Children’s Literature … – Page 4

Let’s get serious about being curious

Posted on March 30, 2016October 27, 2023 by bijalv

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/mumbai/entertainment/lets-get-serious-about-being-curious/article8387689.ece

Over the last few months, every time I have logged on to social media, I have stumbled upon a conversation about podcasts — whether it was the last episode of Serial or its latest season, the newest science on Invisibilia , or closer home, food talk and more by the people behind Audiomatic. A Google search revealed a range of podcasts for children: from science shows to plays to dramatised storytelling, there’s a whole aural world out there.

I couldn’t help but wonder if podcasts would appeal to children who are constantly surrounded by screens, enveloped in a dense fog of audio-visual clutter. Getting a child to listen to a podcast would be as impossible a task as winning a round of Candy Crush Saga in the first go. But after tuning into some of the podcasts, I changed my mind. Okay, kind of.

When it comes to podcasts for children, science seems to rule the roost. There’s Brain On! , which claims to be “serious about being curious”. Produced by MPR News and Southern California Public Radio, the science show for kids is hosted by Molly Bloom along with two children co-hosts. Topics bounce from what makes a spider a spider and the science of baking to the language of cats and dogs. There are songs, skits, and interviews with some really cool people. What’s really fun is the Mystery Sound section: try guessing the sound, it’s really hard.

Then there’s The Intersection , a show produced by Audiomatic, which is all about science, history, and culture. Journalists Padmaparna Ghosh and Samanth Subramanian set out to explain the complex gravitational waves, inform about ISRO’s indigenous navigation systems and trace mysteries such as the case of the stolen data and bird samples by the famous ornithologist Richard Meinertzhagen. While the show is for adults, the science and history is something that young adults will enjoy listening to. It helps that both Subramanian and Ghosh talk in an easy, casual manner, blending facts with stories and interviews. “As it is, science has a bad rep for being dry and boring,” said Ghosh. “But at the end of the day, everything is a story and the trick is in how you tell it: turning an invention into one person’s quest or explaining deep space through sounds.”

Ghosh points out that children first come across stories when parents read it to them. “Voice is a very intimate medium, especially if it is a voice you get to trust and even fall asleep to,” she said. “It is disembodied, yes, but friendly and warm. It can take us places. Voice leaves space for imagination, which I feel is very important for kids. It lets you travel to places and through time.” Ghosh recommends a few podcasts as well: Stuff You Should Know, StarTalk Radio Show by Neil deGrasse Tyson and NPR Science Friday .

If your child is obsessed with all things culinary, then Vikram Doctor’s The Real Food Podcast will whet their appetite about Indian food history, culture, and agriculture. For older children, The Secret Ingredient by Raj Patel, Tom Philpott and Rebecca McInroy chooses one food per episode to talk about its history, production, and impact on our lives. The topics are often serious and dense, and the format of the podcast is usually one-on-one interviews, so it’s definitely for much older children who are interested in agronomy and food history.

While there are plenty of audio books to choose from, Story Pirates stands out for taking children’s stories and turning them into “awesome radio plays”. Story Pirates “celebrate[s] the words, ideas and stories of young people”. The group is comprises actors, comedians, improvisers and musicians who first narrate the original story written by the child, and then adapt it with music, dialogue, and lots of jokes. Story Pirates gives free rein to a child’s imagination, bringing it to life with their words and music. One such story by a third grader is about two dino bank robbers who decide to well, rob a bank. The Coposauras’ give chase only to find out that the robbers stole the money for charity. Robin Hood dinos!

For fans of TEDTalks, there’s TEDTalks Kids + Family podcast, an audio version of the videos. There’s a lovely one by McKenna Pope, who at the age of 13, started an online petition for a gender-neutral toy oven. Why? Because her younger brother loved to cook but all of Hasbro’s Easy-Bake Ovens were “for girls”. She ended up meeting the American toy company who started a new, inclusive oven line. Her talk, “Want to be an activist? Start with your Toys” is powerful and evocative.

