Mukand and Riaz

Did something really interesting yesterday. Was at Hari Shree Vidyashram, Chennai, thanks to a sudden invitation from Shreepriyaa asking if I would talk to the kids prior to their launching into an Aman ki Asha project…The Aman ki Asha is an initiative of The Times of India and The Jang group of Pakistan to engage in initiatives that underline the hope for peace between the two countires. The children at Hari Shree are part of a larger plan to send messages of peace on white handkerchiefs so they can be tied to flutter all the way from Amritsar to Lahore… this, in a nutshell; you will find more online.

Anyhow, when the invitation came, I jumped because we have just the book for something like this: Nina Sabnani’s Mukand and Riaz. We also have a copy of the award-winning animation film Nina made, on which she based the book. Using the art on cloth done by women from the region of Sindh in India and Pakistan, she has created a story of friendship between two children, Mukand and Riaz, in a simple and poignant way.

As they watched Mukand waving and waving to his friend Riaz from aboard the S.S. Shirala, and they saw the ship getting smaller and smaller, and the final credits began to roll, there were soft and loud whispers, and heads turning… “He’s crying, da!” someone said. I turned to look and saw that many in the approximately 200-strong group of 7 to 9 year-olds, wiping away tears, girls and boys. The children were palpably and visibly moved by the story of friendship Nina had told.

They understood immediately the loss of friends and in the course of the excited discussion that followed, many questions came up. To do with friendship of course, and moving, and violence, and peace, and home and lots more. One little boy jumped up to say that his grandfather too had grown up in Karachi, where Mukand and Riaz’s story is located. Then, when they realized Mukand was actually Nina’s father, and that he really had a friend called Riaz, they were beside themselves with excitement. Where is Mukand? How will he find Riaz? I want to meet the person who made this film. The pictures are made of cloth. I want to read this book. I want to read this book. Is it in the library? Where will I find it?

By the time I took my leave, the children were sparkling with understanding and ideas. “You may be sure they will talk about nothing else all day,” Teacher Jayanthi said as we parted.

There is a postscript.

I wrote to Nina right away, about how the children had reacted and how proud we were all over again for the lovely book she had done. She wrote back: "What you write makes me cry too. I am so touched and what a day to share this with me, on my birthday. Thanks so very much!!!!! The best news today. Big hugs and love..."

Big hugs and love is what the children of the world need, I guess. What the children of classes 2, 3 and 4 of Hari Shree would like as a return birthday gift from Nina is lots more books like this.

- Sandhya Rao

You can watch Mukand and Riaz on YouTube. Ajit Nair has interviewed Nina Sabnani and blogged about the animated film.
Amba blogs about Nina's presentation of the book at a conference - Mantles of Myth: The Narrative in Indian Textiles, organised by Siyahi in Jaipur.
There are reviews of the book on the Tulika site. Bharati Srinivasan, special educator and creative writing facilitator, mentions how she used Mukand and Riaz to teach creative writing and dispel prejudice.

Announcing the results of blogathons 1 & 2

Blogathon 2

Praveena Sridhar and Prince Narad will receive copies of 'Water Stories from Around the World' for review.

Blogathon 1

Utbtkids, Sowmya, Anushankarn, Prerna, Hema, Sandhya, Chotus World, Rupa, Lavanya, Telugumom, Smitha, Itching to write, Artnavy, Subhashree, Arundhati, Mamma Mia, Madrasi in Missouri, Monica, Rupa & Gouriguha will receive review copies of selected Tulika titles.

That's right. Everyone who wrote a blog post for blogathon 1 gets a review copy of a Tulika book. Because they spoke up first. Because they shared their time and opinion with us so freely;) Because they participated. And all that jazz.

Did I miss anyone in this list? If I have, speak up as fast as you can or forever hold your peace.

Narad, yes, we know you participated in the first blogathon too. But you're getting a book already. Don't be greedy.

So. All you lucky people who are going to review Tulika's books on your blogs, please write in with your mailing addresses and reading languages of choice. Let's get reviewing as soon as we possibly can.

Illustrating Water Stories

The Water Stories blogathon closes today. Participants selected to review Tulika's titles for both blogathons will be announced  tomorrow, March 30, 2010. Stay tuned...


Meanwhile, here is Water Stories' illustrator Nirupama Sekhar's reflections upon the appeal of illustrated books. You can see some of her art for the book in this slideshow.

