Our Incredible Cow
Written by Mahaswetadevi | Illustrated by Ruchi Shah
‘Our Incredible Cow’ was originally called 'Our Non - Veg Cow' - written by Mahaswetadevi (Nobel Prize Nominee for
Literature and Socio-Political Activist) in 1982 for a Bengali Magazine. This story was later published by Seagull Books.
This was an academic project during my time in IDC IIT Bombay in 2007, which was published much later by
Tulika Books in 2015. The book is available in nine Indian languages.
The story is about the author's pet cow 'Nyadosh'. It describes the many escapades of 'Nyadosh' who lives in their
village house. She butts everybody, eats fish & onions and does exactly as she pleases. What drew me to this script
was the that it questions what happens to our value systems when the very thing we worship turns out to be rebellious
and breaks every set code of conduct.
The contradiction in the title influenced my design approach. I captured the unusualness of the story by creating the
cow with objects that she used to eat or interact with in the story. I adopted a different technique for each page owing
to the changing materials - fabric was folded, onions were cut, banana leaves were arranged and books were
balanced to achieve the correct anatomy and perspective of Nyadosh.
The book is available at Tulika Books or Amazon.
