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Wednesday, December 18, 2013

From a friend of Tulika

A friend of Tulika, Rachna Dhir, shared us her experience at the recent Handmade Collective organised by A Hundred Hands



Tulika At A Hundred Hands
Rachna Dhir

When I moved to Bangalore, many years ago, people told me “Oh, everybody knows everybody, here” and I laughed. Delhi was an old big city and you did bump into familiar faces every now and then. However, I just could not believe that Bangalore was such a small place. Over the years, so many people have moved in while others have moved on. Many old buildings with so much character have been replaced by ugly concrete and glass ones, in the name of development. Yet, I am happy to meet a familiar face, more often than expected.

A Hundred Hands Annual Handmade Collective is one such event, that I look forward to, every November. My children and I love doing stuff with our hands – be it making bead jewelry, playing the table or making old fashioned book marks. And of course, we all love reading books. So, four years ago, I decided to combine my passions for Tulika books and the handmade initiative by putting up a stall at the event and I get to meet some very interesting people as a perk (wrote a blog about that, last year).

This year, the venue shifted and many more people attended the four day event. Of course, the regular ones came multiple times. Furthermore, many schools were located close by and every day, mothers would pick their children and bring them over just to choose books. It was amazing to see the Hindi and bi-lingual books fly off the table, literally, as Hindi speakers in Bangalore rarely get to lay their hands on such books in stores. I was so happy to help grandparents select for their grand children, as I could guess their dilemma – their children obviously had settled overseas and they want to keep the contact with India alive for the little ones.




At the stall at AHundredHands- Handmade Collective

While the latest titles were obviously popular – Little Indians, Rooster Raga, Ranganna, When I Grow Up, The Magical Fish, Let’s Go!, Where did it go?, Catch that Cat, Little Laali, not so old series like Baby Bahadur, Panchatantra  and First Look Science, as well as titles like Mystery of the Blue, Stitching Stories, When Ali Became Bajrangbali and My Grandfather’s Stick were also in great demand.

I met not just hard core Tulika book lovers but also people who came for hand made products but were pleasantly surprised to see such books for the first time that did not exist when they were children.  So many would stop by, pick a book, read it or browse through the illustrations and walk away with a smile. If a smell alone can bring so many childhood memories to my mind, I could only imagine what joy a word or picture might have triggered for some of them.
So, on behalf of Tulika and A Hundred hands, I wish to thank all those who stopped by. 
I hope the children who got those books –wherever they may be – are enjoying them.

To those of you who were not able to get a title of your choice in the language you wanted – please write to Tulika – we still have Cash On Delivery (COD) for Bangalore and will be happy to get you what you want.



2 comments:

  1. “Simply superb” happens to be the reaction of the recipients as they have these wonderful bunches of flowers in their hands. If you are also interested to send your floral special wishes to your dear ones staying away in Spain then you need to visit us. Gift as in the form of Cakes, Chocolates and Fruits is highly appreciated on any special occasion.
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  2. Good Info presented by Tulika books & Handmade collective seemed to me more Inseparable that which is inspired me a lot. I always love handmade things whatever they are. Even my entire family believe on handmade collection. When I'll visit Bangalore then keep remember about Tulika collection & I assure that I'll return from there after purchase some of theme..

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