‘Water Stories’ is my first book as illustrator. Being a graphic designer by profession, I didn’t quite realize the power of  “characters” until this project. “Tiddalik is not happy,” my very adult friend commented, “he thinks he should have made the cover.” I was happy simply to hear my characters coming alive, escaping from 2D flatland.




What is it about a happy, colourful illustrated book that is so endearing? I think the answer lies in between the lines, and beyond the images; it lies in the reader’s imagination. An illustrated book, unlike say a comic book, leaves much to the imagination. You, as the reader, will have to fill in the rest of Koluscap’s bloody struggle as he avenges the sea-monster. And the single image of Koluscap’s painted face and raised foot is your portal key to start that journey.




Personally, I have a deep love for the book as a designed object. It is a beautiful thing, really. Amidst all other examples of visual design, the book perhaps is the most permanent. You don’t throw away a book, as you would a newspaper or magazine. You don’t forget a book, the way you would a print advertisement. It is meant to be read, discovered, cherished and years later, rediscovered again.


‘Water Stories’ has been a lovely, satisfying book to work on. The project started off with researching folk tales and myths about water from all over the world. Human dependence on water has been both universal and timeless, as tales from Botswana or China, Greece or India will tell you. The visual motifs and patterns of different cultures provided a rich reference to visualize water in unique ways for each story. Myriad representations of the same theme - water - just goes to show how different we all are, and yet how very similar. All the illustrations for ‘Water Stories’ were hand-drawn watercolour illustrations.

Hopefully, ‘Water Stories’ will help you respect and discover water in much deeper sense, beyond how we urban-dwellers usually end up taking it for granted. And if you do make some new friends in Tiddalik or Selekana along the way... there, that would be for me a success.  Happy reading!


- Nirupama Sekhar

Water Stories from around the world is available online at a special price till April.

Hutoxi at Valley School - The Story from the Horse's Mouth

A parent of a Valley School student had written earlier about author Radhika Chadha's reading at Valley School. Here's Radhika's side of the story....

I read out some of my stories at the Valley School, Bangalore, earlier this month, and the warmth and enthusiasm of the children and the teachers made it an amazing experience. The hugs, the clamour for autographs and the cards and slips declaring fandom, all made me feel like a movie star – but what really left me totally gobsmacked, was the children’s engagement with the stories.

Before my visit, the stories from my Baby Bahadur Series had already been read out to the children – and some of them had been used as part of their creative writing class. Which is probably why it felt less like a book reading and more as if I had walked into a book-club … where the audience was fully familiar with my stories and ready with searching questions. Kids cuddled up cosily and demanded that I read the book of their choice – and as soon as I picked one up, I was greeted by a number of excited voices chirping up with a quick review of the book and their opinions as to why they liked it.

What was even more amazing was the insightful and thoughtful way in which they had analyzed the characters. One little fellow in first grade made this critique after I read out Yes, Hutoxi : “Hutoxi thinks she’s always right,” he said. We pondered over that thought for a few minutes and when I asked the others what they thought, there was a volley of responses quoting Hutoxi’s words from other books which showed she wasn’t infallible.

A rapid-fire question session followed the reading : At the end of Hutoxi, did the herd of horses turn out to be her family? Why do the animals obey Hutoxi – is it out of love, or respect, or fear? Where was Basava’s father when all this was happening? When do I plan to write about Kamalnayan? Why are the sentences in Basava longer than the ones in the Baby Bahadur series? Why do I write about animals and not about people? How is a book made? Who is the first to read my story after I have written it? How many changes do I make to a story after it is written? And so on!

After reading Snoring Shanmugam, I often point out how Amma’s technique of stopping snoring can be put to use. This time I got feedback on how successful this had been by some adventurous children who had heard the story before and had already tried this out. One complained “My father is too heavy for me to roll over” and was told by a classmate to “just poke him - my father snores all the time and he snores in the afternoon too and he gets up fast when I poke him”. This led to an exploration of impediments to implementing this strategy, such as “I go to sleep before my mother. So I have to pretend I am asleep, wait for her to sleep and then poke her” and “I sleep in another room, I have to sneak into their room to do this”. And there was a some serious discussion about the possibility of repercussions from irate parents : “My father gets angry when I do that”, said one early experimenter with this method. “You must poke them and then quickly run out of the room” was the sage advice from an expert. I suspect there may be many parents out there whose sleep has been disturbed by the Amma Anti-snoring Technique. Ah well, it’s all Shanmugam’s fault.

