There were so many things I liked about The Case of the Candy Bandit! For one, I enjoyed the fact that the Superlative Supersleuths were a pair of girls – aided (temporarily) by another girl. I liked the seriousness with which Rachita went about the business of being a detective, and I loved all the sprinklings of humour, particularly the […]
His Royal Whiskers
I giggled and gasped at how imaginative this crazy story is. Full of puns and clever humour, I chuckled at Empurrer Alexander, six-year-old prince who is turned into a cat by a young alchemist, Teresa. It could have been a CATastrophe; instead it was purrfect. I know lots of people would not recommend this book […]
Arangetram – Sakshi and Shivona
As I write this post, I look back at the number of times I’ve written about an Arangetram. Some are just posts sharing details of upcoming arangetrams, but others … The emotions after – in August 2013 A reflection on the idea of the Arangetram itself What I felt after an Arangetram in 2014 Our […]
Operation Eiffel Tower
Jack hates it when his parents row. He wants to hide away from all the shouting, crying and smashing of plates. It is no different for his little sister Ruby. When their parents fight downstairs, Ruby sneaks into Jack’s room, afraid and anxious. Jack knows that somehow, he has to get his parents together again. […]
Karma Fights a Monster
Karma Tandin is a monster hunter, and he is determined to capitalise on it. With his friend Chimmi’s help, he makes posters advertising his services. Among other things, he hopes to impress pretty Dawa, who, for whatever reason, continually seems disappointed in him. Unfortunately, the poster does not turn out very well; the photograph of […]
Catching Up – Reading
Picture books The thing about picture books is that I read so many delightful ones one after the other, particularly thanks to Storyweaver. I finish one, another is recommended to me and I read it … And so, I don’t end up writing about any of them! Here are a few that stayed with me. […]
Catching Up – Workshops
It’s always fun to do workshops when I don’t have to organise them! Last week, I conducted a fun workshop at The King’s School in Goa. We worked with critical thinking – something that is close to my heart also because I taught Theory of Knowledge and enjoyed it so much. Lots of people ask […]
Catching Up – Writing
It’s that time again, when I’ve postponed blogging for so long that I don’t know where to begin. I keep saying that I intend to do monthly roundups and that never happens. I’m now planning to do a series of posts, catching up with what’s gone by, though. In terms of writing, I’m working on […]
The Mighty Miss Malone
Deza Malone’s teeth are rotting, but her family cannot afford the luxury of a dentist. Her elder brother Jimmie has achieved the grand height of a twelve-year-old and does not seem to be growing any further. Eating welfare food – sometimes filled with bugs – is normal for the Malones. Set in the years of […]
A Tigress Called Machhli
A Tigress Called Machhli has added at least three places to my neverending list of places I want to visit: Kokkare Bellur, the village of storks, Kalo Dungar in the Rann of Kutch and Jawai for the leopards. A collection of true animal stories promised to be delightful, and A Tigress Called Machhli did not let me down. I loved the lighthearted […]
Al Capone Does My Shirts
Doesn’t the title just grab your attention? The edition of Al Capone Does My Shirts that I picked up begins with a letter from the author Gennifer Choldenko, where she talks about having set out to write a book for boys. And somehow, Natalie, an autistic sixteen-year-old, slipped into the story, making it far more steeped in emotion than […]
World Dance Day 2019
What did you do on World Dance Day? We put up two performances! To be completely honest, we did not plan the performances keeping World Dance Day in mind; things just fell into place that way. We were scheduled to perform in Udupi on the 28th of April, and one of the dancers in our […]
Experiences on Stage – Udupi
Performances, performances. So often, the joy of dancing on stage comes from the story it creates, which can be told and retold ad infinitum. I’ve written about this before, so many times. My first performance with the ‘big girls’, when we got so immersed in the drama that we ignored the recorded music The time […]
Performances Ahead
Why do we dance? And why do people suspend their lives for a couple of hours to watch? Performing arts seem to exist in a world of their own, with their own rules and rigorous demands. What other field has a saying like ‘The show must go on’? I think the joy of a performance […]
The Lit Bug Fest 2019
So often, I come across posts that talk about how lit fests are a waste of time for authors, and how lit fests exclude rather than include. For me, though, lit fests remain unadulterated fun. Does this have something to do with being a children’s writer, perhaps? The Lit Bug Fest, Pune’s own lit fest, […]
Explore the Prophecy of Rasphora
Last month, The Story Station invited me to interact with a group of young writers. I spoke about my journey as a writer and conducted an activity based on my latest middle-grade novel, The Prophecy of Rasphora. A little about the book … Three young girls stumble upon Rasphora, a land behind a waterfall. There, they begin to […]
Pen to Paper Creative Writing Workshop
The Pen to Paper competition was a nationwide search for young writers, organised by Edupeer and ICICI Lombard. It received about 10,000 entries! These were narrowed down to 2,000 and 1,000 and then, finally, the top 150 writers from all over the country were selected to receive training from an author. When FunOKPlease contacted me […]
One
Every so often, you come across a book that brings life around you to a standstill. It makes you stop and feel more than you think you are capable of feeling. It makes you hug yourself and breathe, so that you don’t get lost in the raw beauty of human emotion. And as I live […]
Hell and High Water
Recently, I wrote about rereading The Goldsmith’s Daughter by Tanya Landman and looking out for more books by her. I almost didn’t pick up Hell and High Water because the cover did not catch my eye. Only when I noticed the name of the writer did I pick up the book–and I’m so glad I did. Hell and High Water was just as […]
What if …?
I love ‘what ifs’. What if there’s another me on the other side of the mirror? What if a half-boy-half-deer wanted to fit in? What if someone experimented with smells and could create them? What if an old Bajaj scooter began to fly? These were some of the what-ifs that inspired the stories in The Story-Catcher. […]