NEW-AUTO-ON-THE-BLOCK

The girl has sweetness, spunk and knows her moves. If you go down to the city of Sadram, you can get a ride, and who knows, she’ll take you to the movies and if you’re lucky, even sing you a song – a Blue River tune. Editor Niveditha Subramaniam talks to B.Vinayan, author of Beyond the Blue River, and Grace, its heroine.

Grace – City Auto For Hire No. SD 01 3422 didn’t always have a number or a nameplate. She first made her entrance in a nameless tale (made up for the benefit of Vinayan’s nephews who insisted upon a story at bath-time) as a bored little auto who was tired of carrying passengers, just as they tired of homework.

When Rosalind Wilson, editor of the popular children’s magazine Target, asked him to write a story for its annual issue, Grace turned up again. “I wrote this one about an auto setting off driverless for a day in the city and having a whale of a time. Even as I was writing it, I sensed the possibilities of a bigger story within it – the auto seemed to be finding the city limits too confining!” says Vinayan.

Every time Grace hears the Blue River tune, she gets a “funny feeling.” Sometimes, she can hear it even before it is hummed! But what is the Blue River? One day, Grace decides to hit the road in search of it. . .

Cut to Grace, who’s on a different planet, not listening to a word we’re saying. This isn’t unusual at all, given that she’s been through enchanted forests and worlds within worlds, of course. Even less surprising when Vinayan confesses he was “rather dreamy as a child, sitting on the back step or porch of the house and staring away into empty space – I still do that now!"

There is a constant, often dizzying pre-occupation with space and time in BTBR, which keeps readers on their toes, transforming what begins as a deceptively simple story of an auto who dreams big into a gripping, gritty mystery – where myth and science meet, taking turns to pose riddles.

Vinayan sees no obvious references to mythology. The only myths he knows, he confesses, are his grandmother’s tales “tucked away in his subconscious” but from science, yes. “But even there it was entirely an unconscious process, growing more out of the needs of the story than anything else. In fact, it was when I saw the scientific parallels in the story – as with the extremely tiny creatures – that I started reading books on science (a subject I had intensely disliked and did very poorly at in school).” Fritjof Capra’s The Tao of Physics, he says, first introduced him to the world of new physics. Stephen Hawking, Paul Davies, Carl Sagan and Richard Dawkins are some other writers he enjoys reading.

“Did someone say extremely-tiny-creature?” asks Grace, suddenly joining in the conversation.

Extremely tiny creatures aka e-t-cs are among the colourful cast Grace meets on her journey.  When asked to pick a favourite, Vinayan simply can’t. “They’re all very close to me, for various reasons. Writing about the tractor and the Mountain of the Phantas Sea was easy, fun and more spontaneous. These two were like the children that every parent would like to have – obedient and untroublesome. This-That the Itsians and Barumi the yagin, in spite of being more conventional characters, proved to be quite a handful  and needed more working over than the others. . . The e-t-cs, especially the Everlanders, are less conventional and I’m pretty curious and excited about what they’ll get up to later in the story.”

Perhaps Grace has a favourite. We turn to her but. . .

GRACE?!?!

Spinning tops and wheels! There’s only one half of her. GR. Where’s ACE, then? That, ladies and gentleman, is what the Blue River does. Bamboozles you, just when you think you know it.

Understood? No?

Wear the old kurta, and read the new Tulika book.

 

Green Kweezzzes!

Yes, the monsoon is here and you have bhajjis and bondas in your head. We understand. We have them too.

Which is why, this is the perfect time for you to stop working so hard and come kweezzz with us on Twitter! We'll even give you a noble reason for doing this: you will be saving the planet!

It's time for the Tulika Kweezzz, people, and this time, we're going to have not one, not two, but TWO kweezzes! Yes, just as two bhajjis are better than one, two kweezzzes are better than one. We know you agree.

