Bookaroo in the City: Mayil Will Not Be Quiet

As part of Bookaroo in the City, we took Mayil Will Not Be Quiet to Satyug Darshan Vidyalaya, Faridabad. The auditorium was packed with 80 children (eight to twelve-year-olds) and we were excited and slightly nervous as the back rows filled up. 

How many of you write diaries, we asked.

Just two hands shot up – a girl and a boy. 

Why do you write?

The girl said she wrote about things she couldn’t talk about with other people. She wrote about her feelings, she wrote about things that happened every day, she wrote down secrets. The boy said writing was creative; it helped him write better and read better too. 

We introduced Mayil and read the first entry from her diary. There was a soft giggle or two as we read out the warning bit (“No sneaking, peeking, touching or EATING.”). But what got them thinking was Mayil’s question about Dasharata wanting a son to “carry” his name. Why didn’t Dasharata want a daughter, she wonders. Couldn’t she rule a kingdom too?

“Girls leave home and become part of another family,” said many. But when we asked if girls could rule a kingdom, neither the boys nor the girls responded, at least not at once.Then we spoke about a sporting star that came from their hometown. They all knew who she was, but some didn’t know that she was from Haryana. Did they know that Saina Nehwal’s grandmother hadn’t visited her at first when she was born? Could they guess why? “Because she was a girl,” came the replies. Saina Nehwal’s mother was a badminton player too and Saina is a champion today. 

So could girls and boys do the same things if they wanted to? They nodded their heads. 

The liveliest discussion – the one that really got them talking – was the one about heroes and heroines. Who was the perfect hero? Which heroine did they like the most? “Katrina Kaif and Salman Khan!” said one. “Dara Singh!” said another, as the others burst out laughing. “Edward Cullen and Bella Swan!” said another (those teenage vampires just get everywhere, don’t they). Why are they perfect, we asked. But they just smiled shyly. So we took another approach:

Tall or short? – TALL
Fair or dark? – FAIR
Thin or fat? – THIN
Big eyes or small eyes? – There were shouts of big, small and even medium!

Were all beautiful people tall? – NO!
Did they know dark people who were beautiful? –YES!

So what was beauty? Who decided who was beautiful and who was ugly? What did beauty have to do with who they were? These were some of the questions we raised. One boy said Johnny Lever was dark and not great to look at, but he was funny and entertaining so it didn’t matter. There were many who didn’t speak, but they were thinking and talking to each other. When we concluded the session, at least half the room wanted to start a diary!

Our second session was with The British School – and they had a lot of opinions! Their responses to the questions we raised were instinctive, often downright blunt and very decided! 

We read the same entry about Dasharata wanting a son. Some boys and girls said that they had their mother’s name as well as father’s. That led to another discussion – who was the head of the family? They had different answers:

“The person who brings home the money.”
“The person who earns the most.”
“The person who wins the argument.”
“The person who is older.”

One girl said, “I think my little sister is the head of the family. We all do what she wants!”

 

Another interesting discussion revolved around dolls – could boys play with them too? Lots of boys put their hands up – but many, after first clarifying if action figures counted. Does Ken (Barbie’s boyfriend) count as a toy, we asked. Someone said, “Ken is a doll. He doesn’t have weapons.” 

This naturally led to a conversation about sissies and tomboys:

“Tomboys hang out with the boys.”
“Tomboys have short hair.”
“Tomboys are hairy. I had this friend. She was a tomboy and she was really hairy.”
“Sissies are like… shy.”
“Sissies are scared.”
“Sissies are girly sort of boys.”

What were their definitions of sissies and tomboys based on? Appearance? Personality? Both? The teachers were also involved in the discussion. For instance, when one of the boys said women can't handle swiss knives, a teacher quipped that she won't be taking him along for camping trips then!


We read another entry from Mayil’s diary – where she meets a trans woman on a train. When we were writing this entry, we had wanted children to think about and understand the difference between sex and gender. But we were really happy that it also provoked thoughts and insights on identity, self-definition, recognizing and learning to accept differences and acknowledging and being able to talk about discomfort. 

When we finished reading this entry, one boy said he didn’t understand or think it was “natural” for a girl to want to be a boy or vice versa, but he would respect it, because it was that person’s choice. Others were less certain and said so. We heard quite a few say, “I don’t get it” and “It’s weird” and “Why would anybody do something like that?” 

And it was fitting that the session ended with some questions remaining unanswered.Because Mayil is about issues that remain unresolved, even if solutions have been found, for the moment. Mayil writes as she thinks. She has plenty to say and plenty to ask. She doesn’t always say or do the right things: she is embarrassed when she thinks that her friend, VS, is going to read out a poem in class, she thinks her brother doesn’t stand up for himself even when it’s not his fault. But she is not afraid to be wrong or say sorry. And she isn’t quiet!

