My first reading at St. Mary’s school yesterday told me, yet again, why I love writing for children. The number of questions they asked me and the way they interacted with me for a whole hour was simply wonderful. Writing, editing, publishing, marketing, illustrating and designing – they had questions about all these things. They […]
Book-Reading in MY School!
Once upon a time (in 1995, to tell the truth), my wonderful school-librarian encouraged us to write and illustrate books of our own. A friend and I sat and wrote a book of stories and poems. I forget what it’s called. We illustrated it painstakingly – and one important lesson that I learned from that […]
Treasure Hunt
All my friends ask me where The Story-Catcher is available, all the time. I know how easily it’s available online, and I tell everyone to buy it online. But I’ve wanted to know for a while where it is actually available so that people can go to a store and pay for it at the counter […]
The Mice who Turned into Fairies
I think I’m finally old enough to read stories I wrote when I was seven years old without cringing in embarrassment. Some still make me cringe; this isn’t one of them, perhaps merely because it won the first prize in a story-writing contest when I was seven years old. Written in a four-lined notebook with […]
Plea for Justice
At one of the places where I teach, many of the children are brought up in the belief that the teacher is next to God. They are silent in class, not bold enough to speak, rarely confident enough to tell me that they did not understand something. It’s a huge obstacle I have to surmount […]
A Problem I Never Solved
“This is my favourite! I like it more than you.” This argument always bewildered me as a child, and bewilders me even now. I can never know how much anyone else likes anything. The rose may be your favourite flower, but it may not be mine. Yet, I may like it more than you do, and […]
The Generation Gap
Children who know me as didi, a senior in dance class, often have trouble figuring out whether I belong to their generation or their parents’ generation. Sometimes, I have trouble with it too. I was teaching two children with exactly the same problem. Often, they believed that I was in their generation, on their side, so […]
One-Arm-Distance
Children in dance class believe firmly that the closer they are to me the better I will be able to see them. I try every now and then – very ineffectively – to explain that this is not the case. “If you stand a little far, I can see you completely,” I explain. “Otherwise, I […]
Cool Cans
When cans of soft drinks were launched in India, they were both ridiculously expensive and ridiculously cool. I remember the summer holidays – four cousins in Bangalore, always hungry and always asking for ice-cream or cotton candy or, in the case of my cousins, soft drinks. I, sadly, did not like anything aerated, so I […]
Cut
My sister and I often got invited to the same parties. Once, when I was about seven, both of us received birthday invitations that had a fancy RSVP slip that had to be cut along the dotted line. Below the dotted line, it said: I can/ cannot attend your birthday party. (Please cut one) I […]
Twins
My sister and I have repeatedly been told how alike we look. A few have also told us how different we look, astounded that we are sisters. The former is more usual, though, and two instances stand out. As children, a gentleman came up to us. “Excuse me, but are you twins?” Taught never to […]
First Day at School
I moved to a school in Pune when I was five years old. I was like any other excited girl in the first standard with my new tiffin box, my new water bottle and my new bag with new books. I came from a smallish school in Vashi, so even the city was new to me. […]
Arbitrary Right
A little girl in my dance class was confused. “Which is your right hand?” I asked. “This one?” she suggested, tentatively, raising her left hand. “No,” I said, gently, used to these problems. “That’s your left hand. The other one is your right.” “NO!” she said, crossly. “That’s your right.” I smiled and demonstrated to her, […]
On Being Old
My grandmother was very ill, and a friend was talking to me about how difficult it was to see my grandmother like that. A little girl, one of my students, was listening to the conversation. Once my friend had left, she asked me, “Miss, what happened to your mother?” “Nothing happened to my mother,” I […]