The first week of July is celebrated as Vanamahotsava Week. Moreover, July 3rd is International Plastic Free Day. We, at Tulika, thought it was a great time to host our green kweezzes- one on July 1st and the other on July 8th- to mark the importance of this week. We were happy to discover how many of our books across our series raise questions in subtle and simple ways about our relationship with the environment and the need to preserve our natural heritage. Through different perspectives, they share a common respect for communities who embrace sustainable ways of living. (Greenhorns who haven't seen them yet, look here right now.)

Green Kweezzz on Trees 
Date: 1st July, Friday, 2011   Time: 4.00- 5.00 PM IST

1. If you don't have a Twitter id yet, GET ONE asap.
2. Log in, search, and follow kweezzz this very second.
3. Log in at 4 PM on 1st July, Friday, and watch out for the questions appearing from kweezzz in your Timeline
4. To answer, type @kweezzz (your answer) in the What's Happening box. If you don't type @kweezzz, we will not be able to see your answer.
5. Please answer a question within 2 minutes of it appearing on the Timeline.
6. The answer to a question will be revealed at the end of the said 2 minutes. A total of 10 questions will be asked.
7. The final winner will be decided by Tulika and s/he will get a free copy of Let's Plant Trees by Vinod Lal Heera Eshwer
8. Don't forget to follow tulikabooks on Twitter to hear all our tweets!

Green Kweezzz on Wildlife
Date: 8th July, Friday, 2011   Time: 4.00- 5.00 PM IST



1. Follow the same steps as above.
2. Make sure you log in on the right day and at the right time though :)
3. The final winner will be decided by Tulika and s/he will get a free copy of any one of the books listed here (except Water Stories).

Only the first three correct responses for both the kweezzzes will be scored.

Got it, beloved bonda-eating brethren? Nope? Leave us a comment and we'll explain more!

P.S: If you really didn't understand ANY of this and you really don't want to participate in all this but just really want the books, you may be pleased to know that we're extending the deadline for our June offer to the 8th of July. Really. Mail us at tulikabooks@gmail.com and be at peace.

P.P.S: We really wish you'd kweezzz though. Bye bye.

The A - Z of Tulika Books on the Environment

Over the years, Tulika has worked with some of the finest writers, illustrators, photographers, filmmakers, activists, educators and storytellers to create sensitive, engaging books on the environment. They cut across several of our own series – ranging from our Bilinguals and Wordbird books to Paperback fiction and Looking at art.

Black Panther and Let's Plant Trees, two 2011 releases, were part of a reading in Hippocampus, Chennai earlier this month and the latter was launched in Mother Earth to celebrate World Environment Day. (For our fans who didn’t catch the action there, Tulika folks have left that building, but ME has our books and some exciting merchandise based on LPT, not to be missed.)

So here’s our A – Z. Are they in your Tulika Book Bucket List?! 

Andamans Boy
A Tree in my Village
Baby Beboo Bear
Best Friends
Bhopal Gas Tragedy
Black Panther
Dinaben and the Lions of Gir
Gulla and the Hangul
Lai-Lai the Baby Elephant
Let’s Plant Trees
One World
Out of the Way! Out of the Way!
Putul and the Dolphins
Read + Colour River Stories
Riddle of the Ridley
Takdir the Tiger Cub

The King and the Kiang
The Seed
The Spider’s Web
The Tamarind Tree
Water Stories From Around The World
Who will be Ningthou? 

Who Will Rule?

We've also got two smashing offers. First, our gorgeous hardbound story collection Water Stories From Around The World (Rs.385) is available at a special price of Rs.285. And. . .and. . .and second, you can have any 5 of the above (excluding Water Stories) for Rs. 450/- + free shipping. All through this June, so make that wishlist and mail it to us at tulikabooks@gmail.com.

It's raining reviews!

We've had some lovely reviews pouring in this month. First off, we have the pithy, insightful  Kirkus review on I am Different:

"An informational picture book presenting diverse languages to child readers, this offering from Indian novelist, playwright and cartoonist Padmanabhan and the Global Fund for Children is a tour de force. . . A substantive, engaging title for multilingual education. Bravo!"

There’s warm praise for My Grandfather Aajoba in this Papertigers review:

“. . .after reading My Grandfather, Aajoba young readers set about creating their own grandparent storybooks: for not only does this delightful book draw readers into the solid reality of the relationship portrayed, but it also provides space for those readers’ own imaginations to come into play.”