One of my favourites is BBC 4’s Natural Histories , a set of 25 beautifully narrated stories about 25 groups of animals and plants, which has been produced in collaboration with the Natural History Museum, London. Literature, movies, and legends come together with interviews and anecdotes to explore how nature had influenced human culture. Host Brett Westwood is introduced by saying that he has fewer chromosomes than a gorilla or a potato. In one episode, they dramatise an extract from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World to introduce dinosaurs. In another, Westwood talks about Billy, a stranded Northern bottlenose whale in central London who was actually a girl! The episode includes the history of whaling, the book Moby Dick and what it reveals about human relationship with these sea creatures, and the need for conserving the species. There’s an entire episode on fleas, about these parasites that can leap stupendously, along with archival interviews with naturalist Miriam Rothschild, and discussions on the fleas’ reputation of being disease-carriers.

Most podcasts have a lot of engagement with their audience, making sure that young minds don’t tune out. “In India we are used to radio only as a source of entertainment — songs — and not news or information,” said Ghosh. “Listening for stories is not something we are habituated to. On the other hand, radio is a great medium. It is passive, so you can easily multi-task while someone is reading you a story unlike, say, reading or watching a documentary. It can be creative and challenging too.”

Found in translation: Blog post

Posted on March 16, 2016October 27, 2023 by bijalv

http://blog.prathambooks.org/2016/02/found-in-translation.html

1st February is International Mother Language Day and our blog is hosting a 2 day celebration of languages. A series of blog posts by people from different walks of life – sharing their thoughts on languages, memories and more. International Mother Language Day is an observance held annually on 21 February worldwide to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.

(This post was sent in by Bijal Vachharajani. When Bijal is not reading Harry Potter, she can be found looking for tigers in the jungles of India. In her spare time, she works to fund the trips and books. She did this by working as the Editor at Time Out Bengaluru. She now writes about education and sustainable development and is a consultant with Fairtrade Asia Pacific. She tweets at @bijal_v. She’s yet to read Harry Potter in Gujarati. )

**********

Bakor Patel isn’t an ordinary goat. He is a Gujarati businessman who lived in Mumbai and was married to Shakri Patlani. He’s also the protagonist of a series of Gujarati children’s stories by Hariprasad Vyas. I still remember many of his adventures, but I have never read any of them. That’s because I grew up listening to them. My mother would open her magazine and read the anthropomorphic goat’s next adventure to us, and then open Mumbai Samachar to tell us the latest escapade of Jeff and Mutt in Gujarati.

While I could understand and speak Gujarati, my mother tongue, I never ended up learning to read and write it as a child. As a young student, I already had to learn to read and write English, Hindi, and Sanskrit (which I have promptly forgotten). And trust me, the CBSE Board keeps you busy. When I was in my sixth standard, my family moved from Delhi to Mumbai, and suddenly I had to learn a third language and Sanskrit wasn’t on offer. Instead of having to learn an entire new script for Gujarati, I was (ill)-advised by the school to opt for Marathi.

Exams passed, I blissfully forgot about languages until years later, I took up my first job in the media department of an animal rights NGO. Part of my profile included overseeing the translation of communication material into some nine regional languages. I would be faxing (ah yes, those good ole’ days) translated materials to volunteer proof readers across the country, waiting anxiously for them to check the language, grammar, and context.

As I was carting a Gujarati press release home for my mother to proofread, the ridiculousness of the situation struck me. I should be able to read this press release. I can understand the language; how hard can it be to read it? I started teaching myself to read Gujarati. I began reading my parent’s newspapers, starting haltingly with the headlines, and then moving on to the opening paragraphs, and finally an entire article. My parents would point out difficult letters to me and explain the meaning of words to me patiently.

I could now go to our local library and pick up books for my mother instead of relying on staff to point out Chandrakant Bakshi novels to me. When I travelled to meet my cousins in Gujarat, I could read shop signs, instead of having them giggle at my ignorance. And of course, I could read Bakor Patel and proofread basic communication material.

