PMC Award!
When we introduce my teacher, we always talk about the prestigious Iyal Isai Nadagam award that she received. We have so many things to say about her, about countries she's toured and things she has achieved.This time, we had the privilege of being present when Guru Mythili Raghavan received an award from the Pune Municipal Corporation - the Pandita Rohini Bhate Puraskar.Hindi poet Ashok Vajpeyi was the chief guest, felicitating first Guru Prabhatai Marathe and then five other recipients of the award. Pune's mayor Chanchala Kodre came in late for the function and faced poet Ashok Vajpeyi's brilliant sarcasm with respect to the role of the government in promoting classical Indian dance and music.Proud to be Guru Mythili Raghavan's student! … [Read more...]
A Mouse Called Wolf
Whenever I read Dick King-Smith, I think about C.S. Lewis's oft-quoted “A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest.” How true it is!Whoever heard of a singing mouse?From the single line on the book cover, reading the book is like a joyful ride into a story that moves from the first page to the last in the course of about half an hour.When Wolfgang Amadeus Mouse was born, he was the littlest of all, so his mother wanted to give him a grand name. Her nest was was made of a chewed up sheet of music and somehow, a little bit had remained unchewed. It said 'Wolfgang Amadeus Mo'. Of course, Mary Mouse knew that the last three letters were missing because what could the name be but Wolfgang Amadeus Mouse?Wolfgang Amadeus had to have a nickname, of course. His name was rather a mouthful. And so, his twelve siblings nicknamed … [Read more...]
Simon the Coldheart
What is it about Georgette Heyer that she can turn imagination into language so brilliantly?I reread another Georgette Heyer, before reading Simon the Coldheart, and found myself skipping large sections of it. I think time has made me a little uncomfortable with the romance that she portrays. I squirm more than a little, and run my eyes over the pages sometimes, without reading much. I realise I don't like her ideas of mastery in romance or the way in which so many of the heroines just seem to give in.Yet, I enjoy Georgette Heyer.Why?Each page sparkles with fun. I love the humour; laughter rises to my throat time and time again. Those are the answers that come to me instinctively.But Simon the Coldheart is not one of those novels. It's not one of those with joyous gurgles of laughter. It's one in which the romantic element kicks in quite late in the novel. But I read on and on, … [Read more...]
British Library Workshops
As part of the Reading Challenge organised by the British Library, I will be conducting four workshops!Age-group 5-7 Read Aloud and Colour your Thoughts! 12th January, 2014 Stories are always more fun when they have pictures. When they have more pictures, they are more interesting! So read a story, or listen to a story and imagine... Whatever you imagine, put down on paper. Draw and colour images from what you read – fill your ideas with colour! The best illustration will receive a prize. Show and Tell 9th February, 2014 Bring something from home and talk about it to the other children. Build your confidence as you talk about something you love. After that, let your imagination go wild. Look at the toys around you in the Junior Section of the library and try to talk about what you … [Read more...]
The Worry Tree
I remember having a conversation with a friend about the challenges faced by each generation. "Our grandparents had to work hard - physically," I said. "My grandmother has so many stories of how difficult it was to make dosa batter and things like that. Our parents had financial difficulties, more than anything else. What about us?" "We have emotional and intellectual issues," my friend said, thoughtfully, "basically about who we are and what we want from life."In that sense, I think The Worry Tree reaches out to the children of this generation. Children who are worried. Children who sometimes don't realise that problems around them aren't their fault.I loved the idea of the book, reading page after page with a half-smile. I love the pages at the end where the child who owns the book can write down his or her own worries, hang them up on the worry tree, so to speak.I took about an … [Read more...]
Pegasus
What a mixed bag of emotions!Pegasus was wonderfully imagined. I loved the ideas of feather-tip fingers, strong human hands and flexible wrists, being bound to the pegasi of the sweet green land... Beautiful! There was a kind of raw beauty that reached out and touched me, page after page. The beauty of the Caves - the Caves that are so full - I want to see them too! I feel shivers at the thought of beauty that is so profound that you cannot see it. Rather, you feel it, if you distance yourself from space and time. It was an experience of bliss, reading Pegasus.There has to be a 'but', though. It was long, a little too long, I thought. Maybe not too long, actually. Long in ways that it should not have been long, but not long enough when it came to knowing what happened. I want to know more. It ended all wrong for me.The biggest enemy of beauty is not ugliness. It is … [Read more...]
Con Person
I felt like a con-person the other day at the airport. Every con-artist finds a way to function; I could have stumbled upon one too.I was in the car, dropping my grandparents to the airport. As soon as we reached, I jumped out of the car, ready to go to the airline counter to get wheelchair assistance for my grandfather. I know how irritating it is to have a car standing in the same place, blocking the entrance to the airport. I wanted to avoid that.Standing at the airline counter, I watched the driver unload my grandparents' luggage and arrange it on a trolley. A niggling thought rose to my head; I pushed it away.My grandparents got out of the car; I watched them. A part of me knew I should go to them, but I was waiting for the wheelchair.Finally, the gentleman with the wheelchair appeared. He helped my grandfather into the chair. I pushed the luggage trolley, while my … [Read more...]
Chocolate Mousse!
Making something delicious is uniquely delightful! I discovered that as a teenager when I used to beat batter well to get all those awkward emotions out of me.It's wonderful what 3 eggs, 250 grams of chocolate, 250 grams of cream, 2 teaspoons of rum and a few spoons of sugar can make. God bless the one who invented chocolate mousse.Oh, and I want to direct a special ray of gratitude to the one who made the recipe that I follow, which does not require the painstaking separating of eggs. The makings were delicious. In just a while, I'll taste the finished product too. It's something I'm willing to postpone bedtime for. … [Read more...]
No School
Winter is here!Cold face, cold hands, cold feet... Ah! It's lovely!The first morning that fog descended on our school was almost surreal. It was not Pune; it could not be Pune! Cold face and all the rest, sure, I knew all that. But that kind of fog? It was as if we were on a hill-station! We could not see things two feet away from us, let alone the school buildings. Everything was misty; school had disappeared!Standing in queue to punch in, I realised I wasn't the only teacher delighting in the mist. "No school!" cried one of the teachers. "The school has gone on holiday! No school! Let's go home!" … [Read more...]