Aha! Its summer!

 

It’s that time of the year again when we are envious of our kids (if not always ......... that is) and turn nostalgic over those carefree days of summer of 80s’ or the 90s’, when time literally stood still! Juxtapose to the present, we have turned into anxious parents who are in the continuous quest of finding things to keep our kids constructively engaged and in a constant endeavor of devising ways and means to keep them off gadgets! 

There is no doubt that our parents had it easy during simpler times, lesser distractions, and fewer choices! There is also no denying the fact they are a lot more easy-going as grandparents than they were as parents! (But try and get them to admit it…you are reminded of the 80s’/90s’ kid that you are!)

In between packing the kids off to grandparents, enrolling them into summer camp, driving them to museums or children’s activity centers squeezing in a family vacation or two, before you know it, summer holidays are over and it’s time to scramble for uniforms and books for the new academic year! Well… I began writing this at the beginning of April,  only to be finishing it at almost the end of my daughter’s summer break! 

Anyway, Aadya rang in her summer vacations with AHA! Adventures with Asha Nehemiah at our favourite “ Kahaani Box”, J P Nagar in association with Funky Rainbow, another one of our favourite places,  for  a wonderful  session themed “Author Meet and Greet”, wherein the veteran author Asha Nehemiah took the children through her process of ideating, creating, writing and providing inputs to illustrating her books, in particular reference to the book that was recently launched titled “Ghosts, Thieves and Aha! Adventures” brought out by Puffin publications. While offering a sneak peek into her new book, the prolific writer engaged the children with “from-idea-to-print-story” of ten year old Ashish and run-ins at his mom’s workplace, a dream workplace for some viz. a Book store! The delightful session ended with a poster making activity which the kids enjoyed as they doodled their ideas into interesting pictures or taglines!

Here is ours…….

Part of the Puffin’s Silly Billy series,  “Ghosts, Thieves and Aha! Adventures” traces the eventful journey of a young Ashish from what he expects to be a painful torture to finding his own happy place at this “beautiful bookstore”, while making lasting friendships and other interesting connections along the way, and in the process solving the mystery of how the book “Success Sutras and Money Mantras” always finds its way onto to the top shelf of the revolving stand!  Aha! one can find adventure in the most unexpected of all places! Accompanied by strikingly realistic yet toon-style illustrations by Pankaj Saikia,  “Ghosts, thieves, and Aha! Adventures  is a summer potpourri -  from funny to wistful and tender, from suspenseful to comic,  full of GenX parenting to Gen Z growing up moments! As it goes in the book    “ Just being around and reading them will give you your own Ah! Moment when you least expect it"…….. so go find your own Aha! moment this summer!

Notes from Neev!

 

“Stumbled upon your next story?” was the theme of this year’s Neev Literature fest, an exclusive lit fest for Indian Children and YA literature at Neev Academy that was at its seventh edition this year. As we literally stumbled out of our cab and into our first steps into mixed media, a masterclass by illustrator Shivam Choudhary,  I noticed that NLF was getting bigger, brighter and boundless in the myriad opportunities it affords children to explore the world through books! Of course, it’s only been our third year at NLF, but we were delighted with the diverse and eclectic mix of riveting performances based on books, interestingly themed book launches, delightful book interactions, thought-provoking sessions for educators and parents, engaging master classes for children aged between 9 and 18 and heartwarming author interactions and book signings and more!  It was a wonderful confluence of authors, illustrators from all over the world, numerous publishers and creators of Indian children’s literature, along with the educators, librarians, parents and of course students of all ages, brought together under one giant marquee by Neev Academy at their campus in Bellandur. Systematically planned, well organised and creatively presented, we were truly spoilt for choices between a fun-filled session/ a performance at Kathashala, or an insightful discussion at Kahaanimanch, or our favourite author reading from her book at the Performing arts studio or a writer/illustrator or content-based workshop at the Masterclass or waiting in line to get our books signed at the Sahitya Santhe!  Another NLF initiative is the NLF Reading Challenge for young readers to read a list of “thoughtfully curated books” in a span of three months that finally culminates in a quiz at the lit-fest!  Not to forget the school adorned the charming aesthetics of a lit fest….every corner of the school had something fascinating to offer for book enthusiasts of all ages!  NLF is in so many ways, a torchbearer of children’s literature in India, and one of the pioneers in bringing together all the stakeholders of Indian children’s literature and also symbolises a sustained and sincere effort in “growing readers for life”!

