Recently, while reading A Cello on the Wall with my book club, we did a quiz on musical instruments. The piano, the cello (of course), the guitar, and the tabla were easy to identify. The violin was easy for some, confusing for others. But the sarod, sitar, veena and mridangam were difficult for nearly all the children. And this made me realise how rarely we see these instruments in picture books. Yes, many children know that Saraswati plays the veena, but in so many depictions, it looks like she's playing the sitar. I played the sitar myself, and I still got confused!It was with all this at the back of my mind that I started reading Roshan's Road to Music, the story of how Annapurna Devi began her musical journey. What I loved immediately about the book was the use of the name Roshan, rather than the better known name Annapurna Devi. Little Roshan finds music everywhere. Don't we … [Read more...]