Tulika day!

 

 

It was “Tulika day” today at one of our favourite bookstores, Atta Galatta where children, parents, children’s book enthusiasts and children’s book authors, particularly Tulika authors got together under one roof to celebrate Indian children’s literature from Tulika kaka! One of the pioneering children’s books publishers in India, Tulika has brought out picture books for children in English and in many regional languages since 1996. Tulika’s books have had a distinctive quality combining both both old and new, fiction and non-fiction, traditional and contemporary art to help our children make sense of the world we live in while instilling a love for reading and books!  We’ve been big fans of Tulika books on Onestoryaday  with over twenty Tulika titles featured at different points in time. So when Tulika author, Saffron tree blogger and friend Arundhati Venkatesh mentioned about Tulika day, I had the date marked on my calendar!

It was early Sunday evening, we were at a bookstore with  our seven year old growing-into-a-book-lover rubbing shoulders with authors who’s books we loved, listening to stories being read out and enacted by the authors themselves, and illustrations brought alive by the illustrators with their the on-the-spot art, what more could a family of picture book enthusiasts ask for??

The event began with an interactive storytelling session by Tulika author Arthi Anand Navneet who regaled the kids with the colours of Ranganna and together mulled over the predicament of the gentle giant attempting to cool off at the village pond in “Gajapathi Kulapathi”, in its recently released sequel followed by illustrator Soumya Menon demonstrating her drawing of an elephant and a monkey on the white board which the children eagerly attempted to imitate on white paper.

 

 

 

One of the highlights of the evening was Radhika Chada’s reading of two of her stories from the Baby Bahadur series that also had our seven year old revisit the books he’d devoured some time ago.

 

 

Illustrator Sayan Mukerjee of  Tulika’s “Hey that’s an A” then showed the kids that alphabets too can have a personality of their own followed by the much awaited dramatization of “Junior Kumbhakarna”…making it a grand finale of sorts with kids blowing trumpets to beating drums trying to wake up “Kumbhakarna”(played by Vikram) as he lay zzzzzzzing on the couch! Tulika day sure proved to be an enjoyable evening full of stories of favourite Tulika characters, art, drama and of course books, books and more books!  

 

 

One of the books showcased today was the recently released sequel to Ashok Rajagopalan’s “Gajapati Kulapati”, once again titled as “Gajapati Kulapati” by the same author with its cover page in blue and we picked up the same for tonight's read. We all know about the gentle elephant named “Gajapati Kulapati” and the commotion caused by him catching cold in the first book. But the second book has him beating the summer heat by diving into the village pond making huge splash “kalabalooosh” driving away the others in the pond, including the cow which lands on the roof of the teacher’s house!  As Gajapati Kulapati is sad and lonely to have the pond all for himself, Patti Amma, as always, comes to his rescue and devises a plan so as to have Gajapati Kulapati kalabaloooshing along with his friends plishing, ploshing and wooshing in the pond all together! We loved both books, but enjoyed the build-up to Gajapati Kulapati’s “Atchooooooo” more than the “Kalabalooosh” in the second book. Need I even say anything about the superb illustrations that perfectly complement the story’s ethnic setting and beautifully capture the mood of the characters!  Overall, a befitting sequel to an endearing story underlining the value of an inclusive world, making it a great summer read for kids!!!