With their big black eyes, long plaited hair and welcoming smiles, sisters Jacklin Janaki and Amali Margaret from Kovandakurichi  who run Home Again — a set of facilities for women who’ve experienced mental illness, grief, homelessness and exclusion — hold the promise of care, community and compassion. It’s their awe-inspiring story — heartbreaking and heartwarming in equal measure — that Chennai-based NGO The Banyan’s new title for children, Jacklin & Amali, unravels. The sisters’ journey, from their native village to Chennai and back to Kovandakurichi, and through depression, bipolar disorder, loss, marginalisation, socio-economic distress, care and hope, is sensitively brought to life by Anushka Madhavan’s illustrations and Rega Jha’s storytelling. 

Rega Jha and Anushka Madhavan