Missed the Kweezzz?

So you didn't participate in the Tulika Kweezzz, HAAN? What kept you away, may we know? Prayers for Rajnikanth? If it was something that noble, then all right. But otherwise, bad behaviour, all of you!


And since you missed it, we're going to give you a summary of what happened. We're generous like that.

Quite a few of the Twitterati tuned in on May 27th at 4 PM for the Jurassic quiz. There were 15 questions in all and the participants had to give their answers within 2 minutes. The first three correct responses were scored. Here are the Q&As!

1. What is dino poop called?

A. Coprolite

2. What’s the name of the paleontologist Joey dates in Friends?

A. Charlie                                                                    

3. Name a species of Indian dinosaur that starts with the letter R.

A. Rajasaurus narmadienis

4. The Tyrannosaurus Rex is from which continent?

A. North America

5. The smallest known dinosaurs are….?

A. Microraptors

6. On which fictional island is the amusement park in Jurassic Park located?

A. Isla Nublar

7. Charles R Knight, who is known for his dino paintings, had a special friend in the Brookfield zoo. The friend was a/an _________?

A. Panda

8. What’s common between sauropods and cows?

A. Both are herbivores

9. Fatehgarh, Nagpur, Asifabad, Chhindwara….what do all these places have in common?

A. Dino eggs were found here!

10. Where does the word ‘Jurassic’ come from?

A. Jura Mountains, an extension of the Swiss Alps into eastern France, where rocks of this age were first studied.

11. Helen Rundgren, author of Tulika’s Stone Eggs, is from which country?

A. Sweden

12. Who coined the word ‘dinosaur’?

A. Sir Richard Owen

13. Which Indian dinosaur expert wrote the book Dinosaurs of India?

A. Prof. Ashok Sahni

14. The Indosuchus raptorius belongs to which period?

A. Cretaceous Period

15. The Tulika logo could be a descendant of the dinosaur. What is it?

A. A crow!

The quiz was closely contested and @thecooldesiboy emerged the winner! His copy of Stone Eggs is already on its way! The runners-up were @aks11888 and @gayathri_iyer.

Now you feel bad, don't you? Now you wish you'd tuned in, don't you? But since we're people with large hearts, we've decided we're going to be doing more Kweezzzes in future *drum beats*. So you'd better watch this space, okay? Okay.

Kweezzz with Tulika!!

Were you a quizzer in school? Is quizzing your life, passion, soul etc?

What, it's NOT??

Well, you'd better change that attitude, misters and missies! Tulika is hosting its first-ever Kweezzz on Twitter and the winner gets a FREE copy of Stone Eggs! Yup, that fabulous book on desi dinosaurs!

Join us on May 27th, Friday, 4 pm, from your homes, offices, taxicabs, and parachutes on Twitter to participate in the fundoo Jurassic Quiz!




Here's how:


1. If you are a fossil who doesn'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 May 27th, 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.Only eggs you will get then.
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 15 questions will be asked.
7. The final winner will be decided by Tulika and s/he will get a free copy of Stone Eggs by Helen Rundgren
8. Had fun? Don't forget to follow tulikabooks on Twitter to hear all our tweets!

Even if you don't know any of the answers, you can always say pass and show us your love. We will appreciate it.

See you tomorrow, champs!

(Still not clear? Leave us a comment and we'll answer you. But ask quickly. The clock is ticking!)

P.S: Only the first three correct responses will be scored, so don't think you can Google and win off, clever ones!

Dinosaurs In Your Backyard!

Helen Rundgren is an award-winning , lizard-loving Swedish children's writer. Her first book with Tulika- Stone Eggs- is about Indian dinosaurs! This one of its kind book combines fact and fiction and introduces the reader to little-known dinos like the adorably scary Rajasaurus and many, many more. Here’s Helen talking to us about her love for reptiles and the making of Stone Eggs.Order your copy here or here!

 Many of your titles are about dinosaurs.  When and how did you become interested in them?

I am not sure. This interest has been growing for many years but I know that IF I had read more about them as a kid, I'd have been stuck. I loved all animals and wanted to be a scientist, a zoologist. And I did, I became one! But then I did other things. But I would have been a palaeontologist if I had just known the job existed. I am sure.

Do you have a favourite dinosaur? Why?

For some reason I like the long ones. The real sauropods, like Diplodocus and Barapasaurus. Bigger than big and longer than long. I like the shape. Like huge strange giraffes, tipped down, with the long tail in the air.. What if they had patterns like them? Or dots?

How did you make the Indian connection and write a story set here? Did

you face any difficulty in placing the story culturally?

Long story, but I went on a trip to southern India with Swedish writers. There we met Sandhya from Tulika and we started to talk. We met here and there in the following years in different projects and talked a little about one of my dino books. Could that be something for Indian children? Then I read in a newspaper about dino eggs found in India. There we go! I could write a completely new book, about Indian dinosaurs for Indian children. That’s fun! I really liked the idea - and it gave me the opportunity to study the subject.