 

Each year NLF shortlists books in various categories for the Neev Book Award and we’ve always picked out the shortlisted books and devoured them in no time! Of course as my little one is transitioning from early chapter books to middle reader books, our Neev book bag is becoming heavier and heavier each year! So much so that I had a minor fall and ended up with a sprained ankle owing to which we missed the second day of NLF 2024! The shortlist was as varied and inclusive as the festival itself and featured around three titles in each category from picture books to chapter books to YA reading.

Aadya and I were inspired reading about the art activist “Meera Mukerjee: Breaking moulds” by Vaishali Shroff and awestruck by Shivam Choudhary’s illustrations, an Art1st publication;  Enraptured with the paper cut illustrations and the empathetic storyline in the Karadi tales publication of “A Thousand Full Moons” by Shoba Viswanath and illustrations by Keerthana Ramesh;  Loved the playful yet deep meaning  of the Pratham read  “When we are Home” by Priyadarshini  Gogoi and illustrated by Pankaj Saikia.

 

Aadya is now into C G Salamander and Sheena Devaiah’s travelogue of mythical beasts across India in “From Makaras to Manticores”, a Hachette publication,   and next in line is to read about Bipathu’s love for football in “Bipathu and a Very Big Dream” by Anitha Nair, a Penguin publication,  and ready to learn about Tulika’s graphic series titled  “Unknown Heroes of India’s freedom Struggle” by P Sainath!

 

Aadya still has a few more years to go before she delves into YA novels - Andaleeb Wajid’s “The Henna Start-up”  by Penguin Random House and “Zen” by Shabnam Minwalla, a Duckbill publication, with the prolific writer Andaleeb Wajid winning the Neev Book award at NLF 2024. So “If you could live in one of these books during Dassera holidays, which one would it be?”

 

While the NLF weekend was physically exhausting as we couldn’t keep up with so many sessions and were continually harbouring a FOMO feeling (Fear of missing out!), we came out sporting super cool blue wrists bands, our minds uplifted, creatively inspired, and our hearts full!   Come September…. besides the start of festive season….we have the next edition of NLF to look forward to!

Summer Book club!

 

Parenting, amongst other things,  is also about trying to experience the good things in life vicariously through our kids, especially the kind of experiences that we didn’t have while growing up!  Take for instance,  a Book club for second and third graders…..we didn’t have anything like that in our childhood, despite growing up in an urban environment.  We did have summer camps for sure…revolving around creative arts and crafts and music, dance and sports of course….but nothing like a curated platform showcasing age appropriate books for all the young participants to read and share their thoughts about…. that too in a place surrounded by books! No………. I’m not talking about fancy places like the New York or Boston children’s public library, but the summer book club at “Kahaani Box”,  for second and third grade readers! So when book lover and entrepreneur Neha Jain put up a whatsapp post on the upcoming summer programs at Kahaani box, including “The Book club”,   I so wished that I could become a second grader again!  

 

As we approach the fag end of school summer vacations (in fact many schools have already reopened!), we did look back at the summer of ’24, and one of the most memorable of Aadya’s summer activities was attending the book club at Kahaani box!  

It was indeed a memorable week of reading, sharing and exchanging views, involving themselves in vocabulary exercises and mystery-solving activities, designing alternative book covers, going on a book scavenger hunt around the library, and creating a TIME-VELOPE of all their favourite things they would open twenty years later!  

As part of the book club activity, each of the eight kids read Shabnam Minwala’s “The Shy Super Girl”,  a Duckbill publication’s HOLE book -and  Louis Sachar’s  “Marvin Redpost- Why pick on me”, and Aadya enjoyed reading about the nine year old Nina who though shy was endowed with super powers! With the help of her almost clairvoyant abilities, Nina manages to solve the mystery of the missing artefact at Mrs. Khanna’s house. All the girls were fascniated by the  adventures and misadventures of Nina and gang so much that they reviewed the book and even wrote to the author.  This early chapter book aided by Tanvi Bhat's apt and stimulating illustrations, encapsulates so many relatable elements of a young girl’s world that had all the book club members hooked and booked for the summer of ’24! Here’s to unboxing many such activities from Kahaani Box this year!  

 

A BLF - Regular!

