I recently read Neil Gaiman’s views on escapism: I hear the term bandied about as if it’s a bad thing. As if “escapist” fiction is a cheap opiate used by the muddled and the foolish and the deluded, and the only fiction that is worthy, for adults or for children, is mimetic fiction, mirroring the […]
Writing in the Genes
Never thought a business magazine would have a picture of me! All thanks to my father, and to the fact that I have writing in my genes!
Wild Dog Hunt
No one will ever believe that it’s not very easy to see wild dogs in the jungle if you spot them three times during the course of the same safari. At first, we saw five. Then we heard wild fowl crying out to one another – alarmed that the dogs were nearby. We then saw […]
Tigress
We did see a tigress on our very first safari at Tadoba this time around. When I went to Ranthambhor, as part of a school excursion, we were divided into ten groups. Nine groups saw a tiger. Mine didn’t. Then I went to Kanha. Three safaris there – and I didn’t see a tiger. Then, […]
The All-New Media Page!
I’m delighted to have a brand new page on my website – the media page! From Let’s Play! onwards, there have been several articles about my writing and about me. Finally, they come together on the media page of my website! Sakal Times, DNA, The Times of India, Mid-Day … And hopefully many more to come!
Back from the Wild – Again
Green forests. Dense. Tall grass. Just a few metres away, a tiger could be hiding and we wouldn’t even know. Anticipation is thrilling. Spider webs glinting in the sunshine. A huge black spider poised on her web eats a grasshopper. The black ibis with its red hood and impressive beak pecks away in the grass. […]
Bookaroo Festival of Children’s Literature, Pune – 2013
Twenty-two speakers from five countries and 11 cities are going to be interacting with children, bringing children and books together. It’s happening in Pune! Dates: 3oth November and 1st December Venue: Sambhaji Park, Jangali Maharaj Road, Pune I’m looking forward to it!
The Children’s Hour
I picked up the DVD about nine years ago because I saw Audrey Hepburn’s picture on the cover. I like Hepburn. I knew I would like the film. I did not know how much it would haunt me, though. The Children’s Hour is one of those very few movies whose story I have retold time and […]
Perspective
In the little primary school in Perani where we worked, money is of course a problem. Going there with students from an international school put things into stark contrast. The base of the four walls of the classroom is painted black. The black area is about three and a half feet high. One of the […]
Painting Gates
Children are morbid. There’s no other word for it sometimes. A little boy, Tamilbaradhi, was watching a student of mine painting a gate. “Don’t touch the gate,” I warned him. He nodded, knowingly, but seemed to expect me to say more. “The beautiful, freshly painted gate will get spoilt,” I clarified. Tamilbaradi frowned. That was […]
Half an Egg
Last week, I was at Pondicherry with 56 students and 4 colleagues. We volunteered to work for Habitat for Humanity, building a road, painting houses and painting gates, among other things. It was an experience of a lifetime. Working with my students at a primary school, we witnessed the mid-day meal. The midday meal proudly […]
After the Story Games
With the One-Word-Story-Game and the One-Phrase-Story-Game, my purpose was to point out how powerless we feel when we can’t control language. I spoke about different aspects of language as power and why we feel more in control when we have a whole phrase to ourselves, rather than a single word. Then, I moved to the […]
Language
Teaching Language as a Way of Knowing, I wanted to introduce to my students what a powerful tool language is. In keeping with that, I also wanted to bring out how powerless you feel when you don’t have control over a language. So I played some stuff that I learned at the Storytelling workshop I attended recently. […]
Dashami
Yes, I know many would disagree and say that tomorrow is Dashami, not today. But we celebrated it today. Last year, my dance teacher was not here, and somehow, we put things together and managed. (In the south, Dashami is a Big Deal. We start our year of education on Dashami. Coming just after Saraswati […]
Running Wild
I don’t usually like thick hardbound books. They are daunting and, usually, boring. As soon as I make that statement, though, I realise how many exceptions there are. Running Wild is one of them. It has pages and pages of description, but not once was I bored. Morpurgo, at the end of the book, talks of […]
Day Five – Reading was Fun!
And that was the end of that. Photographs will come soon, I’m sure. But right now, my head is filled with all kinds of thoughts. Children are like magpies. They love shiny things. All of them loved the golden tape I took with me to bind their work together. I thought they’d like to use […]
Day Four – Reading is Fun!
“Tomorrow, our last session, is going to have the most exciting activity of all!” I announced, at the end of today’s session. “Ooh! What is it?” “What are we going to do?” “What is the activity for tomorrow?” “I’ll tell you tomorrow!” I said, smiling. “So, how do you feel?” I expected them to say […]
Tikki tikki tembo
You know one of the most beautiful things about a storytelling workshop? I listened to so many stories! Here’s one of them (not told by Nell, but by one of the workshop participants). Long, long ago, in a village in China, there lived a family with two sons. The elder son was called Tikki-tikki-tembo-no-sa-rembo-chari-bari-ruchi-pip-peri-pembo. The […]
Storytelling Workshop
Time flew. I simply could not hold on to it. When I thought about an 11-3 workshop, I confess I did think, “Hmm. There’ll definitely be parts where I’m bored.” I was wrong. Travelling from my school in Loni to British Library on Fergusson College Road, I realised for the first time why all the […]
Storytelling!
The difference between storytelling and drama is that the audience actually exists. The actor engages with the audience, can hear the audience, see the audience and speak to the audience. And what a wonderful experience my first storytelling experience was! Burd Ellen makes the mistake of going widdershins; Childe Rowland rescues her. We don’t have […]