But more than that it was another thing I could share with my parents. When I visit home now, I spend some evening with my parents – my mother curled up on a sofa and solving her Gujarati crossword puzzle, her face creased with concentration. Every few minutes, she would look up and recite a clue to my father. They would both think and then one of them would answer it and my mother would carefully print the answer in the white boxes. And I listen carefully, reciting the words in my head, making sense of them. After all, I am still learning.

Adventures in tween land

Posted on March 16, 2016October 27, 2023 by bijalv

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/mumbai/entertainment/adventures-in-tweenland/article8329824.ece

Tweenager Stoob has a plan: it’s to grow up and “be a celebrity when not inventing things and saving the world.” When I read that in the latest instalment of The Adventures of Stoob: Mismatch Mayhem , I couldn’t stop chuckling. After all, how many times had my friends’ children voiced the exact same plan of becoming adventurers, inventors, or superheroes (preferably all at the same time), opting for exciting career options over the ones their parents had chosen? Samit Basu’s book series is a running commentary on the everyday life of Subroto Bandhopadhyay, otherwise known as Stoob, where the protagonist is contemporary, very Indian, and very real.

Stoob and his friends Rehan and Ishani don’t have to embark on perilous quests to save a gem that will in turn save all of humankind nor do they have to battle a crowd of meat-chomping zombies. Instead, the series celebrates the ordinary and special moments that childhood is made of. In many ways, Stoob can be (and has been) compared to the Enid Blyton’s school books, Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, Sue Townsend’s Adrian Mole, or Lincoln Pierce’s Big Nate series. Yet, it manages to stand out on its own. Mainly because Basu creates characters and narratives that are entirely believable. So, Stoob and his friends worry about exams in Testing Times ; in A Difficult Stage , play rehearsals take precedence over everything else in life; and in the latest instalment Mismatch Mayhem , a classic love triangle threatens a deep friendship.

Sudeshna Shome Ghosh, the editorial director of Red Turtle, Rupa Books’ children imprint, said, “When Red Turtle started, we wanted to publish a funny, contemporary fiction series that would capture the voice and feelings of the modern Indian tween. Their thoughts and feelings, both profound and banal. There are lots like this in the West, but few Indian ones that work as a series.” And that’s what sets Stoob apart from his Western counterparts, the little details which make him real to the upper/middle class, urban reader. Basu writes convincingly, portraying the awkwardness of being a tween poised at the brink of adolescence. “Writing in different voices is a simple question of seeing the world through what you imagine are another person’s eyes: much like acting, I presume,” said Basu, over email. “So if you can get in character, it hopefully flows quite smoothly. And it’s easier to get in character as Stoob, which is mostly a matter of memory and identification, than it is to the protagonists of any of my previous books, who are mostly able to defy physics but not turn into sociopaths.”

This time around in Mismatch Mayhem , Stoob is “A Man Who Has Seen Life, Its Sorrows and Joys… A Man Whom James Bond and Alex Rider would have Known and Respected.” That’s because he’s dated a girl from another school who seems to prefer earrings over Calvin and Hobbes (like seriously). Things get complicated when best friend Rehan also likes the same girl. What follows is a rollicking adventure, pretty much laugh-out-loud all the way.

Basu said that he has many friends whose kids are the same age as Stoob and their stories were reminiscent of his childhood. “Not that much has changed, except the technology around the kids,” said Basu. To write the series, Basu spoke to many children, learning about their concerns, and hearing anecdotes from their schools.

Basu said, “My favourite reactions are when parents or children come and tell me their own school stories that Stoob reminded them of, because this also doubles up nicely as research. I’ve also been trying out a writing experiment, which is reading out first drafts of Stoob chapters to key readers as I write them. It’s something I would never do with books for adults, because adults would feel compelled to have thoughts: kids just listen and respond without overthinking it, which I enjoy hugely.”

