Very rarely do children's books make an attempt to discuss difficult topics. Stories centered around values of friendship, family and society continue to pervade the narratives of most authors, who write for kids. Breaking through this clutter, is a new book, Gita: The Battle of the Worlds (HarperCollins India) by UK-based writers Sonal Sachdev Patel and Jemma Wayne-Kattan, which has a two-pronged mission — to talk about mental health and meditation, through a modern-day interpretation of an important episode in the Gita. The idea for the book came when Patel was expecting her daughter, around eight years ago. "I felt that I needed to introduce my children to the Gita, but I was unable to find ways to make kids relate to it. It's only when I read Paramhansa Yogananda's interpretation of the text, did it make sense to me," recalls Patel, in a telephonic chat from London.

"Yogananda offered a new insight into the Gita. He explained that the battle that took place between the Kauravas and Pandavas was actually a metaphor for the internal battle that takes place in our lives daily, between our tendencies of being loving and kind, and being angry, jealous and upset," she says. The book is no different. While at the outset, it might appear as a classic story of good overcoming evil, Patel and Kattan talk about a similar battle playing out in the mind of 11-year-old Dev — the protagonist.