IPS officer Kiran S with his 10-year-old daughter Tanvi
What began as an ordinary bedtime ritual in 2018 for Kiran S has evolved into a creative experiment in new-age parenting, where storytelling became a means of nurturing imagination, curiosity and independent thinking. The story began in 2018, when Kiran’s daughter was barely two years old. You Can Also Check: Gold Rate in Lucknow | Silver Rate in Lucknow | Bank Holidays in Lucknow | Public Holidays in Lucknow | Lucknow AQI | Weather in Lucknow | Petrol Price in Lucknow | Diesel Price in Lucknow | CNG Price in Lucknow | LPG Price in Lucknow Stay updated with the latest Lucknow news.
The result is a fictional universe featuring Dino, Rhino, Paul Barber and the “Little Investigator” — characters that grew alongside his daughter and eventually inspired Kiran — a 2008 batch IPS officer and now IG, Lucknow Zone, to put years of stories into a storybook ‘The Father Who Ran Out of Stories’. “I started by telling stories to my daughter, but somewhere along the way she began helping me tell them,” he says. As far as writing is concerned, it’s less about becoming an author and more about preserving a family ritual, says Kiran, who headed the SIT the Supreme Court formed to probe the donation theft at Ayodhya’s Ram Temple.
Lucknow : This IPS officer has spent years navigating the complex world of criminal investigations, including high-profile probes during his assignments with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Interpol. But away from the demanding world of policing, he has been pursuing an entirely different kind of investigation — one involving a dinosaur, a rhinoceros, a bumbling villain and a little girl who eventually became the smartest detective of them all. He has not only written but also sketched for the book. For him, however, the real achievement is not becoming an author. It is watching his daughter transform from a passive listener into an active storyteller. Like most children her age, she wanted a bedtime story. Her father began improvising tales to help her fall asleep, unaware that these nightly conversations would eventually develop into an elaborate fictional world. For an officer accustomed to investigations, the development was particularly fascinating. His daughter’s growing involvement showed how children can move beyond consuming stories to shaping them. The imaginary adventures also became a way to connect family experiences with learning. As the family travelled, destinations such as the Louvre, Athens, Cairo, the Matterhorn and Japan entered the Dino-Rhino universe. Places they had visited became settings for new mysteries, allowing travel memories to become part of their shared storytelling tradition. The stories were no longer merely about fictional adventures. They had become a record of the child’s changing interests, growing understanding and developing personality. Another hat that Kiran wears is that of an artist. An enthusiastic sketcher since childhood, he never received formal training but developed his skills through observation and practice. His early fascination with Tintin played an important role. The comic’s clean illustrations and visual storytelling inspired him to observe drawings closely and attempt his own sketches. Years later, the popular series Money Heist brought the distinctive appearance of Spanish artist Salvador Dalí back into his imagination. Dalí’s unmistakable face and moustache became part of the visual inspiration for Paul Barber, the recurring antagonist in the Dino-Rhino adventures. He has also received ‘Interpol Medal of Excellence’. Download the TOI App.
Because his daughter loved dinosaurs, dino was the first character to emerge. Because the two names rhymed, rhino followed simply. There was no carefully developed plot, publishing ambition or plan to create a children’s book. But as his daughter began demanding fresh adventures involving the same characters, Kiran found himself confronting an unusual challenge: Keeping pace with a child’s seemingly inexhaustible appetite for stories. When conventional children’s tales began running out, he turned to an unexpected source — Malayalam cinema.
It also introduced Paul Barber, who would become the recurring villain in the imaginary universe.
The turning point came when Kiran introduced his daughter into the stories as the “Little Investigator”. Eventually, she entered them and began leading the investigation herself,” Kiran says. They ask questions adults sometimes stop asking,” he says.
The first major Dino-Rhino mystery drew inspiration from the Malayalam comedy ‘Akkare Akkare Akkare’, borrowing the broad premise of a stolen crown, an overseas chase and a comic investigation. Other films like ‘Nadodikkattu’, ‘Yodha’, ‘Kilukkam’ and ‘Aram + Aram = Kinnaram’, subsequently provided situations and humour that he adapted into child-friendly mysteries. “I wasn’t consciously trying to introduce my daughter to Malayalam cinema. I was mostly trying to get her to sleep,” he recalls. As the years passed, the stories began changing in ways Kiran had never anticipated. At two, his daughter enjoyed the names and sounds. As she grew older, she began recognising the personalities behind the characters — the boastful Dino, the witty Rhino and Paul Barber, whose elaborate schemes invariably unravelled. Gradually, she began questioning the stories themselves. She spotted inconsistencies, challenged the logic of certain plots and identified clues that the fictional detectives had overlooked. Initially, Dino and Rhino solved mysteries for her. Later, she began helping them. Eventually, she was leading the investigations while the two original protagonists increasingly became her sidekicks. “At first, I created worlds for her. Then she started correcting those worlds. His daughter was displaying the very qualities that matter in detective work—observation, curiosity, questioning and the ability to recognise inconsistencies. “One thing I have noticed, both professionally and while telling these stories, is that children are very good observers. That instinct became the defining characteristic of the Little Investigator. Kiran believes the experience offers an important insight into modern parenting. Rather than treating storytelling as a one-way exercise in which adults narrate and children listen, he sees it as an opportunity to encourage participation and creative thinking.