I was given a peek into the kids’ creative writing experience, which was a real treat. The brief to the children had been to rewrite the end of Mallipoo, Where are You? I was vastly amused by the zaniness and irreverence with which this had been done. Some excerpts :

Bahadur came and told them the piglets are missing. “We don’t care, what’s the big deal,” said Anna and Akka. “Are you out of your mind!” said Bahadur. “No, we are not,” said Anna and Akka. Oh, now I see the drunken monster. Mangal Singh made them drunk.

They start to look for the piglets. Bahadur finds a piglet in a rabbit hole, dead, because he got suffocated. Mannu saw two piglets drowned in the lake. Anna and Akka found three piglets being eaten by Shanmugam. When everyone met at the mud pit, Mallipoo was sleeping. Then Mannu, Anna, Akka and Bahadur said, “Oh God, save us!” Then Mallipoo becomes a God and makes all the piglets alive and teleports them to the mud pit.

Note to Tulika –a bunch of young writers here, just raring to go!

Thank you, teachers and children of Valley School, for giving me a dekko into how my books are used in class – I had a marvelous time.

- Radhika Chadha

Same & Different

Author-illustrator Manjula Padmanabhan on the process of creating 'Same & Different', a Tulika title due for launch soon. Details in a bit.

Update: You can now buy the book from the Tulika site! 

There are two parts to drawing a book: the first part is thinking about it and the second part is drawing it. The first part usually takes a couple of seconds and the second part takes several months!

The idea for Same & Different occurred to me at the time I was working on I am Different! But I was also interested in a new kind of drawing – instead of using paper and paints, the way I did with the first book, my plan for the new one was to draw directly on my computer. 

All drawings require some kind of equipment. For drawing on the computer, the best thing to use is a drawing tablet. It looks like a flat pad, about the size of magazine (but square) and is connected to the computer – in my case, a tiny little laptop called a Netbook. The pad has a cordless attachment called a stylus, that looks and works a lot like a pen. Unlike a pen, though, it can only create drawings inside the computer, not on paper or canvas. So I draw using the pad and look at  the results on my computer's monitor. Using this gadget and also the amazing software programme called Adobe Photoshop, I was able to draw the creatures and backgrounds you see in the book.

Some people tell me, when I say that I drew this book using my computer, "Oh! We far prefer drawings made by hand …" But these are made by hand – not by my feet, or mouth, or eyebrows! All the animals started off as black and white squiggles made by me, which I would gradually shape into heads and tails and eyes and noses, add colour, flipped back and forth and up and down until I had exactly what I wanted. Creating the backgrounds was a lot of fun too.  

I wrote all the verses in one afternoon several months ago* – but of course, as with all books, the first attempts went through several changes before they were completed and ready for printing. My editors at Tulika were very patient and also very helpful as I tried to polish up the rhymes so that they would make sense while at the same time being comfortable to say out loud. I also had to change some of the animals I had originally wanted to use because when it came to drawing them, they didn't suit the puzzle so well. The squirrels, for instance, were a last minute choice after I decided that langur monkeys were just too fidgety to suit a picture in which they were all supposed to look the same or very similar.  

But the very best thing about the book was that the whole thing took about six weeks. Which is absolutely AMAAAAAZING. And what is even more amaaaaazing, the printed book was out about one week after that! From my first drawings in a purely electronic form, inside my computer, all those little animals spilled out, via the printing press, onto paper, onto pages which were then collected and bound as a book, and finally, OUT: to bookshops, to homes and into the hands of readers. Two months, from nothing to something! 

Magic, that's what I call it.

(* There's a funny story here! I had gone to the Tulika office in Chennai – it's a really friendly, happy place, just like the books they produce! – and was just about to leave when someone handed me a 'muruku'. I of course immediately popped it into my mouth and … began to choke. Quite suddenly I simply could not take in a single breath – it was just like in the cartoons, I felt my eyes begin to bulge, my throat felt like it was made of wood – and everyone looking on in horror as Sandhya and Deeya thumped me on my back … until … finally, after what felt like a week but was actually only about 10 seconds, the tiny little crumb that had got caught was dislodged. Phew! I went home, still feeling a little shaky and choke-y and immediately spent the rest of the afternoon writing the verses!)

- Manjula Padmanabhan

Powerless in Perambur

Author Sowmya Rajendran describes the process of writing 'Power Cut' , a Tulika title that is due for release shortly. Watch this space! 
Update: The book is now available on the Tulika site.

