoga 'Surya Namaskar'. The special thing is that even in their first book, these twin sisters had taken the story forward through pictures and all the pictures in the book have been painted by both of them. Shivranjani and Devyani are now planning for their third book. Devyani says, "Our next book will be on rivers. Our next book will be on the animals living in the river, the entire ecosystem of the river."

How are books compatible in the age of mobile? Shivranjani and Devyani are also children of the same era. Smita Bhardwaj, the mother of Shivranjani and Devyani, says, "These two have always maintained a very strong bond with books. There is an important rule of parenting that you should provide freedom to them and explain the ill effects of using mobile for a long time. My daughters have their own library of 500 books. We always do something creative in our spare time, that's why there is no space for mobile or TV in Devyani and Shivranjani's life. They always wanted to do something new and creative."