Meanwhile, Mayil has tickled this blogger’s funny bone and touched an emotional chord:“I think some serious issues have been addressed in extremely clever ways and they drive home the points beautifully. I am very glad topics as diverse as eunuchs, periods, sex and sexist attitudes have all been touched.”And Babylovesbooks says of the story Who Owns the Water from our story collection, Water Stories From Around The World, “It’s amazing how a simple children’s story can shine light on one of the world’s burning issues.”

We leave you with this special review of Postcards from Ura from seven-year-old Ishan Chatterjee:

"I liked the book because there were a lot of interesting pictures with writing under them. Pictures are pictures, but the writing tells you more details. I liked the bullet points because they tell stuff without putting it on another page – it saves paper.

I got to know a lot about Bhutan – about Ura and Bhutan’s capital city. I liked it when Dorji showed everybody that he could stand on his head. I liked his dog Domchu. It sounds like a funny name. Domchu looks very cute. I liked the Tiger’s Nest in Paro.

I wish I stayed near Bhutan and the mountains because it would be so cold and we wouldn’t feel so hot all the time. There would also be a great view. There might be different dragon designs. There would be lots of fresh vegetables and fruits because there would be lots of trees and other stuff.

The book was fun to read."

 

Of Trees and Treasures

It was a happy coincidence when Vinod pointed out that all the trees growing outside Mother Earth, were in fact, pongam trees. If we were there to launch Let’s Plant Trees, it seemed only natural that we begin our day planting more seeds, which we did under the expert guidance of Siddharth, Vinod’s two-year-old son. 

The book and the smart merchandise launched alongside (a cloth bag and badge with a merry visual from Let’s Plant Trees) caught the attention of children and parents alike. Soon enough a little crowd had gathered in front of the author, some sitting on the lovely modas and others on the colourful mats. 

Some looked through the book studiously, some were terribly curious (what were all those pots for?) and one girl marched right up to Vinod and asked, “How did you make this book?” And as they shot questions and responses, its shy author, who was insistent on saying as little as possible, talked trees. (As Seema, his wife and the brain behind the treasure hunt, put it, “Say ‘tree’ and Vinod will smile.”)

Tree treasure hunting

  They declared their favourite trees, mango ruling the roost, discussed why it was important to plant trees (one knowledgeably remarked, “You can meditate under them.”) and were ready to rock Mother Earth when the great tree treasure hunt began. 

There were groups of two, three and four pacing up and the down the stairs of Mother Earth, searching in likely and unlikely places, looking sometimes beseechingly at the aunties and uncles who held the clues to find the next tree, and for about forty minutes all anyone heard was “Found it!” or “GOTITAUNTYNEXTCLUE!” 

 

Planting pongam in pots!

Before the volunteers gathered at the ground floor, many had finished planting their seeds into the little terracotta pots (sporting the LPT flag) with Vinod by their side, and those who weren’t planting were looking at their mangos gleefully. (With all the participants getting them, there weren’t any losers in this competition!) 

The group that won the treasure hunt (Ranjit, Yohaan and Roshan) were grinning from ear to ear. Ranjit, whose birthday it was, held his pot up proudly when their photos were taken. In his words, this was “the best present.”

BOOKs+ merchandise

Back in Singaara Chennai the same weekend, greenbies gathered at Hippocampus for The Great Tale Chase to listen to a reading of Let’s Plant Trees and the stunning Black Panther written by Aravind Krish Bala and illustrated by the one and only Ashok Rajagopalan. 

So if you haven’t seen these fabulous pictures, or this piece of press, and you didn’t get a mango, we don’t know what to say except planttrees.tulikabooks.com

Where Did Blue Come From?

How did people many, many, many years ago have clothes that were red, orange, purple, pink...? Where did colour come from?

If you, like Muriel Kakani, are fascinated by the world of colours, Tulika's latest offering - The Mystery of Blue is for you! Muriel is a Belgian settled in India for the last 17 years. During this time, she has travelled to almost every corner of the country, imbibing information about India's culture and ecological traditions. Read on and discover what makes this travel-happy writer tick!