What also makes the books fun are the illustrations by Sunaina Coelho. They have a life of their own, with the characters doing their own thing in the illustrations, almost like doodles in a school notebook. “I write the illustration requests out the way I write out comic scripts: a visual description, text captions. Really good artists are able to take that and then take wing, making illustrations richer and deeper than the text they start out from. They’re on their own trip very deliberately; the idea is to step into Stoob’s imagination and hopefully recreate the kind of effect that a Terry Pratchett footnote does, which also fits in nicely with the kind of hyperlinked thinking that kids do very naturally nowadays. There isn’t much of a process after that because I always just really like Sunaina’s work, so I send a list of illustration-base text, she sends the artwork, and I send a mail telling my editor how much I love them.”

Although irreverent in tone, the series manages to underscore contemporary markers and issues, such as the poor quality of children’s television programming, the stress of exams, the struggle to be perceived as cool and fashionable, and the constant presence of technology in their lives. All of this makes Stoob relevant to a contemporary, urban audience who will easily relate to him and his gang.

If humour was a pre-requisite super hero power, then Stoob would join the legion of fictional caped men, women and beasts. But since it’s not, he will have to settle for the title of one of the funniest and endearing school children in fictional history in children’s literature.

What’s in your tiffin?

Posted on February 24, 2016October 27, 2023 by bijalv

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/mumbai/whats-in-your-tiffin/article8274278.ece?ref=tpnews
Recently, a friend texted about a piece of homemade fudge that had come back uneaten in the lunch box of her 13-year-old son. “I asked him why he didn’t eat it,” my friend Sudeshna Shome Ghosh wrote. “His response was, ‘How could I? I didn’t know what it was.’” My friend rolled her eyes (you can now do that thanks to an updated emoticon app), I LOL’d and that was the end of it.

The conversation brought back dabba memories, of going to school and opening my stainless steel lunch box in the afternoon, hours after it was packed, wondering about its contents. With the mother being a fabulous cook, the dabba was usually crammed with theplas folded in half with a dibbi of mango pickle, jeera rice with caramelized onion and curd, or rotis that miraculously stayed soft so that they could be torn with two fingers and eaten with sabji . There was lunchbox envy, where I coveted my classmates’ tiffins because they brought food that wasn’t familiar to me. I yearned for cucumber sandwiches, after re-reading Enid Blyton books, even though the white bread would be curling up at the edges by afternoon. I even wanted the dabba that held cold, clammy Maggi noodles, something that I now wouldn’t touch with a barge pole. But at that time, it was as exciting as moringa leaves are now to chefs.

Now there are plenty of cookery books, blogs and Instagram accounts with innovative lunch box ideas, all just a Google search away. Blogger and nutritionist Nandita Iyer, better known as Saffron Trail online, has simple, healthy ideas, which include vegetable peanut noodles, pita pocket pizza sandwiches, and puliyogare or tamarind rice. Lulu Loves Bombay blogs about travel, her children, and food. Her sweet potato discs sound like a lovely addition to the dabba , as do her methi thepla and mango chunda. Sanjeeta KK’s blog, Lite Bite, has a Lunchbox Bites section with some handy tips and recipes such as for muthiyas and wholegrain chillas.

On Instagram, Lunch Box Dad, Beau Coffran’s mealtime hacks include rocket ships from bread and cheese, and Spider-Man lunches with berries; while bleary-eyed parents may not be keen to wake up and make food art, it’s a fun account to follow. Grace Hall’s Eats Amazing blog focuses on Bento-style lunches for her son and follows themes such as Halloween, rainbows, and gardens. Her #PackedLunchLove Project has creative boxes that, she promises, take just a few minutes to prepare and are a visual feast. A few years ago, graphic designer and illustrator David Laferriere’s innovative sandwich bag art went viral. He’s made over 1,800 sandwich bag drawings with monsters and kites.

And when in doubt, return to the library.

Apart from the usual cluster of recipe books, check out Karen Le Billon’s French Kids Eat Everything , a charming account of a family, with two picky-eater children, that moves from the USA to France and discovers how the French government and the school system strengthen food education. Then there’s Chris Butterworth’s Lunchbox: The Story of Your Food , illustrated by Lucia Gaggiotti. A picture book, it takes young readers on a journey from farm to fork, getting them to think: where did the food in my lunchbox come from? It’s a lovely way of engaging children with farmers who grow our food and get them curious about what they are eating.

