Chachaji's Cup informs readers about the partition of India and its effects on the people of the region. In 1947, after many years of resistance, India gained its independence from Britain. Until that time, two different religious groups—Muslims and Hindus—had lived together for hundreds of years. With the end of British rule, new borders were drawn, and what at one time had been India suddenly became two different countries. One was India, whose people were mostly Hindu. The other was Pakistan, meant to be a homeland for the region's Muslims. This division was called “the partition.” Chaos followed the partition. Suddenly, many Hindus in Pakistan and many Muslims in India felt unsafe where they had made their homes for generations. More than twelve million people fled their towns and villages to cross the border into their newly designated homeland. The resulting dislocation had a profound effect on many people.

Uma Krishnaswami began work on Chachaji's Cup in 1997, on the fiftieth anniversary of Indian Independence and the partition of India and Pakistan. She writes, “There is no memorial, no monument to the Partition. For many families . . . only memories remain.” She wants children to know how ordinary people are affected by the events of history, and to know that elderly people often have important stories to tell. With Chachaji's Cup, Krishnaswami hopes to start a dialogue about and reconciliation to the events of 1947 among members of the younger generation.

Indian American

Family History:
oral history; family heirlooms and other meaningful possessions; customs; traditions; relatives / branches of family

Leaving Home:
migration; immigration; refugees; relocation; change and resilience; borders (maps, geography); changes of sovereignty / conquest

Generations:
family dynamics; intergenerational families and blended families; learning from elders (storytelling); elders in the community; growing up / aging; traditional ways and new ways

	Uma Krishnaswami was born in New Delhi, India, and grew up steeped in the rich oral traditions of her family and culture. As a child, she read constantly, enjoying Indian literature as well as children's books by English writers. She started writing both poetry and stories at a young age. However, she says, it never occurred to her to try to become a writer, since she assumed that you had to be white, and possibly dead, to be a writer. Newly married, Ms. Krishnaswami emigrated from India to live in the United States in 1979, where she earned a master's degree. She worked in rehabilitation and special education until the late 1980s, when her son was born. Reading to her young child inspired her to change careers and become a writer. She was reminded that the staples of her own literacy were the books she'd read as a child, and that real people, like her, wrote them. Ms. Krishnaswami currently teaches and writes for a living. She conducts writing workshops for young people, through the National Park Service, and for adults who want to write for children, through the Writers on the Net program. She also works with teachers through the National Writing Project. When she is not teaching, she spends her time writing a variety of books for children and young adults. Uma Krishnaswami lives and works with her husband and son in Aztec, a town in northwestern New Mexico. Author's Note: Text, Image, and Interpretation of Story When I wrote the text for Chachaji's Cup, I was thinking of the migrations that took place from Pakistan to India and the other way around, on the western end of the subcontinent. The family I had in mind (although my text doesn't exactly say so) was probably Punjabi, and so I thought of the characters looking a certain way. I thought of Neel's great-grandmother dressed in a salwar kameez, the tunic and loose pants traditionally worn by Punjabi women. The art in this book draws a different interpretation. Soumya placed the story in the context of her own family, and they are from the south of India. Some southern families (mostly those of teachers and other professionals, or government workers) were caught up as well in the mad scramble to cross borders in 1947. When I first saw the art for this book, I was struck by how loving and powerful it was, but being in my accuracy-in-research mode, I also thought, “Hmm, is this what I meant?” Now that the book is out, I hear from people whose families are from Bengal, in the east. There, too, people became refugees, pouring eastward into then East Pakistan, and westward into India. A young Bengali-American man who read Chachaji's Cup wrote in an e-mail message, “Thank you . . . for giving me a story that aligns with who I really am at my core.” To him and all readers of this book, I'd like to say this: Picture books make multiple connections—among the artist, writer, readers, and listeners. In taking my text-bound senses and stretching them, this one pushed me to make connections about craft that I wasn't initially capable of making. —Uma Krishnaswami
	Soumya Sitaraman was born in Chennai (formerly Madras), India, to an artistic family, and grew up painting, bird watching, and walking on the beach. Encouraged by her artist grandmother, she painted from an early age, and calls painting “the sole outlet for my creativity and expression. My art helps me keep my sense of balance. Issues concerning women form the body of my work. I want to discover the woman behind society; the private woman is what I want to discover in my paintings.” In the early 1990s, Soumya Sitaraman moved to California's San Francisco Bay Area with her husband. She earned a degree in environmental science from San Francisco State University, and continued her creative endeavors. She has exhibited her work all over the United States, including New York, California, and New Mexico, and in Chennai, India. Sitaraman's vision of art and artmaking as a voice of connection and social interrelation result in her involvement in several arts organizations. She is the founder of Shakti, a group bringing together and giving voice to the vision of artists of South Asian origin in the Bay Area. She also has the acknowledged honor of being the first Asian woman artist to create an Internet art gallery. She is also a member of the Asian American Women's Art Association. Through her art, Sitaraman has explored issues of motherhood and the experience of being a South Asian woman. Chachaji's Cup is the first book Soumya Sitaraman has illustrated. In working on the art for the book she used her father and son as models for Chachaji and Neel. Her hope is that children reading the book will learn the value of a sincere apology. She also notes that the story and art emphasize that respectful and loving bonds with one's elders are truly irreplaceable and invaluable. Soumya Sitaraman lives outside Chennai, India, with her husband, Arvind, and son, Maithreya.