Every year, dense black smog descends over Delhi, heralding the onset of winter. It momentarily grabs headlines across India for a few months, before the citizens carry on with their lives. But not the ones who struggle to breathe in its wake. Like Somya, a little girl whose mother works in one of the many smoke-producing factories dotting the National Capital. In the recently released comic book, Priya and the Twirling Wind, written by Shubhra Prakash and Raven Kaliana, we meet an ill Somya, who is being rushed to the hospital. As a scared Somya slips into a delirium worrying about her polluted city, she encounters Priya, the superhero, her flying tiger Sahas, and their lush green enchanted forest that is under threat from greedy industrialists.

Ram Devineni. Pic Courtesy/Stephen Cherry