Varanasi art collective Mysticeti enters children’s publishing with ‘Bapa Wants Fish’

Stuti Sareen grew up in a room that was part of a children’s library, and always harboured a dream to publish children’s books. A dream that the 30-year-old founder of the Varanasi-based artist community Mysticeti has brought to life with Bapa Wants Fish (₹1,180).

Structured like a chapter book while carrying the visual richness of a picture book, Stuti says it has been created for educators, parents, children, and book collectors alike. 

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Set in 1990s Orissa, the story moves through family rituals around food, neighbourhood dynamics, and an unexpected cyclone. “Through a joyful and child-centred lens, it explores themes still less commonly addressed in children’s publishing, including uncertainty, emotional complexity, and mental health concerns,” says Stuti of the book. Authored by her and illustrated by Alankrita Amaya, it has a limited print run of only 100 hardcover copies, and is printed on recycled cotton waste paper. 

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Through her work at Mysticeti — a community she founded in 2020 — Stuti aims to build spaces “where creativity grows, and stories, ideas, and art find their audience”. Ongoing initiatives include the journals featuring aspiring writers and artists across age groups.

“Currently, there are three journals. Mysticeti’s Diary is a virtual collection of personal essays, conversations, features, and short stories by independent writers, visual artists, and musicians. The collection is now being put together into a printed edition with journalling prompts for readers to reflect on and make their own diary.” Maru Mori is a new creative non-fiction journal exploring the ordinary and everyday through essays, conversations, and experimental forms, and Us in This Round World is a new journal inviting children (8-18 years) to “observe, reflect, imagine, and respond to the world around them through stories, art, comics, and animations”.

Stuti reminisces about her time pursuing a Master’s in Public Policy at King’s College, London, which she followed up with a stint at the United Nations in Geneva and think tanks in Delhi. When the lockdown hit, she found herself back home in Varanasi helping her mother at her school, Kenzen School. “This led to my interest in designing creative education programmes. I left my job in 2021 and started working at the school full-time,” says Stuti, adding how these learnings led to her establishing Mysticeti and then the Kauri Centre in 2023.

At this art and community centre named after the tree species, Stuti designs and facilitates creative experiences for people of all ages, hosted both at the centre and in collaboration with partnering spaces and initiatives. “This includes creative learning programmes for schools, workshops/activities, and experiences. One of my favourite projects has been Kauri’s Kart – a repainted old van that I fill with books and art supplies and take to children in and around Varanasi,” she says.

Elaborating on Bapa Wants Fish, Stuti says the story is based on memories of a friend who grew up in Orissa. “Over a shared meal in 2023, he told me about this memory from his childhood, which sounded quite dire. It had an unpredictable father and a cyclone that no one was prepared for. But his recollection of the memory had a sense of joy and amusement, and this inspired me to write it as a story from a child’s perspective, after doing more research about the region and adding bits of fiction,” says the author who started work on the book last year. 

In the coming months, Stuti plans to introduce merchandise by Mysticeti, creative learning toys/kits for all ages, and host workshops and events in Goa, where she now lives with her partner. Also, work on building the publishing wing “where books will be created with different artists, with stories that focus on cultural awareness, lived histories, and narration of complex themes through a child’s perspective”. The next book, says Stuti, is based on her grandmother’s memories from pre-independent India, told through a child’s perspective, and is slated to launch by the last quarter of 2026.

Details on mysticetimag.com