 

“Bigger, Bolder and livelier” is how author Shoba De described this year’s Bangalore Literature festival, with its 11^th edition that was held last weekend at the grounds of Hotel Lalith Ashok. To borrow from Suresh Menon’s words, a literature festival makes reading a community event and what a shared celebration of reading and books it was!  Spread across two days over four different stages (named after the Late Puneeth Rajkumar’s movies),  with diverse topics ranging from Pico Iyer’s reflections to Manu’s Joseph’s zero hour styled “as me anything” , from Kabir Bedi’s memoir to Veerappa Moily’s autobiography, from the exhuberent and inimitable Jerry Pinto to the gentle and understated Jahnavi Barua, from a beautiful rendition and translation of the Shankaracharya’s “Soundarya Lahiri” to a discussion on Bhuta worship in Dakshina Kannada, from the impassioned speech of  festival regulars like Ramachandra Guha to the recently emerging author/thinkers like engineer turned advocate K Sai Deepak,  from VVS Laxman’s batting to Sunil Chhetri’s footballing journey, from bringing alive Kannada epics in “Gamaka” to celebrating minor languages in Karnataka in ‘Hosa Baraha”, from finding empowerment in fandom in Shrayana Bhattacharya’s refreshing “Desperately seeking Shahrukh Khan” to being enthralled by the Kannada superstar  Ramesh Arvind’s success mantras, it was indeed an intellectual extravaganza for bibliophiles, literary and cultural enthusiasts in the city.  

Not to forget, the Children’s Literature festival making its reappearance after a hiatus of  two years with  two stages, “Malgudi” and “Seonee” engaging both the young ones and the tweens and the teens.   We have been BLF regulars as a family for the last ten years, and our experience so far is best represented in my older one’s journey from attending Rohini Nilekani’s Sringeri Srinivas story time at the very first edition in 2012 to sitting through gripped by the heart-wrenching tale of Dr. Kafil Khan on his book “Gorakhpur hospital tragedy”! Of course….we couldn’t be any more pleased as Abhay  marked out sessions he wanted to attend on his own (without his overbearing mom around!) or as he went up to ask questions after the session or  as he lined up in queue to get the books signed by authors while interacting with them! In a way it has been a coming of age of sorts for Abhay as he graduates from being a  “CLF” regular to a “BLF” enthusiast!

 

Besides BLF stage hopping, Abhay also played chaperone to his little sister at some events at CLF on the second day, allowing us take a break from our role as parents! Our program schedule leaflet resembled an amusement park map, reflecting a rough strategy to be able to make it to each of our marked-out sessions  while ensuring that Aadya was supervised at her parallel sessions running at CLF….  like Abhay was to finish a session with Anubhav Sinha and Jerry Pinto  on “Book of Dog’  at  “Yuvaratna” stage  and head over to “Malgudi” to take care of his sister for a drawing session with Labonie Roy, so that my husband could tune into a “Gamaka” session with Gangamma Keshavamurthy and Shantha Nagamangala at “Raajakumara” stage and I could catch Shrayana Bhattacharya’s session at “Yuvaratna” just to sprint back to CLF so that ABhay could walk back to  “Gandhada Gudi” stage for Sunil Chhetri’s session “Awakening the Blue Tiger”! !  😊

 

While Aadya missed out on the first day of CLF, she had plenty to look forward to on the second day- from a DIY session on making one’s own string instrument with Krithika Sreenivasan from the Indian music Experience (IME) to witnessing a culinary show based on recipes inspired from children’s books by Ranjani Rao and Ruchira Ramanujam from their book “Bookworms and Jellybellies”, from story-time by Priyanka Agarwal   to a session with Bijal Vachharanjani and Rajiv Eipe’s hook book titled “Kitten Trouble”,    finally ending the day with a fun filled show by India’s only woman ventriloquist Indushree Raveendra.

 

One of the books we picked up was by Honey Irani “Shakya’s little secret” brought out by Om publications along with another book “Akira Shakya and the Grouchy owl”, which was launched by the author herself with her son Farhan Aktar joining in at the BLF. Though Aadya couldn’t attend one of her sessions on ‘Living with nature” , her older brother managed to grab a copy earlier in the day, and stood in queue to have it signed!  

