The magic of music!

 

Music has always been an integral part of our lives and while being ardent followers of Carnatic music, we as a family have been enjoying a wide range of Indian music – from Carnatic and Hindustani music to devotional bhajans, from Kannada Sugama Sangeetha to ghazals and film music, besides tuning in to a few popular genres of western music from time to time. While there’s some music playing on  one of our devices at all times, it is mostly Carnatic music that dominates our household. So much so,  it’s a family joke that our house might as well be branded as the “FM Amruthavarshini house” , with Indian classical music reverberating from every corner of our house as the FM 100.1 (The Indian classical music channel  of All India Radio Bangalore) plays on the multiple radios tuned in - on the ground floor at the kitchen, on the first floor in one of our rooms, and at the terrace balcony on the second floor…..All thanks to my renewed obsession with Carnatic music! Anybody visiting our home or calling in between 6 Am to 9.30 Am in the mornings and between 6PM and 11 PM in the evenings is sure to be treated to some brilliant music in the background, and any such conversation in person or over phone is forced to compete with Sudha Raghunathan’s rendition of “Raaga Sudharasa” or Bombay Jayasri’s “Krishna nee begane baaro”! (I know it’s not fair but I just cannot bring myself to turn off the radio when FM Amruthavarshini  is on)  Since Abhay has been training for Carnatic vocal for some time now,  I have resumed my own training after a long hiatus, and my little one a recent newbie in Carnatic music, our dinner table conversations often tend to be paused (Mind you, it’s never an interruption!) over identifying a raaga or noticing the structure of the “Kalpanaswaras” playing on the radio! Well, that’s when my exasperated husband asks if Yesudas’s rendition “Vataapi Ganapathim” needs to be a part of the discussion on our plans for the next day! 😊

So when the previous  week’s Saturday Buzzar of Funky Rainbow brought up this book on the occasion of World music day earlier last week, I knew I had to lay my hands on this one and sure enough this book has been the raagam-tanam-pallavi of this week’s reads! If my little one loves the book, it’s becomes a family favourite almost immediately with everyone being asked to read to her – from parents and maternal grandparents to her older brother and this book has indeed appealed to everyone who has read  to Aadya. Inspired from the early years of Annapurna Devi, the famous sitar player and daughter of Allaudin Khan, the royal court musician at the court of Maharaja of Maihar in Madhya Pradesh, “The Magic in My Fingers” a Karadi tales publication by Nandita da cunha (a pianist herself) and illustrations by  Nayantara Sundrenath and Kanimozhi A ,  is an endearing tale that is as much a story of sisterly love as it is about the discovery of an innate talent heralding an illustrious musical journey.

Aayan is once again late for his music practice, much to Baba’s chagrin. Before Baba loses his patience at his truant son, his younger sister Roohi steps in to search for Aayan who seems to be more interest in pots and pans than the practice of Sitar. Roohi cant afford to have Aayan upset Baba which would then ruin her chances of a new kite that Baba had promised to buy from the market. But Roohi’s chances of making her father proud of her as she plans to win the kite-flying competition with the new kite, diminish by the minute as Baba heads out looking for his errant son, with a cane in hand. So Roohi hits upon a brilliant but highly risky idea to distract her Baba and soon to her delight and to the shock of her father, she discovers the magic in her fingers, and that indeed makes her father swell with pride! Aided by wonderfully striking illustrations, we love this book as its works on so many levels- from the very relatable reluctance to music practice (I deal with it every day!) to the wonder of a prodigious talent, from the intuitive understanding of a sister of her brother's mind  to the discovery of one’s true potential and of course the exhilarating power of music! A must buy for any music loving family!

 

Princess Easy Pleasy!!!

We are in Bhutan.... the land of Gross National Happiness for our summer family vacation!! “Family vacation” is more like a business trip for parents with lists and inventories made out for all kinds of contingencies and emergencies that one might face while travelling with kids! Sometimes it feels like all you do is run around managing your kids’ needs, moods and tantrums that it hardly feels like a vacation at all!!!! That said, it would also be difficult to leave them behind  and enjoy the vacation sans kids.....especially when you get on the plane and   served your children's favorite pasta, or drive through your son's dream view of snow capped mountains, or try your hand at a local sport that your son would sure love, or try out the local costume that you bet would look perfect on your daughter, or taste the local flavors of ice creams.....how can you possibly enjoy without your kids!!! Isn't it?

The biggest challenge during any travel with kids is of course food ...and  finding the kind of food that appeals to our kids palate always keeps one on tenter-hooks!!! In keeping with our family travel tradition that began during our travels with Abhay, we’ve continued to pack our travel size rice cooker, albeit as a back up as our little one is more open about experimenting with different cuisines (touchwood!) when compared to our older one who had an appetite only for “curd rice”!!!! 

