It's Teachers' Day - the day when every teacher goes home with a mountain of cards. As a writer and teacher, how can I not celebrate all the fictional teachers I love?When I started writing this post, I thought, first, of all the teachers I've created in my stories. The Story-Catcher has very few; offhand, I can think of just the nameless coach in "The Nationals".Dragonflies, Jigsaws, and Seashells has three; perhaps because I started teaching a lot more ...? Mr Kaushik Natraj from "Treasure-Hunt", Miss Philips from "A Drawing Lesson" and Miss Kala Ramdev from "A Retired Teacher": I like Mr Kaushik most!Edited to add: My latest book Sisters at New Dawn is a school story, so it's full of teachers. I would love to know who your favourites are!Naturally, I then went on to think about all the fictional teachers I love, particularly in children's fiction. Here … [Read more...]
The Harry Potter Phenomenon
"You must read Harry Potter," a friend of mine told me when I was in the eighth standard. I glanced at the book lying on her desk and nodded. The book she was so impressed by was not yet available easily in India. A relative had given it to her and she was passing it on.I postponed reading - for an incomprehensible reason that I wonder if anyone would understand. I thought Harry Potter was the name of the writer and I had a deep-rooted prejudice against writers who put their own names in font that is far larger than the name of the book. Who was this Harry Potter who used one-fourth of the book cover for his own name? A lot of writers did that, I knew. I did not like the idea of it at all. I did not want to read this new author, this Harry Potter.So another friend read it before I did and said to me, "You must read Harry Potter!"I was curious now, so we spoke a … [Read more...]