How did you do your research for the story?

I read all I could find. There isn’t too much. I wrote down a list of the dinosaurs and tried to make a map and then I contacted a well known palaeontologist in India. I found his name in the scientific papers I read. He helped me with all my questions.

You are a former zoologist. Do you have interesting pets at home? Tell us

a little about them!

Helen and Alice

Oh, actually not too many right now but I have had some over the years. Katinka, the Green Iguana, who lived a free life in a tree trunk in our living room. Igor the naughty 1.5 meter Iguana who escaped and frightened our neighbours for weeks. Valdemar, the African monitor I rescued as a baby. He gave me a lot of trouble trying to find him a new home before he got dangerous. Emil the cute little chameleon who I filmed and made a short children’s program about. He sadly died when his food, a cricket, stung his long tongue. The most friendly and lovely one is actually the one I have today. Alice, the Bearded Dragon. She is named after Alice Springs in Australia from where I guess her relatives came. She is a lovely fellow. 

Valdemar, the African Monitor

                               

But I have even had pets other than reptiles: two cats, a dog, turtles, salamanders, toads and frogs. Normal stuff - or more or less normal.

 Have you hunted for fossils and found any?

Yes, a little.  I have been out with diggers in the field. Then you help if you can. I have been at dinosaur digging places filming for television in Canada, Australia and China. In Canada, they found an Allosaur cheek and a lot of teeth that day. I have just found small pieces hanging around but that is thrilling too.

Have you got any interesting responses/questions from children to/on your

dinosaur books?

My first Tyra Tyrannosaurus book is written for quite small children and I have heard about several sleeping with it like a doll. That book is about the fact that you cannot be to sure about how they look, their colour and so on, and that subject has made many children stand up and say:

- But are you sure about that!? Were they green or grey? I think they were pink with red spots!

I have got a lot of nice pieces of art sent to me!

Are you working on a new book currently? Tell us about it.

Yes, two about – dinosaurs.One with babies and one about dino tracks. But my last book was about different animals and their different kind of hearts. A Snail's Heart.No dinosaurs.

I am even working on one about senses, working title: Best Nose of The World.

 Is there anything else that you wish to add?

I love dinosaur tracks. They talk about the animal’s life back then. Footprints, skin impressions, dino dung and egg shells… I hope I can come to India one day and see dinosaur eggs in the field!

Dreaming Books in Kashmir

Entering Delhi Public School, Srinagar

Early May I found myself, along with some 20 authors, illustrators, storytellers and book facilitators, at Delhi Public School, Athwajan, Srinagar to participate in Bookaroo’s first ‘away’ childlit festival (May 7 and 8). For many of us it was the first time in Kashmir, for most of us it was a dream come true! Who’d have thought it possible given all the problems this northernmost state of India has had to deal with over the years. 

“What’s special about Kashmir?” I asked a group of over 200 restless kids after lunch at an outdoor reading of Kashmir ki kahaaniyaan from Tulika’s latest offering, The Enchanted Saarang a collection by Asha Hanley and illustrated profusely and brilliantly by Proiti Roy. “Beauty,” said one little boy. “Beauty,” said a little girl. A small boy way in the back put up his hand. “Beauty,” he whispered. Beautiful it certainly is. And beautiful was the location of DPS Srinagar, managed by the DP Dhar Memorial Trust, as beautiful were the smiles with which we were hosted by the Dhar family and the staff and children of the school. “Loyans”… “Taigars”… the children said when I asked about Kashmir’s animals. Good reason for them to read about marmots and ponies in The Enchanted Saarang and hanguls in Gulla and the Hangul.

Lucky kids, all 4000 and more of them, and their teachers. Thanks to the efforts of the Bookaroo team, they got to meet and hear and interact with writers and illustrators such as Bulbul Sharma, Atanu Roy, Prayag Shukla and many others. They heard stories from our own Jeeva Raghunath and the brilliant daastangois, Ranapratap Sengar and Usman Sheikh. I learnt, to my surprise, that Urdu was not as widely understood among this student population as was Kashmiri! Naturally. I learnt, also, that the long vacation, a month and a half, is in the winter, not now. Of course. And although the notice at the book signing table near Eureka’s bookshop at the school said ‘Only books will be signed’, there were many of us who signed in notebooks and pieces of paper, on soft soft arms and tender palms. “Koi baath nahin, main iska foto le loonga,” a little boy assured me as he badgered the autograph out. Never mind, I’ll take a photo of this, he said.

