Brachio, written by Venkataraghavan, and illustrated by Ananya Broker Parekh, explores themes like differences, self-discovery and belonging

Venkataraghavan is tall, and tall enough for people to notice him everywhere he goes, so much so that he wrote an entire book about it. 

Brachio, written by Venkataraghavan, illustrated by Ananya Broker Parekh, and published by Harper Collins Children’s Books, is a tall book in many ways. The publishers chose a long book; an elongated format to echo its tall protagonist, and emotionally, it explores themes like self-discovery and belonging.   

Brachio, the hero of the story, is so tall that “kids asked him to pluck stars from the sky for their birthdays, his legs were so long that he used a boat’s sailcloth to cover them…and the beach was the only place where Brachio felt like he fit.”

Venkataraghava
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

At a towering 6 feet 5inches, Venkataraghavan laughs and says, “It’s really hard for me to be walking and talking to a group of people because they’re so much shorter, and I can’t hear what they’re saying. That sort of stuff features in the book where people have to shout for Brachio to be able to hear them.”

An excerpt from the book reads, “If a kitten climbed up a tree and couldn’t get back down, they fetched Brachio to pick up the mewling kitten from the tree — and a fruit if he felt hungry — and return it to the ground.”

“There are always these jokes about being tall, and how I can see the stage at concerts, or the idol in the temple, even from far away. These little nuggets that I have picked up over the years also helped me shape the book,” he says . 

When a ladder arrives in the village, Brachio is deemed unnecessary. Dejected, he leaves home, finds himself turned into a spectacle at a circus, and eventually realises where he truly belongs — back home by the sea.

“I love the sea and huge open skies, because suddenly there is no height comparison for me. I’m not too tall to enter the door or anything like that because there is no door,” says Venkatarghavan.

The book went through several avatars before becoming a children’s picture book. “I tried it as a short story for adults, and then for children. Nothing was landing. Finally, I tried it as a 15-minute play,” he recalls.

Encouraged by the response the short play gained at one of Chennai’s theatre festivals, Venkataraghavan expanded the script into a full-length, hour-long children’s play. “There was something magical about showing extreme height on stage,” he says. “We don’t usually explore height theatrically.” 

The book is rooted in complex ideas. “The storytelling is childlike, but it comes from adult concerns like discrimination, capitalism, labour and dignity,” says Venkataraghavan. The circus in the book, where Brachio is reduced to an entertainment, is no accident. “Anyone who is slightly different becomes a spectacle — whether it’s height, skin colour, or a disability,” he adds.

Illustrator Ananya Broker Parekh
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Piece by piece

Illustrator Ananya approached the story visually and instinctively. The artworks add to the charm to the book. “When I saw the story, I instantly started to get ideas about what I wanted to do,” says Ananya. She then used a mixed-media approach, working with cloth and patterned paper to build Brachio’s world by hand.

“His clothes look as though they’re stitched from real cloth, giving the story a distinctly tactile feel,” says Ananya.  

For most of the book, Brachio is never shown fully — only fragments of his body appear on the page. “It’s to emphasise his height.“ You only see him completely in one crucial spread at the end. The spread where Brachio is tiny against the sea was one of her favourites to create. “It captures the moment of belonging, where he finally fits,” says Ananya.

“I want readers to feel something after they close the book. That afterglow. Maybe thinking of a friend, or calling someone,” says Venkataraghavan.

Published – February 11, 2026 04:04 pm IST