Sowmya and Niveditha

A big thanks to Jo, Swati and Venkatesh for having us at Bookaroo and to the students and teachers of both schools – we loved being there!

Reviews Watch!

“Playtime does not need any gadgetry; a little bit of imagination can work wonders,” says Shamim Padamsee on the My Grandfather’s Stick, written by Nandini Nayar and illustrated by Kshitiz Sharma. Blogger Aparna calls Stone Eggs, written by Helen Rundgren and illustrated by Soumya Menon, “a good starting point for beginner dino-lovers and yet engaging enough for more knowledgeable kids."

Tulika’s Monday to Sunday, written by Sowmya Rajendran and illustrated by Pratik Ghosh and When Ali Became Bajrangbali, written by Devashish Makhija and illustrated by Priya Kuriyan featured in Books and More magazine’s top ten picks for children. Check out Devashish Makhija does an animated reading of Kyon Hiroo Hua Hairaan on our Youtube channel. 

Mayil Will Not Be Quiet, written by Niveditha Subramaniam and Sowmya Rajendran has more fans. The book “delves beautifully into the life of a typical 12 year old, exploring her questions, doubts, joys, confusions and fears in a way each one of us would be able to relate to,” says one reviewer, while this blogger says she doesn’t remember the last time when she could identify with the mother and the daughter in a book. Another reviewer says, "Issues of gender stereotyping and sex are addressed quite subtly. Maybe with so much subtlety that even a book for adults would not have been able to accomplish. I totally recommend it to girls, mothers and even boys of that age group..."

More love for the kaka

Which colour is Kunku making today?

"The book has brilliant big visuals which can keep a young child interested in the book too. When I read this book to my son I could see him getting curious about various things, asking more questions on how and why of colors, later I saw him taking a reddish leaf that had fallen down and rubbing to see if it will make red color. . . next morning he brought the book to me and said mumma lets see which color is Kunku making today."

Read Bookrack reviewer Monika on The Mystery of Blue here.

More Mayilspeak

"The book definitely takes you back to your childhood... I loved the way she (Mayil) expresses minute things in the everyday life. Wish I too had a diary when I was 12. It would have been such fun to reread it."

Read Swati's review of Mayil Will Not Be Quiet! here.
 

Blue + Black is Green

"Let’s Plant Trees is a book that’s meant to make you smile. Filled with simple illustrations, it’s a visual delight that concerns itself with the various roles a tree has to play in our daily lives."

Read Time Out's review of Let's Plant Trees and Black Panther here. (Our green offer has been extended by popular demand.)

A special note

Anita Balasubramaniam wrote in to say how much her daughter, Nidhi, loves our books. Thank you, Anita, for sharing this. It made our day!

"When my daughter Nidhi came into our lives, it was quite natural that I stocked up on Tulika books for her. She has been growing up listening to these books being read to her since she was about a year old. [These books are contributing a great deal to Nidhi's learning in these early years] We never read with the intention of "teaching her something from the book." It is for the sheer joy of reading that we read. Nidhi now picks up books on her own, looks at them, talks to him and enjoy them for what opportunities they offer to her to make sense of life.

Often we are just reading a simple story for her - either while eating, at bed time, while traveling and so on. At other times we are looking at the details in the visuals - details which we often find in our daily lives - the stool that kiran drags to the fridge and sits on in where is amma, the flower pots in minnie's house (where is pooni), the lizard in grandma's eyes, and so on - all these are around in our lives and in the visuals waiting to be discovered - so once every few readings we will notice something new :). Sometimes we are discussing the story while we are traveling or experiencing something new - making connections with what we have already ready. So she knows when someone is singing I would ask her how thangi sings and she would say aaa, aaa, aaa in her baby language. When we see a dog, crow, cat, or cow, we make connections with where is pooni. Thakitta Tharitkitta is another favotire - we have sung it in the car, on the beach, at home a gazillion times and even created our own story based on the visuals which she loves! Every book has been read and re-read hundreds of times. . .

One thing that has emerged in this "repeated reading" of tulika books with my daughter is that in addition to the story the visuals in these books provide a very rich opportunity to connect experiences in our every day lives in India with what we are reading. The context of life in India is present in the visuals waiting to be experienced, discovered and made connections to :) A big round of applause for all the illustrators :) I must also say that the books being paperback is wonderful - we can carry many of them with us whenever we are traveling :)

Keep those books coming! We love them."