Grand Inaugural with Jeeva's storytelling

Outside, at the Doodle Wall, children and adults fell as usual for the antics of Thumb Thumb Thangi and Thumb Thumb Thambi. “I lived in Chennai for nine years,” said one young man. “Thangachchi, thangachchi…” he added, making the connection with Thambi and Thangi. Then, after he had imprinted his thumb on a poster of Thumb Thumb Tree courtesy editor Niveditha Subramaniam, he was thrilled with his ‘thumbthing’, a little picture of Thumb Thumb Amma stuck onto his thumb. Like a little thumb puppet. Some picked up the Thumb Thumb Books to read and delight in them. My special souvenir is a hanky painted with thumbprints of all the young visitors to the Doodle Wall – it’s a collector’s item!

Another day, another group of kids, this time to travel from marzwangan korma to dosas. Yes, Mazzoo Mazzoo it was, topped with Dosa and ending with an as yet unfulfilled promise of noonchai, salted tea. Perhaps that’s so I make another visit Kashmir-wards?! Jal jal yii-iv, I shall…. come quickly, come quickly… to Kashmir.

It was insightful to share Picture Gandhi and My Gandhi Scrapbook through a Powerpoint presentation that combines the spirit of both these, called ‘A Cat in Kashmir’, and along the way, connecting with Khan Abdul Ghafar Khan or Frontier Gandhi as he was known, and Anna Hazare too. But I’m not going to tell you why ‘a cat’… that’s for you to say. Read and look carefully at both these books – ears, eyes, nose wide open – and it will fall in place. Cool! This school is cool and Bookaroo rocked. The mountain at the back of the school too, literally, because it is being systematically quarried. How much of it will remain when Bookaroo returns?

Rhymes with Prayag Shukla

If you’re wondering who were the 20 odd who volleyed and thundered over the buzz and bizzyness of hundreds of kids, they included: Deepa Agarwal, Arjun Kaul, Subhadra Sengupta, Andrew Dodd and Lalit Sharma, Valentina Trivedi, Anushka Ravishankar, Jo Williams, Tapas Guha, Ranapratap Sengar, Jerry Pinto, Bulbul Sharma, Jeeva Raghunath, Prayag Shukla, Sachin Sebastian George, Atanu Roy, Ramendra Kumar, Usman Sheikh, Parnab Mukherjee, Pratap Pandey, Swati Roy, H Venkatesh, Manisha Chaudhry, Suraya Rasool and myself. A special feature was a play, an adaptation of Premchand’s Eid Gah directed by Hakeem Javeed and performed by Shehjaar children’s theatre group comprising children from an orphanage run by the HELP Foundation in Jammu and Kashmir.

And if you’re wondering how it all happened: it’s thanks also to scores of young volunteers who to-ed and fro-ed their guests with great enthusiasm and much urging! Here’s to lots of books for children in Kashmir to read and enjoy. There’s really nothing like a good book. Except maybe pakodas and chai on Chaar Chinaar, a small island with four chinaar trees in the middle of Dal Lake.

Sandhya Rao

We don’t like to brag, but we’ve got some terrific ammas in our books.

In the North Pole, there’s Malu Bhalu. Malu, the polar bear, is just a bit bigger than a ball of snow but she can’t wait to explore the world. Never mind that she doesn’t know how to swim, Malu thinks. But when she finds herself stuck on an iceberg floating far away from home, her mother, Bhalu, shows her that the only way to do something you can’t do is to forget right and wrong and simply do it.

Working their magic behind the scenes (or should we say pages?) are all the ladies whose drapes fill the pages of My Mother’s Sari. It’s really just one long piece of cloth and yet the sari becomes anything a child wants it to be, from the dreamy and the imaginative; long trains and beautiful rivers to the utterly practical; cozy hammocks and handy nose wipes!

In the much loved What Shall I Make? Neeraj’s mother finds something just as versatile as the sari for her little son to play with − a little ball of chapatti dough! (Of course, Neeraj loves it most of all when his mother rolls it, puts it on the stove and makes a light, puffy chapatti for him!)

Then there’s the moon-faced Paati from Grandma’s Eyes, whose twinkly eyes and big smile are as reassuring as only they can be. Not to forget the grandmother from The Neverending Story who really knows how to spin a whacky yarn. And speaking of whacky, we almost forgot the mad momma on the block! − Meera’s mother from What Did You See? (Now she can do an equally good imitation of a ferocious lion and a loony monkey – can you?)

Finally, there’s Kiran’s mother (by the way, Where is Amma?) who Kiran believes is likely to empty the contents of an entire bottle of jam sitting inside the fridge! Given that he found her slippers right outside, this makes complete sense.

Dig our mothers? Can’t get enough of them?

Yes, they’re now on Flipkart.

Hot off the Press!

Asha Hanley's The Enchanted Saarang featuring Proiti Roy's absolutely gorgeous visuals is here!

The Enchanted Saarang

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