Sunder the Beautiful Elephant is a children’s picture book by Seema Vaid, inspired by the true story of Sunder, a baby elephant born in the jungles of Assam, India. I was browsing through the local newspaper with my 5-year-old son; it had an article about how the famous singer, Sir Paul McCartney, joined the freedom campaign for a temple elephant named Sundar in India. An excerpt from the true story of Sundar the baby elephant (image source: Seema Vaid)We launched a petitionWith my son, I launched a petition for Sunder’s freedom and began collecting signatures. I explored social media to try to connect with people involved with the Free Sunder campaign. Sundar’s storyI started writing Sundar’s story in bits and pieces, but what pushed me to finally complete and publish this book was ACW’s plan to launch our Elephant Freedom Campaign, From Chains to Change, in 2026.