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 […]
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. […]
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!
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 […]
Day Three – Reading is Fun!
I always tremble when I talk about my book. But somehow, today was just perfect. For once, I felt that the children simply loved the story and were still eager for more! Today was a grand day. I bit my lip controlling my laughter as a child read a little excerpt he had written about […]
Working, Working, Workshop!
Reading is Fun! Day One Day Two And now, I’m excited about the next one, coming soon …
Day Two – Reading is Fun!
Yesterday was the second exciting session with eager young children, waiting to be entertained. I began with a presentation on the process of the making of the book – from the mind of the writer to the hands of the reader. It was a long (yet brief) detailed explanation of different aspects of the process. […]
Sophie’s Lucky
The perfect children’s book is not one that you read and say, “Oh, I would have loved it so much if I had read it when I was seven!” The perfect children’s book is one that you read and say, “What a truly delightful book!” And that’s what I feel when I read Sophie’s Lucky, or, […]
Day One – Reading is Fun!
And fun it certainly was! I had 21 children there in all. Apparently, after 20 registrations had been made, someone wanted to join. The child was told that there were no seats left, but she could try her luck, show up at the workshop and see if anyone backed out. The child diligently showed up […]
The Lion King
I belong to the generation that was addicted to The Lion King video game. I loved jumping on the giraffes’ heads, and loved to get the bonus points for a golden lion that did not look like a lion at all. I loved moving from level to level of jumping colour. However, I also belonged to the […]
13 registrations done!
Thirteen children will be part of my reading workshop that starts on Sunday! Seven seats left . . .
Reading Workshop
I spoke to Ms Sugandhi from the British Library last Sunday, and she said that 11 children had already registered! There are just 20 seats in all; now is the time!
Teachers’ Day
What a novel Teachers’ Day experience! The children impersonated the teachers; that was a treat. How funny it is to see how students see me! I couldn’t stop laughing. Another wonderful part of the day was a quiz about the 12th grade students, prepared by the students. And a treasure hunt in the block. I […]
Treason
The year is 1539. King Henry VIII is King of England. All three of his wives, Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour are dead. He has three children: Mary, Elizabeth and the long-awaited heir to his throne, Edward. Henry has broken away from the Church of Rome because the Pope would not allow […]
Available worldwide!
Just discovered that The Story-Catcher is not available just in India and the US! It’s available in the UK too! (And perhaps elsewhere in the world that I have not discovered yet!)
MRP
On the radio, I hear advertisements, urging the consumer to wake up and realise that the Maximum Retail Price is printed on all kinds of products. Consumers are duped by dishonest shopkeepers simply because they do not know that they should look at the MRP. I sometimes feel bad when I listen to these ads. […]
The Diary I’m Using
I can’t stop laughing. I found an age-old diary. It’s a 1988 diary, and I seem to have started using it in the early nineties. Only a few pages are used, so I picked it up to use again. As always, one of the first few pages has space provided for personal details. Name, address, […]