Our Myths Blogfest: Winners and a round-up

We thank all the bloggers who participated in the blogfest. We enjoyed reading your entries. Sandhya and Rathina are the winners and will receive a free copy of It's All The Same!, the latest in the series.

A quick round-up of the entries for your reading pleasure:

Most know of the Sita who know Janaka discovered in his fields, but do you know the Sita born to Ravana? Find out more in this post by Mamma of Twins.

Why are serpents considered sacred? Interesting lore you may not have heard before by Reshmy Pillai.

Murugan and Ganesha – Bachelor boys or are they? Read Rathina Sankari's post to find out.

Sandhya discusses a strong counter-narrative to the well-known Shakunthala myth.

Ever wondered why Kali sticks her tongue out? Two myths from a post by 2A's Mom shed light.

Tulika book lovers in Chennai, do join us on Sunday, September 16 for a special storytelling session with Chitra Krishnan and Sandhya Rao in Just Books.

Celebrating Our Myths

We're celebrating Our Myths! This hugely popular series of books features timeless stories drawn from popular and marginal sources, which gently question stereotypes and rigid notions about myths.

Myths may share beginnings, meet in the middle or find themselves face to face at the end. Sometimes they're as multi-layered as nesting dolls, with one story concealed within the other. They unravel as they are told, and change as they travel from one place to another, one storyteller to another, one listener to another. And so there is always another version of the same story...

For instance, according to one version, Hanuman wrote his version of the Ramayana on banyan leaves. Another version tells how he wrote it down on the rocks of a mountain. Valmiki had to climb up and down to read it and was quite exhausted at the end of it! Picture Hanuman in a banana orchard. He's probably being a monkey and digging into a banana while Valmiki reads. Now picture him atop a mountain. Maybe he's swinging effortlessly from one rock to another adding doodles to his story while Valmiki pants...!

Celebrate Our Myths with us! Here's what you have to do:

1.Put up a post which features two (or more) versions of a myth. Share the link via email or leave a comment on our blog. If you don't have a blog, write to us at tulikabooks@gmail.com with the subject: Celebrating Our Myths Blogfest: Title of your entry. We will post it on the Tulika blog.

2.Keep it short  (between 300 - 500 words). If you can remember, tell us where you first heard (or read) the story. (Include this in a short note at the end of your write-up.)

3.Post your write-ups and send your entries by September 10.

We'll collect interesting responses and post samplings with links to original posts/publish other responses received via mail. Selected participants will win a free copy of the latest book in the series, It's all the same!, retold by award-winning animator and filmmaker Nina Sabnani and illustrated by artist Satyanarayan Suthaar. 

Coming soon...an exclusive It's all the same! book trailer!

Discussing Kabir

A roundup of news from the Kabir blogfest so far:

Niranjana has posted a review on her blog. "Jaya Madhavan’s Kabir the Weaver-Poet has now rooted Kabir in my mind as a gadfly who delighted in offending fundamentalists of all stripes, a religious poet whose work showcases an earthy, entertaining wit, a mystic as much as a logician, and a non-conformist who really didn’t give a damn about public opinion.  He might be a saint, but he was quite the dude." she says. Read the rest here.

The wordjunkie on Saffron Tree has this to say: "Jaya Madhavan's retelling is well written and makes some very complex issues - communal hatred, intolerance, caste, even the frightening phenomenon of mob frenzy - accessible to young audiences. I liked the spareness of her writing style, very much in keeping with the simplicity of the man at the heart of this book. She adds a dash of fantasy too, inventively casting the tools of Kabir's trade - Dhaga, Takli, Warp, Weft, Spindle - as narrators and loyal friends of the poet." Read the rest of her review here.

Chintan Girish Modi of the Kabir Project got this blogfest up and running. And he has sent us some fascinating links...

First from an article he has written, titled Initiating Kabir in the Classroom with an introduction to the CDs and other material produced by the Kabir Project for the purpose: "The Hindi classroom has traditionally been the space in which most students encounter the poetry of Kabir. This space can be redeemed from the drudgery of how poetry gets taught in our schools – where poems get looked at as artifacts produced by some creative genius, meant to be memorized by low mortals who can barely get at the meaning through a simplistic paraphrase. We want teachers and students to appreciate the fact that poetry is not frozen in textbooks but often quite rooted in people’s everyday lives."

