Writer and editor Sandhya Rao talks about Indian dinostars, Stone Eggs and the lifelike dino robot that got everyone's attention at Helen Rundgren's session, while writer Swetha Prakash who took Padma to space and to Bookaroo 2011 shares her notes.
Dino Delights
A chip of fossilized dinosaur eggshell, a tiny piece of dino bone, a real – and sharp! – billions of years old tooth still good for a sharp nick … what more could dino lovers and others have asked for? Kids and others got to touch and feel dino ‘items’ and find out all about Indian dinosaurs thanks to Helen Rundgren’s book with Tulika, Stone Eggs: A Story of Indian Dinosaurs at Bookaroo children’s literature festival in Delhi this past week.
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Children had plenty to think about and guess at, at both of Helen’s sessions at Bookaroo on November 25th, and November 27th, during which it became clear that dinosaurs didn’t just roam somewhere else, but in India as well. In fact, said Helen, we had no dinos in Sweden! But in India there is the Indosuchus raptorius, the Barapasaurus tagorei, the Kotasaurus yamanpalliensis and the king of them all, the Rajasaurus narmadensis… So, feel proud, friends, of your dinosorian past and know that lots of dino egg fossils have been found especially in western, central and south India. Helen threw in a quiz with everyone winning prizes: a lovely poster of the Indian dinostars and tiny dino figurines.
But the star of the sessions was Helen’s nearly real live dino robot pet who completely had everybody mesmerized. Children crowded to watch the dinobot move, blink and pick up stuff from the floor but when they rushed to pet her, she shrank nervously into mama Helen’s dino t-shirt…
Padma Goes to Bookaroo
Writing has its centre in silence and solitude, whereas the festivals are an unabashed celebration of life. Writing festivals are thus very remarkable, very mysterious. Now just make that a children's literary festival…
For children every moment in time is there just for the moment. They will settle down and be tranquil, with a tranquility that cannot be articulated and yet be perfectly lively all the time. Alive, the way we often forget to be.
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So, in the end, you’re sort of stuck with being— less speech, more child. Thank you Tulika, thank you Sandhya, thank you Jo, thank you Swati, thank you Shreya and thank you all for providing this amazing text and context.