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A Cultural Odyssey: An Anonymous Indian Expat’s journey of creating an educational Children’s book

Updated: Jul 4, 2023

Leaving my home country of India, a decade ago, was a difficult decision. My company wanted me to move to Australia to support the technology team, so I had to leave. Over the years, I have worked in Australia, the United States, and Canada, experiencing new cultures and opportunities. However, with these experiences also came the realization that I was leaving behind my cultural roots and familiar surroundings. I used to think that I will always be rooted in my originality and the physical location of existence doesn’t matter in a digitally connected world.


Fast forward to a decade later, I got married and now have two beautiful children. I wanted to focus on their moral education, so I started searching for books to help me in this endeavor. I believe that every child’s elementary education starts at home. Board books were my obvious choice due to their durability. I was looking for books with engaging stories that would provide meaningful life lessons and prepare my kids for kindergarten by teaching them about colors, numbers, and shapes in a fun way.


I couldn’t find such books in the market and wondered if I should take up the task of creating one, myself. I had previously written two technical books, but I had never written one for children. I knew that creating a good children’s book required both engaging content and appealing illustrations. While creating illustrations is not exactly my forte, the thought of potentially making a significant impact on the emotional development of children around the world motivated me to move forward with this venture.


A few days later, I officially started work on the book. I reached out to several well-known illustrators, but I couldn’t reach an agreement with them for various reasons. I didn’t have the skills to illustrate the book myself, and acquiring those skills would have taken months of hard work. Additionally, I had a full-time job and a family to support, so I couldn’t afford to take that time away from my other responsibilities. After weeks of searching, I finally found a talented team who could help me. I communicated with them daily, explaining my vision and gave detailed instructions. Here is one of the illustrations from the book. The illustration depicts Krishna buying fruits in exchange for a handful of wheat.


Let's learn and play with Krishna children's book illustration 3

At the same time, every night after putting the kids to bed, I sat down with a pen and paper, determined to find the perfect way to bring my illustrations to life with a captivating narrative. Writing technical books doesn’t provide the skills needed to make a narration interesting for children. I was inspired by my father’s ability to bring the story of Krishna to life through his bedtime stories. After a few days of hard work, I finally managed to write the first of nine poems for my book. This was a major milestone for me. I wanted to do more than just teach children about Krishna. I wanted each poem to have a meaningful moral lesson and to also help children develop their emotional intelligence and learn about colors, numbers, and shapes. These additional elements were carefully woven into the poems to make them more engaging and enriching for kids. Here is one of the poems from the book:



Let's learn and play with Krishna children's book poem page 3

Notice the life lesson at the top of the page. Also notice how the color Red and the number 3 have been woven into the poem. The illustration and poem are then followed by a page that showcases the color being taught, in this case, Red, with an example of a Red apple.

Let's learn and play with Krishna children's book color page 3

Kids also get to practice numbers as shown in the example below.


Let's learn and play with Krishna children's book number page 3

To keep the young minds engaged and entertained, I have added a thrilling treasure hunt to each of the number pages. The treasure hunt is presented in a diamond shape, as shown in the image. And that’s not all! There is also a delightful surprise puzzle at the end of the book, designed to challenge and stimulate the brains of the kids who read it. There are a total of 9 such combinations of poems, illustrations, color pages and hands-on number writing worksheets in the book.


It took me about six months to complete this project, working every night to bring it to life. I was filled with joy as I saw the results of my hard work. However, finding a publisher as a new author was difficult, and traditional printing methods for board books were not cost-effective. Additionally, the cost of warehouse storage and marketing made it seem almost impossible to turn a profit. Despite the practical financial reasons to abandon the project, the thought of giving up on something I had put so much time, energy, and emotional capital into was heart-wrenching.


Thanks to Kindle Direct Publishing, I am able to share the digital version of our book with readers all over the world. Kindle also helped us distribute the paperback version. Our ultimate goal, however, was to create a board book as it is more durable than a paperback. I am thrilled to announce that the board book will soon be available. For pre-orders, please reach out to enterprise.usp@gmail.com.


This is the story of how I wrote a children’s book about Little Krishna. The ebook can be read on Kindle, but for practicing writing numbers, a paperback or a board book is required. Paperback and kindle books are available in US, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Canada, Japan and Australia. Kindle version is also available in Brazil, Mexico and India. Paperback is also available in Sweden and Poland. You can read the book for free with Kindle unlimited and the subscription of Kindle unlimited is generally free for a few days. I am sharing the country specific links below.


Kindle versions:


Paperback version:



I hope you enjoy the content. If you have any feedback, please share it at enterprise.usp@gmail.com.


Here is our little Krishna, with his beautiful big mesmerizing eyes, who inspired us to get on this rollercoaster of a ride.






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