"So when Kabir makes an entry into schools, he is probably going to ask all kinds of funny questions which will not fit in with the systems we have set up" - from Kabir Revisited by Vishakha Chanchani, available here 

"I liked the idea which was brought out during the festival of Kabir in Bangalore, that ‘Kabir interrogates the world’ in which we live. He asks often very disturbing questions. Jane was pointing out, that these questions would also be disturbing to teachers. Many teachers like to give answers, they do not really like to be asked questions which do not have neat answers. The figure of the Guru in Kabir’s thought is almost a counter-cultural figure. Somewhere Kabir says that the ‘Guru is the root of wisdom’. Who is the Guru? he is constantly asking." - from  Reflections on 'Kabir in Education' by Jyoti Sahi online here

Also, a delightful multi-media account of a day with Kabir.

The Kabir Blogfest is on...

You are invited to join the Kabir blogfest, organised in collaboration with the Kabir Project. If you have read Kabir the Weaver Poet, you can revisit the book or respond to it on your blog. Or send in your response to us. You can also blog about Kabir, write about how you have been touched by his poetry or the stories around his life or write about how you have responded to him. Do remember to leave a comment with a link to your post below. Read all about the blogfest here.

Here is Usha Mukunda's response to the book, along with responses from young people she has shared the book with:

Discovering Kabir

Many of us grew up learning Kabir’s Dohas at school. If we were blessed, we might  have had  a gifted teacher who brought him alive through his poetry, but for most  of us, Kabir remained a shadowy figure and soon faded from memory. Jaya Madhavan, the author of Kabir  The Weaver-Poet published by Tulika, seems to have rediscovered the man, the mystic and his message through a fortuitous encounter. What ensued is, in itself, a magical story and the book that was born from that story is a gem. You can read more about this in her foreword. The strong personal affinity between author and subject permeates the book but in no way is it cloying. Rather, it draws the reader into an intimate circle and the result is an absorbing and thought-provoking read.
The author has chosen to set the whole story in the space of one day, dividing the book into three main segments, Daybreak, Midday and Nightfall. This gives her the leisure to describe sights, sounds and feelings at each time of day. There is a deftness in the narrative like the intertwining of threads during weaving.
“The ghat was empty. The dark sky would soon rip under the weight of the morning sun.....Kabir liked best to pause by the river...to watch its seamless fabric transformed into a stretch of shimmering magic with the waters running zigzag. He had been a weaver  for so long. Was that why he saw weaves everywhere?”
The author also manages  to convey the continuing nature, not only of man’s daily rhythms but also of his patterns and prejudices. All this is done against the background of Kabir’s ‘dohas’ which give us clear insights  if only we are ready to ‘see’ them!
“Kabir did not notice the thread or his bright, jolly face. He was singing softly, “Like oil within seed, like fire within flint, God is right inside you – find him if you can.”
Dakshayini, who read this book when she was 13 has some interesting comments. “Usually when I read a mystery, I can’t put it down but this book was un-put-down-able! I think the story of Kabir’s life and the way it was told held my attention. Ordinarily I would not have picked up this book about some saint’s life but my mother suggested it and once I started it caught me. It was such a colourful book.” It seems very important that parents, teachers and librarians try to nudge children into reading Indian writers’ books. There are very many excellent ones and it would be a pity if they were passed by.
A whimsical fancy of the author in personifying the loom, the weft, the warp, the spindle, the shuttle and most crucial of all, the dhaga, has appealed to many young readers I spoke to. “It added fun to the story”, says Yamuna, age 13. “Cute”, said another reader. Yes, it did add an unexpected turn to the story especially when they gathered their  forces and set out to save Kabir and ended up playing a crucial part in the popular  account of his death. Roses for remembrance? Using Dhaga to release tales and myths about Kabir added a swirl and a twirl! The black and white illustrations by Saudha Kasim are suitable muted and blend beautifully into the story.
The story is interspersed with Kabir’s Dohas and I wondered how young readers responded to them.
“I skipped them,” said Yamuna  and Rishon, “but later when my teacher taught them in class, they made sense.”
“I liked the way there was an explanation and a background for each Doha,” said Daksha. “That made it more natural.”
When I suggested to a young reader that the final part of the book seemed very violent for children, I was struck by her response. “The ending made me cry. It made me see how pointless it is to hate and kill. Even now we are doing the same thing.”
As we journey with Kabir through his life, I wonder if we emerge a little sadder but wiser. Jaya Madhavan has managed to bring Kabir the weaver and the poet into our hearts and minds. The rest of the work is ours.

Question for Jaya: Usha says, "Jaya Madhavan, the author of Kabir The Weaver-Poet published by Tulika, seems to have rediscovered the man, the mystic and his message through a fortuitous encounter." Could you tell us about the encounter? How did the book begin?