Mommy Go Lightly, a.k.a. journalist and author Lalita Iyer, writes lovingly about dabbas on her blog, “Food is intuitive,” she writes about packing her son Re’s lunch box. “At least that’s how it should be. Try different things and figure out what works for your child. My tip is, make it visually exciting. Make it look good. All you need is colours.” Pretty much all my mommy and daddy friends gave me tips like that when I talked to them about the art of dabba packing: fruits and dry fruits in small Tupperware boxes to snack on in the bus; use leftovers innovatively.

Shinibali Mitra Saigal, who packs food for her nine-year-old daughter said, “Mine doesn’t like anything soggy, squidgy or leaky. My daughter claims that thanks to me, she had to eat pickled strawberries, which taste vile.” When I asked her what she meant, she added, “According to her, the pickle in an airtight container leaked and ran into the strawberry in a different compartment. So that makes it pickled strawberry and an excuse not to finish her lunch box.”

Ghosh wakes up ten minutes earlier in the morning to make extra sandwiches for her son’s friends. “According to my son, none of them want to share the fruits I pack,” she said, with a sigh. “But he’s telling me that, and well, he hates fruits. So…”

Looking back, we can appreciate that one person who woke up at the crack of dawn to toil away in the kitchen to prepare fresh lunchboxes for the family. I regret the dabbas that I brought back home uneaten, even the alu methi, which really doesn’t do itself any favours when cold. Okay, maybe not the alu methi.

The author writes about education for sustainable development, conservation, and food security. She’s the former editor of Time Out Bengaluru.

Out of line but in your mind

Posted on February 11, 2016October 27, 2023 by bijalv

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/mumbai/entertainment/out-of-line-but-in-your-mind/article8216855.ece

What does a Chuppertyhoover look like? We know it makes a good pet once it’s been fished out of a chamber pot, because Jerry Pinto says so in Monster Garden : A Draw-It-Yourself Picture Book . And that means it can look like whatever our idea of a good animal companion is. The Chuppertyhoover could have eyes like a dog, ears like a rabbit, a face like an elephant, a body like a giraffe, and legs like an alien. Or it could look like a chapati that’s just been hoovered off the carpet. Or it could be a hoov that’s gone chup and ’ert. Basically, no one’s been told what it looks like. Then, there’s another conundrum. The Chuppertyhoover only eats Asumptivet. And that too, only if it’s fresh. No stale Asumptivet for our Chuppertyhoover. But again, what does an Asumptivet look like?

The answer is not in Pinto’s latest book published by Duckbill. Rather, it’s in your child’s imagination. Because that’s what Monster Garden is about: being imaginative and creative to draw and colour your own picture book. Pinto’s prose frolics delightfully across the pages with the help of Priya Kuriyan’s illustrations. There’s a tree looking slightly nervous and the child has to draw a Scrumpeelious under it, while a Sharmistickle has to be drawn to hover in the air. Hairy feet poke out in an Asumptivets field, as Pinto offers a hilarious, but complicated way to get to an Asumptivet. And in all of that, the child creates his or her very own monsters, plucking them straight out of his or her fancy.

Pinto said he wanted Monster Garden to be free of preconceived adult notions about what children like to draw and paint. “Do they really like to paint ducks who wear shirts and caps but no trousers,” he asks. “Do they like to paint lady mice in frilly knickers? Wouldn’t they like to imagine what a Chuppertyhoover is? And how it looks when it eats a Floover? I thought I would, so that’s the book I gave them.” That’s why there aren’t any kinda-obvious ‘Join the Dots’ or ‘Copy and Colour this Picture’ pages in this whimsical and quirky book. “I was given a series of dot-to-dot books when I was a child, by a peculiar aunt who kept giving them to me when I was way into my teens,” said Pinto, via email. “But even as a child, I could see what the dots were joining up to make and I couldn’t see the point of joining them. And then I could never decide whether to use straight lines or curvy lines — and if the latter, then should they be convex or concave or just plain wriggly.”

