Author’s Note

Hello, my Sparklings!
Thank you for all the love you’ve been giving Zoe and Scruffy and the rest of the crew! Your response has been overwhelming! And so, for you, The Adventures of Zoe and Scruffy continue.

A large part of The Summer of Heroes including its big adventure is set in the Western Ghats of India. I spend a lot of my days in the lap of nature in these mountains, purely because of my dear friend, Suneel.

Born in a time when the world was greener and vehicles, fewer, my friend, Suneel Deshpande grew up under the sun. Learning was by exploration and the net was used for protection from mosquitoes.

When he was around seventeen, he decided to work on a coffee plantation out of sheer curiosity. That decided it for him. He knew he was home in the forests and estates of Chikkamagalur. By honest passion and his very nature, he has created his own legacy, not by design but default. Over decades, every hill and dale in the Western Ghats of Karnataka have etched themselves on him, and he on them. The flora and fauna and nature herself speak with him, and he understands them like no other. An original conservationist without the need to brand, he has ever impacted thought and effort for the betterment of the region in innumerable ways. So much of this district as we see it today, took form before his eyes. I know him as a planter, an avid reader, intrepid traveller, fabulous cook and restaurateur, an elegant host, an exquisite dancer, an “anti-idiot”, yet a people and animal magnet, someone whom kids want to grow up to become, a music connoisseur, an ardent simplicist, sound counsel and a steadfast friend.

He was kind enough to throw his world open to me about a decade ago; from homestead to wilderness, from estates to peaks, from forests to plantations, from rivers to sholas, from flora to fauna; the sanctuaries and reserves, the milky way in the pristine dark of the nights, the bullfrogs near my feet and the distant roaring tiger; peacocks by the dozen and mist rolling in, rainflies that make me cry and a shoulder to do just that on. From this bliss of being home arose this book.
A man of few words, fewer needs and fewest wants, to me, he is the very soul of the Western Ghats. Naturally, I asked him to write the foreword and am thrilled that he has. You know I draw all the illustrations in the book myself. But this time, by my invitation, my friend Anora Madan has sketched a dhoopa tree in this book. Psst! Zoe and her crew hid behind this while they snooped! Why Anora? Because, at fifteen, not only is she a brilliant artist but she has grown up in the Western Ghats. They are a part of her and vice versa. You can see more of Anora’s OG art @_spikesart on Instagram.

As home to the largest number of the most varied types of animals and plants, these ranges have the highest biodiversity in India. Some parts of the ghats receive some of the heaviest rainfall in India. UNESCO has declared the Western Ghats a world heritage site.

Unfortunately, many animals and plants here are seriously endangered. The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) makes country-specific lists every year which update the status of flora and fauna across the world. This is the “Red List” and it shows us where we, as warriors for earth, must take actions to protect nature. You will meet some of these animals and plants, as part of the tale and sketches, along with their IUCN Red List status. This would be in the form of a line with abbreviations, beside the illustrations. Here is the key to what they mean.
LC – Least concern – where we should aim to bring the species status to.
NT – Near threatened!
VU – Vulnerable!
EN – Endangered!
CR – Critically endangered!
EW – Extinct in the wild – the only remaining animals of the species live in captivity!
EX – Extinct!

There should be no living thing that falls anywhere but in the LC category. Don’t you agree? Find out how you can help, step up, step in and together, we can save earth! Also, never stop reading, and I’ll never stop writing for you. Now, Zoe, Scruffy and their adventures wait. Turn the page and dive in!

With all my love,
Maya Spark
(A Mamathi Chari Avatar)