 A tad long for a picture book, Honey Irani weaves two wonderful stories around her grandchildren Akira and Shakya that make for a delightful read.  Little Shakya is down with severe cough and as her parents frantically try to seek help, guess who comes to her rescue? The birds, bees, bugs and the plants outside her window!  Honey Irani’s engaging narrative brings out various anthropomorphic characters and their idiosyncrasies,  from empathetic Simi the parrot and her eager friend Penny the Pigeon, from  her Royal Highness Queen Bee to her reluctantly obedient subject Fizzy-Wizzy-Bizzy bee, from the helpful Tulsi plant to the ever wise Lore, the owl, and the story is about how they all come together not only to cure little Shakya of her cough but also enable her to have a super-human experience that she can she can cherish all her life, inspiring in her a life long true love for nature!   A unique storyline with an important message of being one with nature, and Aadya loved it and was thrilled to see the book signed out for her – with a lovely message – "Book is you best friend, done let it go!"  A an apt message for all the kids and adult alike …don’t you think? Until the next BLF……!!

 

 

It's storytelling festival out here!

As we head towards the final week of the 21-days lock down on account of the Covid-19 pandemic in India, hoping against hope that it will slow down the infection spread, we find that “Zoom”, “BOTIM”, “Microsoft Team” along with good old “Skype” are the new buzzwords that seemed to have revolutionized the way we look at group interactions. From virtual courts and e-filings to online meetings, from online classes to online assignments, from online live story-times to online live music concerts, technology has enabled us to soldier on as far as its possible in these testing times. With an explosion of live programs on Facebook,  you find out yourself online all the time - just as you catch your favourite musician in a Facebook live “unplugged performance”, it seems to overlap with the live interactive session with the much-sought after nutrition cum fitness expert, or as you manage to get your little one to watch one of the author-hosted story sessions live on Facebook, you can’t help but leave to her device(s) and switch to another for a once-in-a-lifetime story time read out by Ruskin Bond himself !   Even in times of quarantine, I can’t believe we are still being haunted by that “Fear of missing out” (FOMO) feeling!!

Needless to say, all this is only a momentary respite from the restlessness and the fear of uncertainty, the general gloom over the impending catastrophe and the accompanying sadness in seeing so much suffering and loss of lives and livelihood all around us. That said, it’s also important to stay positive and ensure your family, particularly the kids are in good spirits as they are our unsung heroes after all, literally imprisoned for no fault of theirs and not knowing why (as with the younger ones). While many schools have embarked on online learning formats for the older kids, engaging younger kids is still a challenge. So apart from the juggling with working from home full-time or part-time, household chores , cooking and cleaning, in our case, we are called upon to choose the best of my little one’s several drawings of “Rapunzel” or get summoned to taste her pretend “poha” or “pakoda” from her pretend kitchen!  

Anyway, thanks to all the live story sessions on social networking platforms, we have been revisiting some of our earlier favorites, like Princess Easy Pleasy of which a sequel has been brought out by the author, Natasha Sharma in keeping with “constant boredom” that all our princes and princesses face in these quarantined times. In fact, in so many ways, these online story-times are better than the in-person activities, as hopefully the attention stays on the story-teller and what he or she has to say and does not wander off to the colour of the hairband worn by girl in front! :-)

With a Storytelling festival going on, we read the or Tulika’s “The Jungle Storytelling Festival” by Janaki Sabesh and pictures by Debosmita Mazumdar. This is a unique ‘Stories within a story” book that lets the kids  string together well known stories through wordless illustrations. All the animals lead by the squirrel get together for the story telling festival that flags off with the lion and the mouse story narrated by the King of the jungle himself followed by the monkey who engages everyone with his story of outwitting the crocodile greedy for the monkey’s heart and the tortoise narrating his world famous race with the hare. At the end of the first day of the festival, the Ostrich is seen looking on eagerly wondering if he could share his story too. But all the other animals brush him aside given his stammering problem. Just as he retreats to a corner expressing his sorrow in a song, Mouse Mamma hears him and is surprised to find him singing without stammering….and that is enough to give Ostoo an opening and an underdog-like success in the storytelling festival the next day. Aided with soft yet striking illustrations, this book is a brilliant interactive inter-play of age-old fables outlined by a contemporary story line so as to impress upon young minds with today’s ideals of diversity and inclusivity. Whether the lock down is extended further or not, cheer yourself and your little one with the storytelling festivals online. 

Ten years of Aha!

