Pathanamthitta: A father-daughter duo from Pathanamthitta has stepped into the limelight by transforming the covers and inner pages of school textbooks with vibrant illustrations, turning learning into a more joyful experience for young minds.

While the father, Premdas, has illustrated the cover of the newly introduced Malayalam text book (Adithana Padavali) for Class 6 in public schools, his younger daughter Hima P Das has left her mark inside the Class 4 Malayalam textbook with a striking artwork titled `War is never good'.

Hima, currently pursuing a B Arch degree at NIT Calicut, shares her father’s passion for traditional Kerala mural painting, the style in which their textbook illustrations are rendered.

Premdas’s cover art depicts children studying beneath the shade of a tree, joyfully playing and nurturing plants. Hima’s illustration, on the other hand, portrays a child flying a kite near a cannon, while other children sit nearby exchanging stories.

An artist with over three decades of experience, Premdas has also illustrated all the pictures in the Malayalam textbook for differently-abled students in Class 1. His artistic contributions span beyond schoolbooks to the Keraleeyam programme organised by the state government and creating visuals for the Indian Railways.

Premdas has also lent his brush to educational institutions like Pramadom Netaji School, Lakkoor Government LPS, Vazhamuttom National UP School, Amrita School in Pathanamthitta and Kendriya Vidyalaya in Konni, among others.

Premdas's elder daughter, Devu P Das, is also active in painting. His wife, G Vijayasree, works as a senior clerk at the Malayalapuzha Panchayat.