How a British author is introducing ancient Tamil wisdom of 'Thirukkural' to children

One evening in December 2024 in the UK, a mother was keeping her children in bed to sleep. Then she received a call to spin a time-travel yarn. In the yarn, her little listeners travelled back centuries and materialized in the same era of the Tamil poet and philosopher Thiruvalluvar to learn a roll call of life lessons from his timeless Tamil classic, Thirukkural.

Her mother was Rushani Mahendran (@iamrushani on Instagram), an educator, author, and entrepreneur. She did not realize that this new bedtime story routine would become the inspiration for her next book writing project. "I'm born and brought up in the UK, and studying Tamil literature here is very tough. We don't have so many resources or even teachers. But I was fortunate.". I had a good teacher with in-depth knowledge," says the Sri Lankan Tamil. The problem, though, was to share that knowledge with her second generation. That is when she discovered the common denominator that binds her children to her — time travel. Rushani says, "For bedtime, I used to create a story of time travel where they encounter Thiruvalluvar, and he sends them on a challenge.". When they finish it, he presents them with the kural and its moral. They then make sense of it because they have already experienced the journey.

In a month she wrote her stories on paper, printed and published them for others to feel a new world of Thiruvalluvar. What had started as an exercise in the family is now a ten-book published series, Kural Inspired Stories, and the eleventh one is on the anvil. These books have now attracted the attention of Tamil-speaking families in Chennai as well.

Each book takes a kural and interprets it for children, with the central theme being time travel and adventure. The readers — from age four (with parents’ support), and targeted ages between eight and 13, to as old as 25-29 — explore the text that is a guide to morals. “At the end of every book, I give reflection exercises. I ask, what is your one big goal? What are the five stages to do it? So the kids learn how to relate the story to their lives," she says.

Rushani draws inspiration and ideas from her kids. When her daughter said that Thiruvalluvar's teachings were so complicated they would have to go back in time to decipher them, the book series was born. "My son always asks, " What if this happened next in the story? " So I incorporate those concepts, and they [her children] always read ahead of publication to provide feedback," she says. Apart from this, Rushani also talks to her teacher "on what a mural could have meant? How do I perceive this? How do I use it in my life? 

When I was young, I used to understand it in a different way.". Now I view it differently. Some of it will be dated — some of the attitudes toward women and some of the ways about your role in your family — but you can extract what pertains to you from this text, and that is useful to understand how our culture changed. 

Not confined to a place, a culture, or a tongue, Rushani's vision is larger than Tamil-speaking households. "Even kids who are not part of this culture should be able to comprehend it better. Nobody really knows the distinction between Indian and Tamil, and I wanted to make that clearer," she says. I’ve included a few Tamil words with their meanings so all kids can appreciate and bond with the culture.”  She wants also people to realize the love for such books and stories. "Only then "they will also be encouraged, if they have something in mind they want to bring, to create new stories based on their culture," she adds.

Since the launch of the first book in January of 2025, the grind for Rushani has been constant. She now has a podcast. "The first five have already dropped, approximately 40-45 minutes each. We also have to meet them [kids] where they are," she mentions.

Even today, most evenings, the ritual persists. A mother, book in her lap, welcomes her children into realms of knowledge and magic. When she closes the pages, they are already dreaming of Thiruvalluvar, tales lurking in the margins, and lessons that will whisper themselves into tomorrow.