The Mystery of Blue combines fact and fiction and has the quality of myth to it. What inspired you to write such a tale?

A few years  back, I happened to read an article by Jasleen Dhamija in Amruth magazine. The article described some of India's amazing skills and expertise in producing vegetable dyes. Unfortunately, most of these dyeing traditions are on the verge of extinction as chemical dyes are cheaper and less time consuming. I felt very sorry about that not only because  India's rivers are getting polluted due to chemical dyes but also because one of India's most fascinating and brilliant examples of traditional knowledge is disappearing.

In the last few years, there has been lots of talk about India shining… India is proud of its 5000 years of civilization… But very few kids know what India really contributed to the world in those 5000 years. One has to see the amazing collection of textiles presented in the Calico Museum in Ahmedabad to understand why in the mind of Europeans India was seen as a fabled land!! As early as 200 BC, Roman ships set sail every year from Egypt to dock at ports on the Southwest coast of India to acquire cotton and indigo. So much gold was spent in this trade that Roman senators complained about the drain of wealth from Roman treasuries to India.

That is how I decided to make a story about indigo, India's most famous dye… The dye that made India so rich and so fabulous!! I thought that, may be, more than BPOs and IT industries, reviving (preserving) such ecological traditions would make India shine once again. I felt like doing my bit towards that through a story.  

Which is your favourite colour and why?

I have no favourite colours. I like all colours. I have always liked India for her vivid and brilliant colours especially since I come from a country where there are rules about colours and where people have a preference for dark and dull tones.

  How did you do the research for the story? Was it difficult to balance the facts with the fiction?

I did all my research for the story online. I didn't have a chance to visit Ilkal though some 10-12 yeas back, while on a tour around India, I had visited the Chalukya temples of Badami, Pattatkal and Aihole. So I had a fair idea about the region.

Balancing facts with fiction is a continuous effort especially that my goal wasn't just to tell a fascinating tale but to share with kids all I had learnt on the subject. There is a definite temptation to always add one more piece of fascinating information!!

 You've lived in India for the last 17 years. What brought you here and what made you stay on?

From a very small age, I have been fascinated by faraway lands. My friends from nursery school onwards were always children with brown skin. My favourite doll was a little brown doll I had named Tumai after the hero of a TV serial for kids based on Rudyard Kipling's Elephant Boy.

Then when I was 14 years old, I saw that Oscar winning movie of Richard Attenborough's- Gandhi- and that is when I decided that one day I would settle in India.

I made my first trip to India in 1989 as a student. I had come to do field work in a NGO, Maharashtra Prabodhan Seva Mandal (Centre of Holistic Studies) founded by the late Winin Pereira, eminent Indian ecologist. That was when I had an introduction to India's ecological traditions.

Why do you believe that Indians were the world's first environmentalists?

India's religions and cultures have always emphasized environmental protection and harmonious living with nature. The Vedas, several millennia old, are composed of hymns that show the great respect and reverence for nature that Vedic people had. The Rig Veda represents the greatest homage ever rendered to the environment.

 How do you think children can be encouraged to think green?

If we want future generations to preserve nature, we need to give them the chance to appreciate it first. True caring for the environment will come when people love the world as their own-self. Love and empathic feelings are the greatest stimulant to the will, not knowledge. Feelings are more important than facts when talking about saving the Earth, preserving the environment and ecology. 

If we want children to develop love and concern for the environment, we need to invigorate ecology with emotions because only emotions that affect the heart can bring a change of attitudes.

One of the best ways to create these attachments and instill ecological values and ethics is to tell stories that impart pro-environmental emotions.  

Here's a grinning Muriel with her friend and neighbour, Sona Bai.  

Muriel: We have been neighbours for the last 10 years. She is very dear to me. And the amazing thing is that she doesn't speak a word of Hindi and I don't speak a word of Marathi but she somehow understands my Hindi and I somehow understand her Marathi and we are best of friends!! This photo was taken on the festival of Guddi Parva.