But believe me, the back up plan during the first couple of days always ends up being upgraded into the mainstay during the final days of our travel...and for all you realise.... it’s not only the little one who is craving for some Anna-Sambhar!!! 😊

As a prelude to our travel, I had picked up a wonderful book that highlights this exact plight of parents planning a travel with their young kids. A surprise find .. really.. but we’ve latched on to Princess Easy Pleasy ...ever since I chanced upon this book at Kutoohala that I later managed to save during its closure sale. So much so... that inspired from the original story, we’ve also tried to spin off a few other anecdotes in Princess Easy Pleasy style...just to keep our little princess from being displeased!!!!   

“Princess Easy Pleasy” a Karadi tales publication by Natasha Sharma and pictures by Priya Kuriyan revolves around a sprightly and a stubborn little princess who does not find anything up to her expectations as she travels with her parents, the king and queen, to various countries from Hong Kong to China to Singapore to Cambodia to Thailand to Srilanka (considering their choice of destinations... I wonder why they didn’t travel to Bhutan!) In each country,  she seems to have a problem with the milk served, or the vegetables cooked, or the mattress laid out, or the pets around or even the elephant brought in for a ride, having  her parents pander to her almost impossible tastes, finding a scapegoat in the royal packer who’s ordered to add to the packing list, each time the princess throws a fit!!! So in their effort to appease the not-so-easily-pleased princess, the ever expanding list includes a cow, their own chef and their own vegetables and so on and so forth... until things go horribly wrong when the exhausted royal packer quits and all travel plans cancelled by her equally  exhausted parents!!! As the bored princess pleads with her mom to change her mind, her mom yields, however “on one condition” ( and we love this part !) and we all know what it might be... don’t we?? A hilarious take on what is common travel woe of most parents!! In fact, this book provides a great parenting tool too... as the  “on one condition” strategy has come to our aid as we try to get our terrible twos toddler to toe our line!!! 

Books Galore!

Over the weekend, we attended Bookalore's birthday bash!!! Bookalore, known as Bangalore's big little book club is an independent forum that aims at popularising contemporary Indian books amongst kids and young adults through monthly events centered around stories, activities and of course books, books and more books. Though we had attended a couple of these events before, we haven't been as regular as I would have liked due the fact that the events are spread across different venues every month. Frankly, Bangalore plays host to so many children's events that we parents find it hard to keep up, thus weekends getting busier than weekdays! :-)  Nevertheless, Bookalore's first anniversary was hard to miss and so there we were at our favorite children's library on a sunny Saturday morning, just like we had been on Bookalore's launch last year! :-) So it has been a full circle for Bangalore's children's writers, illustrators, editors and publishers who joined hands to start Bookalore a year ago, as they once again got together at Hippocampus to bring to us another action packed session for kids of all ages and sizes!:-)

 

 

 

 

I am not sure if it's sign for all the upcoming children's events this year (I so hope so!),  but for a change.....we reached Hippocampus on time (Yay!)  and had Abhay seated well before the event began!!:-)  What's a birthday without a cake? So Bookalore's first birthday started with a cake-cutting ceremony, thanks to which Abhay refused to leave the cake out of sight and almost missed the next session with  "Little Indians" author Pika Nani (something he had looked forward to!) fearing he wouldn't get a slice of the birthday cake!  After a lot of convincing and cajoling, we got him to attend and have fun at the "Desi-videsi Jamboree", and what's more he got to snack on a slice of sponge cake along with the birthday cake!:-)) 

While kids find Bookalore's event exciting for the story time followed by fun activities, it is most certainly a treat for us since we get to meet liked minded parents, plus we find books that are hard to come by in regular bookstores. So I couldn't believe my eyes when I finally landed the book that I've been looking for in every single bookstore I’d been to since I learned about it. Commonly confused with the "Song of the Bookworm" by Anushka Ravishankar, "The Bookworm" is a Karadi Tales publication by Lavanya R.N and Shilo Shiv Suleman. As one might guess, the story revolves around a ten year old bookworm by name Sesha, who has his nose always buried in books. Other kids in his class look upon Sesha as a freak and even have a song to tease him with. Sesha couldn't care less as he is happy to be immersed in his world of books. But one day as he accidentally runs into the bully brothers Rohan and Rohit, everyone learns of his speech disorder. Sesha is now an easy target of class jokes that only isolates him further. But a small incident in class changes the way everyone sees him, that not only helps Sesha discover his true self but also helps the entire class discover the world of books. Have your little bookworm read on to find out! Abhay loved the book and I see him wanting to revisit Sesha's triumph again and again! Complemented by unique collage and scrapbook styled illustrations, this book is must read for every growing kid for many reasons......most of all for inspiring kids to turn to books. Here's to Bookalore for doing just that......Happy first anniversary and here's to many more!