We can't have July go by without the Aha! International theatre for children at Rangashankara....now can we? On its tenth year, we literally camped at Rangashankara watching a play every day between July 14th to 20th. Thankfully, there were a couple of plays that Abhay could watch unlike last year which was exclusively for toddlers. However, there has been a increasing tendency favouring the younger lot, with most plays having minimal or no language at all or gibberish meant for very young kids, and a note of suggestion would be to include a play or a performance with dialogues impressing upon the tweens or adolescents too! Anyway, a play a day sure keeps dreariness away (so needed for our routine driven lives)........also devices away (so needed for this generation) ........and jadedness away (so needed for everyone today) ...and of course making a play a day happen for your kids on weekday evenings sure keeps you on your toes...so much so that it took me this long to recover from the hectic schedule of the Aha! week.....and it's only today that I found time to write about it!

Well.......better late than never, so here is my must-post event of the month.....and this year was all the more special as it was the tenth edition of the Aha! International theatre festival for children that has spread it creative tentacles to the likes of Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. With plays from children's theatre groups from various parts of the world including the US, UK, Germany, and Korea. etc, catering to children aged 4 and above, and performances ranging from puppetry to adapted novellas, from shadow plays, to creative inter play of mime and animation, from no language at all to the universal language of creativity and imagination, the  Rangashankara's Aha festival has come to symbolise one of the most stimulating, nuanced, inclusive and inspiringly creative events for children that Bangalore and Bangaloreans are proud to call their own!

The Aha! festival has always provided a platform to interesting events that prelude the play of the day,  and this year it opened with a launch of a book  titled "Yaksha" by Archana Mohan and illustrated by Adithya Sadashiv. Being a collaboration between Bookosmia and Yakshadegula, this book is a wonderful way to introduce children to Karnataka's indigenous dance form, Yakshagana, that is particularly popular in our native South Kanara district. Narrated through the perspective of the eight year old Yaksha,  who finds himself unhappy over many things, be it being new to school or his unusual name that always gets turned into "Yucky" or "Yucks" or his lack of friends or as he considers himself to be a back-bencher with no special talent thus making Yaksha suffer through a  low phase in his school life. On "Be your own superhero day" at school,  Yakhsa  is reluctant to participate as he is too jaded to believe in Super heroes. But as his father and grandmother take him through the story of his great great great great grandfather also named Yaksha who fought to perform mythological stories before the general public, through the medium of the unique dance-drama-art.  So Yaksha,  in his search of a 'super-hero"  goes on to  draw inspiration from his own family tradition that he sets out to reclaim and make it into his own. A beautiful  coming of age tale that encapsulates a melange of  themes -from a contemporary story line of a boy trying to fit in, to the past glory of a dying tradition, guided by subtle yet strong support from family and elders to finally finding your own destiny, all through  interwoven with informative aspects of one of most vibrant dance-drama forms of Karnataka.....truly makes you go "Aha!" with delight!

Our BLF weekend!

It was the much awaited BLF weekend here in Namma Bengaluru! To me personally, the Bangalore Lit Fest feels more like a Bibliophile's intellectual “amusement park”... there’s so much to experience with so little time ...........when you wish you could turn back time like Hermione in  “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” and attend two parallel sessions on different platforms at the same time............ as you juggle between thought-provoking discussions on various issues ranging from literature to social and political issues on three different platforms........as you scan through the schedule and are unable to decide whether the next one in “Naale ba” is better than the one happening on the “The Red couch” or the parallel one at "Adjust Madi" ............ bumping into other bibliophile friends while scurrying off to buy books and get them signed by authors besides checking on the while checking on your younger ones at the Children's Lit Fest..... Phew!  you are always in that “fear of missing out” mindset!!! 

I must say that the 7th edition of Bangalore Lit Fest had a lot more to offer than its previous editions for children with over 50 sessions spread across two platforms - "Malgudi" for children aged between 5 and 11 and “Narnia” for children aged 11 to 15. It fell short only so far as very young children who only had a trampoline to keep them engaged ... let’s hope they fill out that gap too in the coming year. 

So much so that in my zealousness of making the most out of what can be called  Bangalore's community event ........I was even accused of constantly breathing down Abhay’s neck ( Abhay's dad will call out 'mine too' here!)....in overriding their choices for mine! :-) I mean seriously, how can one let go when the choice is between "Happy Fox: Illustration time" and "Teen Blues" by Poile Sen Gupta or  “Ma, I want to be a journalist ?” with Barkha Dutt and Mukund Padmanabhan ? 

