Of late, I've been too busy to post updates about events I conduct, but here's a quick heads-up. I'm conducting a workshop at the British Library tomorrow!Explore novel records that you can see yourself setting!Work on all four language skills – reading, writing, listening and speaking. Interact with other children with varied interests. Reflect on everything you have read so far and why it interests you.Most importantly, let's have some fun!It's part of this year's Reading Challenge, but you're welcome to attend the workshop even if you aren't part of the challenge!Here are the details:Venue: British Library, Fergusson College Road, Pune Date: 8th January, 2016 Age-group: 8-13 years Time: 4pm to 6pm Registration fee: Rs 600 Contact: Namrata - 020-41005327Pre-registration is preferred, but if it is impossible, you're welcome to drop in fifteen … [Read more...]
Burrapahar, Kaziranga
You know how in the buffer zone, they keep telling you that anything can happen? You know how all guides have stories about sightings of big animals on the main road?It never happens to me. I keep hoping, but no. Nothing on the main road.Until Kaziranga.All around us, like a wispy cushion on the tea estates, was the early morning fog. Shivering in the open jeep, we had our first sighting of the day - a rhino visible clearly from the main road. Bakul didn't even stop to look at it. He clarified later, "From the main road, you can see anything! The real experience is seeing it in the forest." I didn't argue.Further on, we saw a whole troop of monkeys, playing in wet agricultural land, right next to us. [Aside: I just looked up the range of collective nouns used for monkeys. It's charming!] We stopped this time and watched the macaques, running around, washing their faces, eating … [Read more...]
Agaratoli, Kaziranga
The eastern zone of Kaziranga is much more forested, not primarily grassland. It was joyous being in there, looking at the crazy trees and ferns. Some trees look like they've set up hanging gardens of their own, with leaves of different kinds growing out of their trunks. I couldn't stop marvelling at them.Bright green leaves glistened, almost as if they had been polished. My father chuckled. "It looks like Pati gave them a good clean to make them shine!" My Pati loved to make things shine. Her brass never had a dull moment.In Kaziranga, many tourists are accompanied by a gunman for security reasons. In Agartoli, we had with us Pranab, a gunman who'd been with the Forest Department for five years. Everything was good; we were roaming around cheerfully ... Until an elephant crossed our path.Pranab tapped on Bakul's shoulder. We stopped, maintaining a respectful distance. We … [Read more...]
Bagori, Kaziranga
Pelicans! The safari in Mihimukh showed me not just the Lesser Adjutant Stork and the Woolly Necked Stork, but also the Open-Billed Stork, Bar-Headed Geese -- and pelicans!When Bakul first pointed them out, I didn't quite believe him. Then I saw those incredible pouchy beaks. I stared, filling my eyes with them. I found myself thinking, "Oh, so pelicans do belong in the world outside cartoons ..."At the end of each day in the forest, I close my eyes and let all the images of the forest dance in my head. On our first day, I could see the beautiful forest all around me. I could see the elephant grass with birds flying above it. I could see the sudden pools around the corner, pools that kept taking me by surprise. I could see a magnificent wild buffalo wallowing in the mud.Central and western zones got mixed up in my head. I could see our first rhino. I could see all the elephants … [Read more...]
Turtles, Ducks and Elephants, Kaziranga
Bakul identified the turtles for us. I did not understand at all, not even enough to figure out for myself later. Himalayan Box Turtle? Perhaps. That was a name I discovered. But I know nothing about turtles. Can anyone help?Ducks - we saw hundreds of them. A beautiful orangish red duck was everywhere."Radisson duck," said Bakul. Or at least, it sounded like it. I came home and looked it up. 'Radisson duck' sounded believable enough. A Google search threw up images of Radisson ducks, though. Click there and you'll find out what I found out. The ducks we saw weren't Radisson ducks. That was certain.I looked at the larger picture, breathing deeply. I blinked. Everyone else was still looking at the turtles. I peered again, just to be sure. "Haathi!" I said, incredulous. "Haathi!"Those who have seen only captive elephants have no idea of the magic of wild elephants.And I could … [Read more...]
