The 2024 Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature goes to Nandini Purandare and Deepa Balsavar for Headstrap.
Congratulations Nandini and Deepa!
Beautifully weaves together the rich cultural heritage and climbing traditions of the Sherpa and Bhutia community of Darjeeling. Through engaging stand-alone stories, many of which are recorded for the first time, this book offers readers a captivating glimpse into the lives of the legendary mountaineers that populate the ‘Kathmandu of India’.
Nandina Purandare is editor of the internationally renowned Himalayan Journal. As a writer and editor for the Avehi-Abacus Project, she has developed educational materials for public schools across India. With a background in economics, Purandare has consulted for various organizations and research centers and is an enthusiastic trekker and avid reader of mountain literature. She, along with co-author Deepa Balsavar, founded the Sherpa Project to record oral histories through in-depth interviews of members of the climbing Sherpa community.
A well-known illustrator and storyteller, Deepa Balsavar has created more than thirty children’s books. She has won numerous awards, including Tata Trusts’ Big Little Book Award for her contribution to children’s literature, worked as a consultant with UNICEF in South Asia, and served as a core team member of the Avehi-Abacus Project for two decades. Balsavar is an adjunct professor in communication design at the Industrial Design Centre, IIT Bombay.