The idea of India Arup Kumar Dutta Let me begin this piece by reiterating a personal experience. Some years back, in an interactive session with students of a Delhi school, a youngster asked me: “Why do some of the young people in your books have such funny sounding names?” He certainly had a point — names such as Thenyak, Changun and Grandma Kamlong in my book The Crystal Cave published by the National Book Trust, India, or Chowkongpen and Chowtapan in Revenge published by Children’s Book Trust, New Delhi, not to mention the Hupeks, Yuriancys and Dhanais who traipse through some of my books for young adults, might sound somewhat strange and alien to the ears of an urban child from North India.