The highlight for Abhay was a session with Stephen Alter, an author we'd discovered at the Cambridge Book Depot at Mussoorie last year. Though we had picked up "The Secret Sanctuary" last year on the recommendation of Mr. Arora of Cambridge Book Depot, it was not until Abhay actually met Mr. Stephen Alter himself at the CLF that he began evincing an interest in his stories. 

While the focus of Mr. Stephen Alter's session "Cloudfarers: How to run away from school" revolved around his recently released book "The Cloudfarers", we found a similar thread running through his earlier book as well. Abhay couldn't help but wonder if Stephen Alter did not like school but enjoyed writing! Dedicated to  "every student who has gazed through a window and wished that she or he could escape outdoors instead of being trapped inside a classroom", The Secret Sanctuary by Stephen Alter and illustrated by Prabha Mallya centered around the natural environment surrounding the three kids  Manohar, Pradeep and Kamala  and their connect with nature and how it is inter-persed with who they are and how they lead their lives. Abhay who thoroughly enjoyed listening to Stephen Alter talk, his unassumingly friendly demeanor and his tongue-in-cheek humour...........and thus looked forward to revisiting the "The Secret Sanctuary" before scaling up to "The Cloudfarers". Enjoy reading Abhay.....and as one of BLF's theme goes "A good book is an event in my life"....may you come across more such events in your life...... ! Thank you BLF for a cracker of a weekend!

It's Aha! all the way!

It's that time of the year again... a chance to 'enthrall, entertain and educate the kids and say AHA! In Arundhathi's Nag's own words, one of Rangashankara's most "precious" theatre festivals "Aha! International theatre for children is in it's eighth year and going strong!! With troupes from all over the world, including Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom Korea and Afganisthan performed at Rangashankara this week...with shows ranging from puppet theatre to shadow plays, from symbolic and surreal to delightful gibberish …..children between ages of four and above were in for an artistic treat!

This year's takeaway  were seven AHA! characters that embrace diversity and seek to break stereotypes in society – from Raju who loves the colour pink to Pammy who loves to fix bulbs …from mini-master chef Nandu to the cricketer Lilli! The interested children got to choose one of these characters and act out /demonstrate their characteristics in their own manner and style.

While this year’s year highlight were age specifications prescribing both minimum and maximum age for the shows, as it had been increasingly felt that there is no "one size fits all" when it comes to children's theatre, my only complaint is that there isn't any performance catering to very young kids.. as it only seems unfair that my younger one had to wait for two whole years to be unable to experience Aha!:-(

For the last six years…..we’ve been regular at Rangashankara’s Aha! festival and we come back each year begging for more and more…! I’m sure early exposure of theatre to children has a positive impact on their impressionable minds. In fact, I’m amazed at the how my son seemed to remember some of the performances that were staged over 3 to 4 years ago! All thanks to Rangashankara’s Aha! festival.

While my daughter may be too young to enjoy interesting performances  at Rangashankara this year, she is not too young for the interesting stories revolving around pretend and play acting …………. And there could not have been a better choice to suit the occasion than “Ari” a Tulika publication by Vaishali Shroff and illustrated by Kavitha Singh Kale. Centered around a shy and sensitive boy named Ari whose soft voice is often drowned out by the common din in the classroom. When the class teacher announces selections for the class play, Ari’s hands go up but not high enough for the teacher to notice. While Ari follows the selected children onto the auditorium to watch the rehearsals of the play ‘Lion and the Mouse”, he cant help feeling that he could be a much better job of playing the Lion than his classmate. Though a little disappointed but Ari does not lose hope and finds tremendous satisfaction in mono-acting the characters of lion and the mouse in front of a mirror at home…..only to find someone squeaking in to play the role of a mouse – who else – his mother who joins in the play-acting of the famous fable of “Lion and the Mouse” …. And after the performance, the actors finally take the much deserved bow! A beautiful rendition of a tale of childhood yearning fulfilled by a creative parent to make happy growing-up memories and that’s the Aha! spirit…isnt’ it?

Aha! ...with Granny!

Come July and it’s time to say…Aha! …and head straight to Rangashankara! We have been regulars at the Aha! International Theatre festival for children since 2012,  making advance reservations even before the tickets arrived, planning and assigning chaperoning responsibilities well ahead in time so that all of us at home get a piece of Aha!  So much so, that my parents and in laws have often wondered who is the intended audience for the plays – children or their parents!! 

