It is difficult to imagine JRD Tata as a child. His magnanimous contributions to business, philanthropy and aviation are enough to make his name a towering legacy. The Tata Group carries on this legacy well. But in The Boy who wanted to Fly- JRD Tata by Lavanya Karthik (Duckbill, Penguin), young readers are invited into the world of little Jeh, the boy who dreamt of a future in the clouds.
The story dives right into the two worlds of his childhood. With a French mother and an Indian father, he juggled western living on one hand with traditional Parsi values on the other. But even as Jeh lived in both these spaces, trying to make sense of the worlds that were so different, his imagination took flight. His dreams got wings, literally!
Karthik’s book draws the young reader into Jeh’s world and the reader accompanies Jeh as his heart soars with the ‘metal bird’ that he sees in the sky. Even as fighter planes drop bombs over Paris, Jeh stands fearlessly looking at them in the night skies.
Lavanya Karthik brings alive a slice of a beautiful and crucial time in the life of one of India’s greatest industrialists whose calling lay in connection. The book is inspirational and shows that even young children can and must dream big. Flying in the skies is then just a given!
