Arts Tales- Down memory lane

I won an early reader version of Sleeping Beauty in my first standard for recitation. That and a Krishna Sudama story from CBT or NBT are the earliest recollection I have of books.

ACKs were for lolling on the sofa post homework ( those were pre TV days) and Champak's Chacha Chaudary helped me overcome my fear of Hindi.

Frankly , I grew up on an unbalanced diet -  an overdose of Enid Blyton peppered occasionally with some classics ranging from Alice in Wonderland to Coral Island, from Little Women to Children of the New Forest. I would read Black Beauty and imagine I owned a horse. I would read the Dairy of Anne Frank and wish I could have helped in some way. Along the line I also read some Nehru and a lot of RK Narayan.

But mostly I read Enid Blytons and would dream of lacrosse and hostels,  scones and ginger ale and sea sides and cliffs and being a clever tomboy.

The monthly copy of Target was devoured with gusto. It was the only contemporary Indian fiction that I had access to then. I frowned at Tinkle and was proud to be a Target and Children's World consumer.

My uncle was kind enough to get his only niece a National Geographic Subscription and Sportstar from my father kept the reading bug alive and my room decor transformed as well.

But looking back, if I had to pick a childhood favourite- they would be The Little Prince,  Jonathan Livingstone Seagull and Robin Cook's Fever - yes I read them all before I was twelve !!

I did not have access to as many picture books as my daughters do. And now I am making up for lost time. I love the simple tutorials offered by Eric Carle and Karadi rhymes, the lovely lilt of Julia Donaldson's stories and the Tulika stories in verse. I am moved by the multi cultural stories I read- from Biblioburro to Handa, from Babushkas in snowy lands and story blankets in African villages. I enjoy the Indianness of Tulika and Tara, Karadi and Katha. We read old picture books from the west- Mike Mulligan and Dr Seuss, which are more easily available here. We read new ones too. And may I add, I still have my first Sleeping Beauty book for my girls!

As for our current favourite-  tell me can you choose between carrot halwa and tiramisu?
Or a lovely biryani and a lovingly made pasta ?
Well, I cannot.

But does one need to choose? Just let the stories flow...enjoy the ride.

Arthi Anand is the author of the two Tulika titles- Have you seen this? and Ranganna. She created Mister Muthu for Chandamam, is  a reviewer at Saffron Tree and dabbles in story telling on weekends with Art's Tales, Catch her on Facebook or at the  blog .