Ideally, we would like to watch all the plays ( and we have done that for a couple of years), but through the years, we’ve evolved in our choice of plays and  Abhay now prefers plays more suited to his age, with language, humour and themes he can relate to and so this year we’ve picked out plays and shows meant for children aged seven and above. In fact, my little one who is now over fourteen months old narrowly misses the eligibility to watch “Dinner at eight” presented by Headstart school of Montessori meant for children between the age group of 18 months to 36 months. Of course….left to me …I would have gone for all the plays!!!  So, waiting for my little one to grow up…I guess!! J

Yesterday we went for the screening of a Korean feature film, “The Way Home” directed by Lee-Jeong-hyang  Since it revolved around a relationship between a grandma and her grandson, Abhay was accompanied by his maternal grandma! Though the film was in Korean language, it was presented with English sub titles. Set in a remote village in Korea where a city bread spoilt kid is sent off to his grandma’s while his mother is in between jobs, the film beautifully portrays the evolution of a poignant relationship between the grandma and grandson, despite the age factor, generation gap and the urban-rural divide. Abhay and his granny thoroughly enjoyed the movie and thanks to Rangashankara, Abhay has been exposed to not only world class theatre but also brilliant movies from all over the world!

So we had to end our Rangashankara movie night with a moving story and who can be better than Ruskin Bond when it comes to insightful and charming stories on inter-generational relationships! With my last two posts also on Ruskin Bond…. it feels like a Ruskin Bond festival on Onestoryaday!  We read “A long walk with Granny” from the collection “The Room of many colours” and other stories brought out by Pensuin publications. The same story has been rejacketed as “Getting Granny’s glasses” by Puffin publications.

Nani (granny) needed a new pair of glasses but was reluctant to get them as she had to travel all the way to Mussoorie to get to the eye hospital. ( With Abhay’s own grandma’s legendry reluctance to get her annual eye check up…this story couldn’t have been more appropriate) So as Nani tries to make do with her old glasses that are badly scratched with spots all over, it is up to her doting grandson who agrees to accompany her on their two day tedious journey to Mussoorie to meet the eye doctor. Just as Mani wonders how to get by the first mile, which comprises of a long walk to Nain Market to catch the only bus to Mussoorie, Nani chides “I may be going blind but there’s nothing wrong with my legs”!  And so Nani and Mani set off on what turns out to be a rollercoaster ride along the foothills of Himalayas, with incessant rains and landslides aplenty. Though it is Mani who’s tasked with the responsibility of taking care his septuagenarian Nani, it is Nani who could give a well trained scout some stiff competition, when it comes to readiness and preparedness to brave any emergency, from carrying all essentials to being ready for a ten mile stiff climb when the bus breaks down! When Nani  finally gets her new pair of glasses…..she cant stop gazing out of the window on their way back as every turn and bend opens up new vistas for her! Nani’s child-like enthusiasm along with Mani’s mature sensibilities make for a  great story……and Ruskin Bond’s tender and vivid narrative packed with subtle yet tongue-in-cheek humour enhances the experience to a totally different level!  What an apt ending to an Aha! evening! 

BLF 2015!

Over the weekend, we attended the fourth edition of Bangalore Literature festival, an annual literary event that Bangalore is home to. We have been regulars at the BLF ever since it began in 2012, following it all the way to Electronic city (the venue for the event during the last two years) and splitting the two-day event between Abhay (our only child then) and ourselves. This year however we weren’t sure if we could make it with a six month old in tow!  However, with the run up to the event embroiled in controversies with some authors pulling out of the event and given that it was to be held at a near-by location, it became all the more imperative that we attend and support a community funded initiative such as BLF that we so look forward to attending each year. So there we were at the Royal Orchid hotel along with our nine year old and our six month old …shuttling between ‘left wing’ and ‘right wing’ discussions while keeping an eye on our older one’s activities at Makkala koota. Before you brand us as ‘reckless’ for dragging an infant to crowded event like this….hold on … as we found many such parents slinging their infants, some of whom were as little as four months old! BLF 2015 saw many workshops being held for children at the Makkala Koota wing. So much so that our nine year old was the busiest of all, perhaps to make up for his absence last year, starting with Tulika’s workshop with illustrator Sowmya Menon followed by Bookalore’s puppet party and Doodle Dhamaka where he got doodling on the doodle wall about his idea of Bengaluru. Thanks to the organizers who readily accommodated the needs of an infant, our little girl seemed to enjoy herself watching so many kids and hearing so many new sounds! So BLF 2015 was indeed a big hit with our little ones and here’s begging for more next year!  