Monster Garden is a mischievous book, sparkling with humour and ingenuity. Children are fascinated and spooked by monsters, most anyway lurk in their imagination. Monster Garden brings that to the forefront. Priced at Rs 150, the book will make for a super goody bag filler as well. There’s a pull-out colour poster where Kurian has created a fabulous gallery of monsters including the Bubbleganoosh and Pinkiporous.

But what makes Monster Garden an important addition to the library is its spunkiness — it is a clarion call to get children to think outside the colouring lines, rummage through their own thoughts and create what they want. For a change, no one is telling them what to draw and how to draw it. Pinto and Kurian offer hints and nudges, but that’s about it. And that is a rarity in a world that’s full of staid, run-of-the-mill colouring and activity books, which are extremely popular with parents, who want their children to “be constructive” in their play or reading time as well.

Pinto hopes that parents will encourage children to get this book and draw all over it. “I hope they won’t tell their kids that you must draw a better monster than that, come on beta, I know you have it in you, because what is a better monster?” said Pinto. “I hope they will buy two copies and save one for themselves and draw the monsters themselves because Pama-Muppy also have inner children, starving inner children who must be fed.” Given the popularity of colouring books for adults across the world, and the universal appeal of Monster Garden , this might actually happen. As a child, Pinto said that he had poor hand-eye coordination, mostly because his bad eyesight went undiagnosed until eighth standard. “So I would get failing grades at drawing in school because I did not stay within the lines,” said Pinto. “So this book was designed for all those kids out there who like their colours to break out of the lines, who find that their washes wash everything else out, who have no sense of proportion. It’s for genius kids and we know from Picasso that every child starts out as a grandmaster and then they grow up and lose all sense of great art. This is for those children who did not grow up but who are chronologically called adults too.”

The author writes about education for sustainable development, conservation, and food security. She’s the former editor of Time Out Bengaluru .

Harry Potter casts a new spell on the internet and how

Posted on February 11, 2016October 27, 2023 by bijalv

http://www.dailyo.in/arts/harrry-potter-pottermore-fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-j-k-rowling-hogwarts-eddie-redmayne/story/1/8768.html

In its new format, Pottermore is more of a site that will keep Potterheads up to date with wondrous news of the wizarding world.

I have reclaimed my magical name and Hogwarts house – Ravenclaw in case you were wondering – and am pleased to report that I am back on the revamped Pottermore site.

Until now, it was a space where I would slink off during writing breaks to brew a potion (I was usually T for troll), cast a spell (was a little better at that) and unlock secrets from the Harry Potter stories.

But now in its new format, Pottermore is more of a site that will keep Potterheads up to date with news of the wizarding world of Harry Potter.

A voice message from JK Rowling welcomes fans to Pottermore, which she calls her “magical corner of the internet, a place where you can explore her writing, both familiar and new. And where you can read features, articles, and news from the Pottermore team”.

If you’re already a member, then you can retain your user name and house. I was quite tempted to sort myself again, but then I was a little scared that I would get Hufflepuff this time around. So I decided to let sleeping Hippogriffs lie and stayed with fellow house members, Cho Chang and Luna Lovegood.

At Pottermore, you can still revisit the books, along with JK Rowling’s thoughts about the characters, the plot or the setting.

The newest post by the author takes muggles into a previously forbidden world – an exploration of “11 long-established and prestigious wizarding schools worldwide”.

The jade palace of Mahoutokoro is an ancient Japanese school where robes change colour as the wizards grow wiser (or darker). Quite like karate’s many coloured belts, I imagine.

Then there’s Uagadou which is situated in the Mountains of the Moon in Africa. At this largest of all wizarding schools, spells are cast by hand gestures or pointing fingers.

The Brazilian Castelobruxo sounds quite intriguing with its golden rock edifice guarded by the Caipora spirit-beings. Apparently, Peeves is nothing compared to these feisty beings.