Rhinoceros Unicornis, Kaziranga
"Haan, rhino hai, udhar," said Bakul."Rhino?" I repeated. I had to have misheard. He could not be so calm. He could not tonelessly say 'rhino hai udhar' and leave it at that. In my head, though, I was saying, Rhino! Oo, rhino! Rhino! Where's the rhino? I want to see ...And there it was. Across a lake, eating away to glory. Rhinoceros unicornis. The real thing.Thoughts tumbled one after the other. Does it get cock-eyed looking around its horn? It really has a horn! It's so big! It's slaty-grey. It's ... it's a rhino!In my experience with forests so far, you don't just go away. You don't say, "Ah, there's a rhino," and peacefully drive off. I once watched a bear eat for almost half an hour. Because that's the way it is.Or so I thought."Chalein?" asked Bakul."Hmm?""Shall we move on?" someone translated for me, as if language was the problem.It was unheard of, unthinkable … [Read more...]
Mihimukh, Kaziranga
How different Kaziranga is from the other reserves I've visited! For one, you can get off the jeep in several places. In each zone, there's a watch tower which you can climb to look at the world around you. And the zones don't have complicated, circuitous routes. There's no decision to make about what path to take, where to go ...The gate to the reserve opens at 7:30, much later than at Tadoba. Expecting the cold of 6 o'clock safaris, I was armed with a beanie crocheted by a friend, in addition to my jacket, shawl and socks. I was set. Safaris in December are just something else.Birds. They just blew me over."What is that?" I asked. "Pulley-necked stork," was the answer I understood. Pulley? I wondered. Why pulley? Maybe bully? Who-ly? It was only in the evening that I had my Aha! moment. Woolly-necked stork. That's what it was!A huge stork, much bigger than my pulley-necked … [Read more...]
Back from Kaziranga
Elephant grass. Anything could be hiding there. (A rhino, perhaps?)Huge birds that made me think of pterodactyls. (Wasn't it enough that the word 'rhinoceros' tempted me to say 'rhino-saurus'?Hog deer. (My auto response, by the way, said I was away looking at/for rhinoceroses.)Swamp deer. (I wonder ... Why don't we use the second part of the one-horned rhinoceros's Latin name? Wouldn't that be exciting?)Cold, cold December days. I didn't know whether it was just the cold that was making me shiver, though.Many years ago, I had a pen pal from Assam. I remember him going to Kaziranga and writing to me about it. I had heard of it, but someone 'real' going there made it a place rather than a name. I lost contact with him years ago, ironically, when emails replaced letters. But finally, I went there, to Kaziranga. Four super safaris ... I still have rhinoceros-shaped bubbles of … [Read more...]
Running on the Cracks
So much to do, so much to read, so much to write! I haven't written my blog for ages because I've been busy writing a brand new series on trains ... But more about that when we're closer to the date it's to be launched.Running on the Cracks made me create a little space in the whirlwind of activity that has made up the last few months. I read and watched The Gruffalo's Child a while ago, and when I saw a book by Julia Donaldson in the library, I had to read it.And I read on and on.Moving beyond the 'political correctness' of the way we ought to address the immigrant Chinese population in Glasgow, Running on the Cracks came alive to me at each step.Leonora Watts-Chan, half-Chinese and half-English, is on the run. Her parents died in a plane crash, and she begins to live with Aunt Sarah and Uncle John. Her cousins tease her about the colour of her skin; in fact, they tease her … [Read more...]
Why not Indian literature?
I read article after article about how Indian literature for children is on the rise. I read about lit fests and how these promote Indian writers and Indian literature. I read about new publishers and new writers all over the country. I feel encouraged, thinking about my future (and present) as a writer.Yet, against all that optimism, a few things come to mind.I often play a game with children, encouraging them to find out what the others read. Recently, I watched sixty children running around enthusiastically as they played the game, shouting to one another. When they shared what they loved and hated reading, not a single Indian writer or book was named. In a Writers' Club that I conduct, children write about France and America and England and Australia, rarely India. I still meet Mary and Lucy, and even made-up names of various sorts, but rarely Indian … [Read more...]