We're Back!

After a month at “Srishti”, his grandparents’ farm house in Dharmasthala followed by a family vacation in Kodaikanal, Abhay is now back in Bangalore. With one whole month of unstructured outdoor and indoor play under the cosseted care of his grandparents, it was a nature summer camp of sorts customized and tailor-made for Abhay! However, with Abhay grandpa’s busy with festivities at a local temple, it was left to Abhay’s “sanna-ajji” to hold fort and cater to her very demanding grandson! Abhay also had the farm pet dog for company, who was not only happy to follow him around but also withstood Abhay’s physically oppressive methods of play! So in all, did Abhay miss his parents? Nah….how could he when he had his Sanna-ajji - an ace storyteller, an arts and crafts exponent, a pretend play enthusiast, a peer to have a silly tiff with – all rolled into one and not to forget, an  ideal playmate ever ready to let her fellow playmate win!:-)

 

 

So now back to pavilion, recalling his action packed vacation at Srishti, I thought I’d read to him from a book gifted by Sanna-ajji. Aptly titled “Grandma’s stories” brought out by Omkidz publications this book contains four interesting stories all narrated by granny as the children listen on in rapt attention. We read “The Talking objects” which was Abhay’s favorite amongst all the stories. Tired of her grand-daughter Lizzy’s careless attitude towards her belongings, Granny decides to make Lizzy realize the value of her belongings, by way of a story, the story of Robin who was infamous for treating his belongings shabbily.  Just as he was about to bang his fist into the alarm clock, the clock protested over the way he punches it every morning. Shocked to see a talking clock, Robin wakes up with a start only to find his toothpaste, toothbrush and school bag give him a piece of their mind! At school, as he asked to complete a math sum on the board, he is further flummoxed to find the chalk develop a mind of its own and scrawl out a duck instead of the answer making him a laughing stock before his classmates! It turns out that all the objects had had enough of being thrown around by Robin that they decide to teach him a lesson. So as granny narrated the story of rude Robin, Lizzy understood the message behind the story and promised to ensure that she doesn’t meet the same fate as Robin!  Though this book may not make it to the Recommended Picture books list, “Grandma’s stories" does make an delightful  read, as everyone will agree grandma tells the best stories in the world and so does Abhay’s grandma! Thanks to Abhay’s Sanna Ajji for entertaining him the whole of last month…as I am already at my wit's end trying to do the same this month!