In 2005, Chennai was hit by a series of cyclones and thunderstorms. The power went off in Perambur (where I used to stay) for two days in a row. After celebrating the fact that the exams had been postponed, there was precious little to do - no TV, no computer, no cell phone (the battery died!) and nowhere to go! 

I did appreciate the beauty of the rain, the extra-fresh greenery of the garden and the happy frogs, but these could not entertain me forever. My parents, too, had nothing to do- which is a rare occurrence. So we sat around the drawing room and played word games. Not knowing when the power would come back gave the situation a tinge of happy fatalism. All we had to do was eat endless packets of Marie biscuits and play. This was a license to be lazy and we used it to the maximum!

It was a lot of fun and it brought back memories from my childhood when I used to make animal shadows in candle-light. There’s nothing unique about that experience- every child would have made a deer or a bird or something when the candles were out on the table. And it’s this non-uniqueness that prompted me to write Power Cut. We’ve all done it and I thought it’ll be fun to see it as a book.

The story is in first person. I struggled a bit while trying to decide what to call the parents - I tried writing with ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’ but it seemed strange to me because I was picturing them as my parents. So I made them ‘Amma’ and ‘Acha’ (which is what I call them). This got changed in the editing since the story is being translated into other languages- quite understandable and I’m very happy with the way the final manuscript looks, too!

I still make animal shadows when the power goes off, the darkness makes grown-ups stop worrying about looking silly. I think if we worried about it a lot lesser even otherwise, we’d be much happier.

- Sowmya Rajendran

Hutoxi goes to Valley School

March 3: Students of the primary section (grades 1-4) at Valley School, Bangalore, were excitedly waiting to meet their “favourite author”. Class teachers had been informed of Radhika Chadha‘s visit a few weeks in advance and they had started reading books written by the Bangalore-based Tulika author. 'Yes, Hutoxi', her latest in the Baby Bahadur series, was printed in February, and she was now going to share the story with these children.

The first graders seemed to know all the regular animal characters and their traits that appeared in her earlier books – right from the teenage elephants, Akka and Anna who play football with coconuts, to Shanmugam, the lion who loves to sleep and eat. They wanted Radhika’s autographs and one child told her, “Aunty, now quickly go home and start writing your next book.”  Since their questions just wouldn’t stop, Radhika volunteered to reply if they wrote on chits of paper and gave her as home work!

The next group comprising of students in 2-3-4 grades, were in for a special treat.  In addition to 'Yes, Hutoxi', Radhika also read to them 'Basava and the Dots of Fire'.  “Why have you not written more Basava books?” they wanted to know.  Radhika coolly replied, “He has not shared other adventures with me, yet.”

One teacher had used 'Mallipoo, Where Are You?' as the basis of her creative writing exercise.  Radhika had tears rolling down her cheeks when she read the hilarious alternate endings suggested by some of the children. (Read more about it in her future blog post)

All through the three-hour school visit, Radhika was greeted by children – some broke into spontaneous hugs, others gave her handmade thank you cards and one even made her a paper finger puppet that she could “use during her next reading!” 

Thank You - Radhika for being such a sport!  Hope you have started writing the next book?

- From A Valley School Parent

Annoucing Blogathon 2!

Readers, I am awe-struck. Such an amazing response to Blogathon 1! Sixteen posts + three comments and counting. Thanks to your love, we are closing Blogathon 1 earlier than planned. The Blogathon 1 theme is open till Monday, March 22. After that, I'll put up a couple of posts rounding up all the responses we've got. Participants selected to review copies of Tulika's books will be announced on Monday, March 29.

Meanwhile, here's announcing Blogathon 2!

Blogathon 2 is a special mini-blogathon to mark the launch of Tulika's 'Water Stories from Around the World'.

Watch the presentation here. Respond to it.

That's it. No questions to restrain your imagination. So get creative.

Maybe you can discuss the questions asked (Who owns water? How can we share water?) with children and post the conversation. Maybe you can tell us how you introduce issues of environment and conserving natural resources to young people. Maybe you can tell us stories from your childhood that taught you the value of green living. Maybe you can download the slideshow and create something new.

The possibilities are endless...and they're all yours.

Go to it then.

Selected participants will get copies of 'Water Stories from Around the World' for review. Blogathon 2 closes Monday, March 29. Names of selected participants will be announced soon after.

P.S. The same rules as Blogathon 1 apply. Leave a comment or send me an email if you don't have a blog. Off you go.

Water Stories from Around the World

Watch a slideshow on Water Stories from Around the World.
Attend the book launch on Monday, March 22, 2010.