If you recall, Bill Weasley had got something nasty in post from a penfriend – turns out it was a Castelobruxo student who was disappointed that his friend couldn’t afford the trip to Brazil to visit him.

The fourth one, Ilvermorny from North America, is yet to be revealed but Rowling’s hinted that smart Potterheads will be able to figure this one out.

I have a few thoughts, but am currently trawling the internet for more ideas. So far we have learnt about seven wizarding schools – including Durmstrang and Beauxbatons – which means we can expect to hear more from Rowling in the future.

Browsing through Pottermore makes you feel like a beetle on a window pane – nudge, nudge Rita Skeeter – and getting a sneak peek into the very busy Potter world.

For instance, we sit far-away-from-London wishing that we had a portkey to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the eighth story that unfurls 19 years later.

We read longingly about the casting of the play – good going there, and the creative process between Rowling, director John Tiffany, and writer Jack Thorne.

Thoughts threaten to overwhelm us, until we need a pensieve to mull over the many strands – how and when will we get to see the play which officially premieres in July, and will the production come to India.

Dementors hover over that thought, after all it’s not like Harry Potter: The Exhibition, the international travelling exhibition has come down here.

There are also updates on Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a movie spin-off that will be out in cinemas in November 2016.

Set in 1926 in New York, this is the story of Magizoologist Newt Scamander, the author of the eponymous textbook on the wizarding world’s magical creatures.

Scamander, played by Eddie Redmayne, comes to New York with a suitcase full of magical creatures. And in what sounds like a Pandora twist, the creatures are let loose in New York by mistake.

A new behind-the-scenes preview has just been released and it reveals details about the casting.

Porpentina Goldstein, played by Katherine Waterston; her sister Queenie Goldstein, played by Alison Sudol; and muggle Jacob Kowalski, played by Dan Fogler, come together with Scamander to form an unlikely quartet in this film’s quest.

Colin Farrell plays a powerful MACUSA (Magical Congress of the United States of America) Auror, we are told. In the behind-the-scenes preview, Redmayne says, “This world, it’s been a wonder really.” Yes, we know that.

Harry Potter’s message of inclusion

Posted on January 28, 2016October 27, 2023 by bijalv

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/mumbai/entertainment/harry-potters-message-of-inclusion/article8161488.ece

On February 4, Potterheads will celebrate JK Rowling’s book series by hosting Harry Potter Book Night parties in different parts of the world. Once again, I will sit with my co-host to cut out paper dementors, draw owls on white balloons with a marker, and make fudge flies with chocolates. But more importantly, apart from being a celebration of these fabulous books and fudge, our February gatherings always remind me of a key Patronus message tucked inside the Harry Potter stories: of inclusion and empathy.

In 2014, a study titled The greatest magic of Harry Potter: Reducing prejudice showed the books go a long way in teaching young readers tolerance and compassion. Rowling’s seven-book series constantly shines a light on systems of social hierarchies, like class and caste: there are the privileged magical people, and then there are the others. Muggles are non-magical people and some refer to them as mud-bloods, a filthy word for Muggle-born wizards who have often been ridiculed, tortured, and even killed. Only Pureblood wizards are considered worthy of magic.

Discrimination and prejudice, privilege and merit, inequality and diversity, tolerance and inclusion are an inherent part of our social structure. Yet, we don’t always talk to our children about these issues, and if we do, it’s often framed as something that’s alien to our social fabric. Instances are not contexualised, instead they are viewed as external, far-away phenomena. Children have nascent opinions about what’s right and what’s wrong, and it’s something that has to be nurtured. Especially in our society, with all its complexities. As children grow older, these perceptions, values, beliefs, and attitudes are shaped and solidified by parents, educators, peer groups, and the media they consume (among other things). These become the frameworks within which they’ll go on to interpret people, events, and issues as adults.