Abhay was quite pleased to attend a Bookalore event after a long time and enjoyed the stories through puppets performed by Vijayalakshmi Nagraj, the author of many children’s books and one of whose books we decided to pick for our reading together. While Abhay is too old for   her book “Jhilmil the Butterfly”,  he is just right for her another one of her books “The Natural Wonders of India”, a publication by the Energy and Research Institute ( TERI) on nature’s bounty and beauty across the length and breadth of India. Join the twin girls Reva and Sarayu as they take your young reader on an armchair trip to the ten best natural spectacles in India. With a travel itinerary that could be anybody’s envy , from Pangong Tso, a pristine lake shared by India and Tibet at an altitude of 14,500 feet, where the twins spend their summer vacations to the salty marshlands of Rann of Kutch  and the Indroda Dinosaur and Fossil park at Gandhinagar, follow them as they explore the unique landscape and physical features, flora and fauna and the attendant conditions of living, while carrying a subtle message of environment conservation. Presented in a simple yet interesting narrative, and accompanied by vivid pictures and photographs, this book successfully manages to avoid the usual trappings of a work of non-fiction that children tend to steer clear from and sure can double up as travel book for your next vacation!! J

Hanuman's Ramayana!

July seems to be the month of children's theatre in Bangalore! If we began the month with the play "Gumma Banda Gumma " followed by the week-long Aha! Children's theatre festival at Ranga Shankara .....this weekend saw the riveting performance of Tulika's "Hanuman ki Ramayan" in Swaang-Nautanki style by Gillo theatre repertory at four different locations in Bangalore. 

                                         

With our eight year old already having watched more plays this month than we adults watch in a year, we were  warned by our folks at home that an overdose of theatre might just be a little too much for him! That said, however, we couldn't miss this troupe whose musical rendition of Asha Nehamaiah's book "Granny's Sari" we so enjoyed a couple of years ago ( God..time flies!).  So Abhay went along with his daddy to watch the play at Suchitra film society at South Bangalore. The play was performed in the North Indian folk art form - Nautanki, where the story is performed through an eclectic mix of folk songs, dance and dialogues followed by an interactive session with the audience post the performance. Gillo demonstrated how a simple story can be transformed into an electrifying stage act with minimal props, purely on the strength of their performance , with each and every actor contributing in equal measure.  Though set as a period drama, certain contemporary themes were also blended into the narrative making it even more entertaining! For instance, it was hilarious to watch Narada, touted as mythogy's most misunderstood character, comparing himself to today's "media-wale"! :-) So whether you love the story, or the Nautanki dance drama style.... Gillo's rendition of Hanuman's Ramayan is a must watch! 

As a follow-up to the play, we read the book on which yesterday's performance is based... "Hanuman's Ramayan " by Devdutt Pattanaik and pictures by Nancy Raj. We all know about Valmiki's Ramayan but as the story goes... there appears to be another Ramayan supposedly a better one, according to Narada. Don't believe it.. Neither does Valmiki when Narada discloses the author's name to be Hanuman... the monkey.... a mere character in Valmiki's Ramayan. As Valmiki sets off to the foothills of Himalayas hoping to take a peek at the so called "better Ramayan" , he comes across an orchard full of banana trees with it's leaves scrawled on by what looked like fingernail marks. Upon close observation, the marks turned out to be " letters...words ....sentences" .... and it didn't take long for Valmiki to realise that he was indeed reading "Hanuman's Ramayan"! As Valmiki voraciously takes in the seven banana leaves containing the Ramayan...without missing a single word... he is so overcome with emotion that it falls upon only Lord's Ram's greatest devotee to save the day! Read on as this story only highlights how the mythological classic "Ramayan " lends itself to many different versions and mini-tales that is vibrantly brought out by the folk style illustrations. This is as much a story about Valmiki swallowing his pride as it is a tribute to Hanuman's devotion to Lord Rama. Indeed....a great way of getting our younger generation interested in mythology! Kudos to Gillo's talented performers for choosing stories from Indian children's publications and bringing them alive on stage!