Launch of Water Stories from Around the World

On World Water Day


You are invited to celebrate Water with Water Stories from Around the World

Story reading and fun activities with Dr. Arna Seal and Manjir Ghosh - renowned sociologists and children's activists.

Monday, March 22, 2010, 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at
Weavers Studio Centre for the Arts
94, Ballygunge Place
Kolkata - 19


Entry by registration only. No registration fee.


www.weaversstudio.com

/  2461 3145 for details

A special display and discount on all Tulika titles from 22 to 25 March 2010 at the Centre from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Water Stories from Around the World

Have you written your blog post for Blogathon 1 yet? Hurry. Blogathon 2 is on its way. Meanwhile, here's a preview of Tulika's latest. Enjoy!

More details on the Tulika site.

Water Stories from Around the World

View more presentations from Tulika Books.

Announcing the Tulika blogathon

Blogathon 1: Writing and Speaking the Mother Tongue

A blogathon is not like a marathon at all. It's more fun, less sweat and won't help you break records. However. This is how it works:

Every fortnight, I'll post a question/issue/conversation starter here. It will relate to literacy, language, reading or writing. Write about it on your blog and leave a link in the comments section so we can come and find you. If you don't have a blog, you can leave responses in the comments section or mail them to tulika_books@yahoo.com

End of fortnight, I'll collect interesting responses and post samplings with links to original posts/publish other responses received via mail.

You get points for linking to this post on your blogs, writing in your mother tongue, and spending the weekend writing the most fascinating blog post you can.

Well, not really.

But I can promise you this: selected participants will win review copies of Tulika's books. How awesome is that? Three books are going to press just now and at least one of them is in need of serious review love.

Got your pens/keyboards/quills at the ready? Here's the first edition of the blogathon. Feel free to take off from one or all of these questions:

How different are the written and spoken forms of your first language? If you want children to become familiar with their first language, which form would you look for in children's books - formal or informal? Why?

P.S. Many of you are telling us that its difficult to find the comments button...It's usually the last thing to load on the page, so try giving it some time.
If you look below the post, you will find the 'Posted by Tulika Publishers' sign-off line. Immediately below that in small font, you will see Comments (12) - the number changing according to comments we have at that point. Click on this to post your comments. Remember to log in with your Twitter, Facebook or Open ID BEFORE posting your comment or you could lose the comment when attempting to do it after.

Tulika at SAWNET

The South Asian Women's Network describes itself as a forum for and about women from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The rest of the world has had so much to say about SAWNET that they had to put up a whole page with links to SAWNET mentions.
What they also have on their site is a valuable collection of resources for women. Tulika is delighted to find it's books featured in its South Asian children's books section which has book lists sorted by age and genre.

Tulika has also been listed among resources and distributors for children's books.
And land was born, Ekki Dokki, Eecha Poocha, and Who will be Ningthou?  have been listed in the Traditional Tales Retold page.

There are several reviews of Tulika titles:

Srividya Natarajan wonders if her expectations of child protagonists are being shaped by norms of Western literature for children in this thoughtful review of That Summer in Kalagarh.


"For children of South-Asian origin the books may have added appeal because the writer, Suniti Namjoshi, depicts characters that they can identify with; characters with ethnic names are placed in circumstances and locales in mainstream Indian or British life," says Shabnam Arora Afsah about the Aditi series.

The Forbidden Temple will "go far towards increasing appreciation for history and good writing" says Susan Chacko here.

Sonia Desai reviews Kali and the Rat Snake. Indira N has reviewed Kolaba by Sandhya Rao here and Look the Moon by Sandhya Rao here.

You can find all titles that have been reviewed here.

பிரியாவின் ஒரு நாள், ஜீவாவின் முதல் நாள் /A day with Priya, Jeeva's first day

1998¬õ ¬ñÎ, ¬¸Šð Á¡¾õ, Á¡¨Ä 5.30 Á½¢ìÌ:

ÁÉŠ¾Ä¡ ±ýÈ Š¾Äò¾¢ø, «Õ¨Á º§¸¡¾Ã¢ ºó¾¢Â¡ "Priya's day"¨Å ¬í¸¢Äò¾¢ø ÀÊì¸ ¿¡ý "À¡ôÀ¡,À¡ôÀ¡, ¸¨¾ §¸Ù"±ýÚ ¾Á¢Æ¢ø ¦Á¡Æ¢¦ÀÂ÷¸, ¸Ã§¸¡„õ ±ØõÀ¢ÂÐ. ¦Ã¡õÀ ¸‰¼õ ôÀ¡ þôÀÊ ±Ø¾...

