“Man is
a Social Animal” was the first lesson we learnt in sociology and though I have
been a student of sociology earlier, it is only now that I realise the value of
it. With the entire country on a lock-down/home quarantine situation owing to the
advent of the devastating effects of Covid-19 virus spread, we are now faced
with a unique and never-seen-before challenge of “Social distancing”! Right
from the boy who drops off the daily newspaper and milk to the maid who cleans
up, the help/nanny who takes care of your little one, from the Ola/Uber/Metro
that gets you to work to the co-workers and other employees at work, from restaurants/eateries
we frequent to the shops/market for groceries, from the various hobby
classes we enroll into, to fitness/swimming activities we partake in, from the
visit to the salon or socialising with friends and family, our day-to-day lives
are so inter-twined with the other social animals!! To press the pause button
on all of the above and isolate oneself is a not an easy task, to say the
least but being unsure of how long to put off human interaction , so as to
effectively control the spread of the virus is what causes real alarm. As of
now it is Day 6 of the Central Government ordered 21-day lock down in India and one can
only hope that we are successful in our attempt to flatten the curve!
With an
overload of messages on the print and social media on finding the silver lining
in this lock-down situation, and on how it can be an opportunity to reconnect
with your inner-self and family, revive your long forgotten interests, and relearn
the ways and means of a simple life of the days of yore, I decided to get back
to blogging after a long hiatus and my absence is thanks to without an excuse - sloppy time management (though
I would love to call it a writer’s block!). No doubt reading to my kids is still
a stress buster, I’m all the more delighted at the unhurried pace at which I
can now do so as we have suddenly landed ourselves with more than enough time
to kill. Ever since I heard the title, I wanted to herd myself into getting
hold of the book only to learn that it was out of print! On one of my recent visits to
our favourite bookstore “The Funky Rainbow” (when a visit to the bookstore was
still an acceptable social activity), I was pleasantly surprised to have finally found this
gem of a book. “A Book for PUCHKU” a Level-3 Pratham publication
by Deepanjana Pal and illustrated by Rajiv Eipe makes a wonderful
read aloud story about a little girl who just loves reading. In fact, all Puchku
does all day is read, read and read and so much so that she has finished
reading all the books at home, and all the books she can reach for in her library until
she discovers the top most rack of a cupboard that has stocked many a books
that she hasn’t yet laid her curious eyes on! So little
Puchku along with her friend Dodla make an acrobatic attempt to reach for the books
that she thinks seem to be at the reach of only a giraffe…..until the simplest solution
presents itself in the form of a very-tall-eager-to-help librarian! Thrilled to no bounds, Puchku however has no
time to thank the librarian who helped her find the books she hadn’t yet read,
as Puchku is already lost in them! A simple story with playful illustrations
and an earnest attempt to sow the seeds of reading in young children, this curly-haired-two-pony-tailed-book-loving
little girl was indeed an instant hit with our little Puchku!! So as the
advisory goes…. “Stay home and stay safe”…. and cuddle up with your little
Puchku with a book!