Peanut vs the PianoWe're reading Peanut vs the Piano at two of my book clubs. Peanut, Papad and Pickle. What funny names those are!"I hope their parents named them after their favourite food!" I said. "Not things that were lying around. What if your parents had named you after their favourite foods? What would your names have been?""Fish!" said Zayn. "My name would have been Fish.""Like the dog in At Least a Fish!" someone said.So, Zayn amended, "Fish fries!"Aarav thought about it. "I think I would be called Kalidal Pizza."We couldn't help laughing. And then, he changed his Zoom name to something even more specific - Dal Makhani Four Cheese Pizza.Ira could not think of what her parents would name her. "They like everything!" she complained. Finally, she settled on 'Mutton'. Mutton. That's what she would be called.And Aarya? Her parents like very different things. … [Read more...]
Unfair
Three years ago, when I read No. 9 on the Shade Card, I came across the concept of a shade card for the first time. As a child, conversations about skin colour bounced off me. People spoke of how one person was lighter or darker than another; they talked of having tanned too much after a trip to Goa; I knew people who wore socks no matter how hot it was just so that their feet wouldn't tan. None of these conversations pierced the bubble I lived in, much like Lina, one of the two protagonists of the story. Unlike Lina, however, there never came a time in my childhood when I had to come face to face with the fact that being fair was a real obsession, not something you could just roll your eyes at and forget all about.Lina loves drama. When she learns that the school production of the year is Romeo and Juliet, she's thrilled. Of course she'll audition for the part of Juliet! Unlike … [Read more...]
Rain Must Fall
Rain Must Fall by Nandita Basu is such a beautiful read! I devoured it in one sitting, and I loved it.Anya, Rumi's best friend, asks whom Rumi would like to go on a date with. Rumi makes the mistake of being honest and saying 'you'. After all, you can be truthful with your best friend, can't you? And it isn't really as if Rumi has a romantic interest in Anya; it was just a game. Wasn't it? Maybe not. Because gossip and cruel jokes begin on the school group. Soon, Rumi discovers that neither parents nor schoolmates can accept the idea of a non-binary individual. Schoolmates think it's a joke, and Rumi's parents think therapy is the "solution".Away from it all, in a small town, Rumi discovers and befriends a ghost, Rain. Both Rain and Rumi are trapped, alone and misunderstood. As human and ghost get to know each other better, Rain begins to remember snippets of his life, and … [Read more...]
January Reads
In December, I visited a books by weight sale, and I couldn't resist picking up seven books that were in near-mint condition! I couldn't finish one, but I read the other six, some of which I quite enjoyed, and others that I loved. Here they are, listed in an unusual way for me - from the one I enjoyed least to the one I enjoyed most. 3.5/5 Fan Fiction, Feminist, Ages 10+I enjoy reading spin-offs of classics. Off the top of my head, the ones that come to mind are Wide Sargasso Sea, Wishing for Tomorrow and Lilliput, though I'm sure there are many more that I've read and loved.Hook's Daughter was the first Peter Pan spin-off I've read! After I finished reading it, I learned that it is the first of a series of revenge stories by Heidi Schulz, but it works well as a standalone story too. Captain Hook doesn't … [Read more...]
Green Reads – Part 2
The Golden Eagle. With its gorgeous pictures and gripping storyline, it drew us in. "I think I'm going to like this even more than The Butterfly Lion," said one child. Just by chance, all three books we read during this edition of my book club featured animals. Manolita has seals; the title The Butterfly Lion says it all - butterflies and lions; The Golden Eagle has a profusion of birds. Many of the children have never seen storks, ospreys, harriers, green pigeons and thrushes, and the book brought these alive to us. It was time for a follow-up activity, one that we threw our hearts into. What birds would you like to talk to us about? That was the only question I asked the children at my book club."I hope to go to Zimbabwe someday and see the African Fish Eagle," said Amritayu. Eagles fascinate him, and even more so because of the book we read on the golden eagle."The … [Read more...]
Green Reads – Part 1
On social media, I've been seeing posts about book club facilitators introducing green reads to children. "What a lovely idea," I found myself thinking. I've always loved stories about the environment. I read post after post, and then I stopped. Wait a minute! I'm reading green reads with my book clubbers too - A Very Naughty Dragon with two bunches of seven and eight-year-olds, and The Golden Eagle with the slightly older ones! So, I reached out to Archana, who runs AA's Book Nerds, asking if she'd like me to jump on the bandwagon. I had no idea how structured her Green Reads mission was, but ...We're trying to draw attention to our role as book club hosts and indies and our contributions in the kidlit space.Archana Atri, AA's Book NerdsPerfect! And so, here's where one of our explorations of A Very Naughty Dragon led us.As planned, we started reading this book with the last … [Read more...]
Careers in Writing – Fergusson College
A career in writing - what does that mean? As part of UGC's STRIDE (Scheme for for Trans-Disciplinary Research for India's Developing Economy), the English department of Fergusson College invited me to talk about making a career in creative writing. What I loved was that I didn't speak just to students of the English department; it really was trans-disciplinary!What would a talk on a career in creative writing involve? For me, first, it would involve demystifying the publishing process. Secondly, to use a word that the organiser used, it would need to deglamorize the life of a writer. If you're talking about a career and not a hobby, writing is not about penning down your thoughts and expressing your feelings. No. It's not the random poem here, or the the snippet of deep, philosophical thought there.Okay, so you write poetry. When did you last buy a book of poems? Does your … [Read more...]
Pench – December 2021
Should we even consider travelling? Maybe we should just cancel and stay home.We haven't gone anywhere for so long! Surely, a jungle is safe! Where else will we actually be able to stay socially distant?What if we have to do an RT-PCR before taking our flight back. Will we have to spend a night in Nagpur?Let's not cross a state border. That way, being doubly vaccinated should be enough for us to catch a flight.Wondering, debating, planning ... we finally did go to Pench Tiger Reserve in December 2021, and I'm so glad we did. Safari in the Rain Watching the rain, all by ourselves in the wild The weather report said there would be a little rain. A little rain.Not a thunderstorm.But have you ever been stuck in a thunderstorm in the middle of the jungle?It was incredible. We stood at Bakhari Camp and watched the rain pour down on huge teak … [Read more...]
Adventure on Wheels
Adventure on Wheels is such a rollicking read! The book opens with two thieves stealing a van that belongs to an orphanage. The theft itself is simple enough, but when they discover three children hiding in the van, they're up against more than they'd bargained for. At once heart-warming and hilarious, Adventure on Wheels is a fun book that I can't wait to share with my book club! Unlikely Heroes When we think about the main character in a story, what kind of character do we usually have in mind? Subbu and Golu are thieves! Can they be the heroes of the story? Or is there another story that helps us understand why these two are off to rob a toy store?At my book club, to begin an exploration of the idea of a back story, I will ask the children to come up with characters that seem negative, and then work on what makes them the way they … [Read more...]
Beginning 2022 On a High
And there, having looked back at the year that went by, I can't have asked for a better way to begin 2022. In December 2021, I travelled after nearly two years. The forest had been calling me for months, but I knew I had to bide my time. We went back to Pench, the place where we brought in the year 2019, and there, we brought in the year 2022.And on the morning of the 1st of January, this beauty greeted us. It was one of those dream sightings, where we, rather than the guide or the driver spotted the tiger. There was just one other jeep, no whispered shouts, no revving and roaring of engines, nothing. She walked by us on our right, looked at us, and then bounded across the road behind us, striding through the jungle for a few moments before disappearing. Picture by @karannagupta If you've been reading my blog for a while, … [Read more...]