«¾É¡Ä þôÀÊ - ¼ñ, ¼½ñ, ¼½ñ, ¼½ñ¼¼¼ññññ. §¸ò¾¢ ±Ø¾¢É Òò¾¸ò¨¾ ¾Á¢Æ¢ø ±ØàýÛ Ã¡¾¢¸¡ ¦º¡øÄ ¿¡Ûõ ÅÕõ ¬É¡ ÅáÐýÛ ¦º¡ý§Éý. ²?ýÛ §¸ð¼¡ ±ý தோழி á¾¢¸¡. ¬Á¡õ ¿¡Ûõ «ÅÙõ À¡Ä¢Â º¢§É¸¢¾¢¸û. ¾Á¢ú §ÁÄ ¬¨º ¬É¡ º¢Ú ÅÂÍÄ ÀÊ측Á Å¢ðÎð§¼ý, þÄ츢 ¾Á¢ú ÅáàýÛ ¦º¡ý§Éý. ºÃ¢,þÂøÒ ¾Á¢úÄ ±ØàýÉ¡....«ôÒÈõ àû!!!

"À¢Ã¢Â¡Å¢ý ´Õ ¿¡û" À¢Èó¾Ð. «ó¾ Òò¾¸ ¦ÅǢ£ðΠŢơŢľ¡ý ¿¡ý À¡ð§¼¡¼ «ó¾ ¸¨¾¨Â ¦º¡ý§Éý. ¾ðÎÉ¡í¸ À¡Õí¸, ±ý¨É þø¨Äí¸, ¨¸¨Â! ¬†¡, µ§†¡, ´§Ã À¡Ã¡ðÎ ¾¡ý.±ý ±ØòÐìÌìÌ þø¨Ä,±ý ¸¨¾¨Âì §¸ðÎ. "You are a brilliant story teller"ýÉ¡í¸.

"«ôÀËýÉ¡?" þÐ ¿¡ý.

"ÓƢ측§¾! ¿ýÈ¢ ¦º¡øÄ¢ º¢Ã¢" þРá¾¢¸¡.

«ýÉ¢ìÌ ¬ÃõÀ¢îº þó¾ ±Øò¾¡Ç÷ ÁüÚõ ¸¨¾ ¦º¡øĢ¢ý À½õ þýÛõ ¦¾¡¼÷óи¢ðÎÕìÌ. þýÛõ ÅÕõ.......

The year is 1998, the month of August, the time 5.30 in the evening:
In a place called Manasthala, my beloved sister Sandhya reads 'Priya's Day' while I translate into Tamil 'Paappa, Paappa, kadhai kaelu'. A storm of applause arises. It's really difficult writing like this.
So, like this: tan tanan tanan tananttttannnn. Radhika told me to write Cathy's book in Tamil. I told her, I can but I cannot. Why? asked my friend Radhika. (We have been friends for a long time now.) I like Tamil but I cannot write literary Tamil, I didn't learn Tamil when I was a child, I told her. So write in natural Tamil, she said. After that, dhool !
'Priyavin Oru Naal' was born. It was at that book launch that I told the story interspersed with songs. Such applause! Aha, Oho, they said. It was praise all the way, not for my writing, but for my telling of the story. "You are a brilliant story teller," they told me.
"Huh?" said I.
"Don't gape. Say thank you, smile," said Radhika.
Beginning that day, the journey of this story teller and writer continues. More will come...

Reading 'Dancing on Walls' in Minnesota

In December ’09, I was invited to the Groveland Elementary School in St. Paul Minnesota, USA, to read to the children of the kindergarden.

I was introduced to the group by my 6 year old grand daughter.  I read Dancing on Walls to them.

The kids were fascinated with the squiggly figures of the Warli Art form and the illustrations.  ‘COOL!’ was the unanimous opinion.
They were full of questions.  They wanted to know what inspired me to write the story.  How long it took me to write it. They also wanted to know the process from concept to the final product – the book!

The discussion then veered towards how creativity stems from ‘imagination’.  The children wanted to share their flights of fantasy. In fact, the story session stirred up some pretty interesting insights for them as well as for me!

They wanted me to read some more stories about India. Unfortunately, I was not carrying any other book.  I promised them that the next time I visited I would come  with an armful of them.

- Shamim Padamsee

Psst! You can find a most excellent review of 'Dancing on Walls' on the Saffron Tree blog by Poppin's Mom

Tulika poster