Look around us — children’s literature, artefacts, and the visual media are dominated by Hindu mythology and narratives. In comparison, fewer books are published about other folk tales or oral histories of minority communities. Nor do we see that many games, apps or films on these traditions that are equally rich and intricate. In such a scenario, where representation is selective, how do you begin to understand diversity? Most school textbooks are ill-equipped to explain India’s caste system and how it continues to exist in latent and manifested forms. How do you then explain to a young adult what it means that Rohith Vemula, a Dalit scholar, felt forced to commit suicide because of the way society treated him in a city as big and supposedly modern as Hyderabad?

In his suicide letter, Rohith Vemula, wrote, “My birth is my fatal accident. I can never recover from my childhood loneliness. The unappreciated child from my past.” Those words are haunting, as is the rest of the letter. A friend of mine read the note and said that’s how his own childhood feels in hindsight, centred around his identity of being a Dalit. It was like the child didn’t matter, he said, because he grew up in an environment that constantly reinforced discrimination.

As children, we are rarely made aware of our own positions of privilege and as a result, we soak in prejudices — after all, how will we think of examining them if we’re not told prejudice exists or that it’s a topic of discussion? A subtle sneering at the children who play in public parks, or the ones who are “not like us, no” is all it takes sometimes. That difference is always palpable, embossed like an invisible line, whispered in school and college corridors, and even in staff rooms.

To not talk about this inequality, to ignore it, makes us equally culpable. It can only lead to a generation of citizens who would rather not question these complexities, the status quo, or their own source of privilege: caste and class. This further snowballs when it comes to the idea of merit, whether in college, the workplace, or in any other part of our lives.

If by reading a book, children can become more empathetic, then as adults, we can do so much more to encourage them. Maybe start by opening a dialogue. Answer questions. Listen to them with an open mind. Surround them with stories, books, films on inclusion and human rights. And lead by example.

Children are quick on the uptake. In the first Potter book, Draco Malfoy holds out a hand in friendship to Harry, “You’ll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don’t want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there.” Harry didn’t shake his hand.

Bijal Vachharajani writes about education for sustainable development, conservation, and food security. She’s the former editor of Time Out Bengaluru.

From Landour with Love

Posted on January 13, 2016 by bijalv

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/mumbai/entertainment/from-landour-with-love/article8099859.ece?ref=tpnews
RUSTY & MAGIC MOUNTAIN

Sitting in a city, surrounded by buildings, enveloped in smog, Ruskin Bond’s books are like a breath of much-needed crisp, fresh mountain air. Bond’s writing takes readers into a world that for many of us is reserved for “vacation time”.

His words take us on a journey through the winding roads of the mountains, where tigers and leopards lurk in deep forests, fallen pine cones and dried leaves crunch beneath footsteps, spooky caretakers and ghosts haunt forgotten houses, and children make imaginary friends.

Even now, bookstores and e-stores are filled with titles from Bond, charming readers. A year and a half ago, when I spoke to the writer about the sheer number of his books that are out there, he said, “When I go to the bank, as I did on Saturday, and I find my bank balance has become alarmingly low, I rush back and immediately get to work at my desk.”

Inimitable humour

His inimitable sense of humour aside, Bond is a compulsive writer. “Even if it wasn’t my profession, I would still write for myself,” he said. “I am fond of writing; I enjoy it, whether I am writing an essay, a story, or a poem.”

Now, almost a decade later, Bond is back with one of his most beloved characters in Rusty and the Magic Mountain . In his ‘By Way of an Introduction’, the author writes, “But I’ll never write another,” said Rusy, “after so much bother.”

And here he is, at his desk near the door… telling a new tale. In this instalment, the Anglo-Indian boy’s “adventure wind” was calling to him. And he sets off to explore Witch Mountain with his friend, little Popat Lal, and wrestler, Pitamber, who is always eating whatever food he can lay his hands on. It’s an odd bunch, Bond’s books offer a deeper understanding of human nature.

Some characters he writes with wit and cleverness, others, he paints with a brush of benevolent malevolence, and some, with compassion. Whether it’s the eccentric Uncle Ken, the food-loving Aunt Mabel, or the shy Mr Oliver, his characters are quirky and colourful.

In Rusty and the Magic Mountain , the three friends find themselves on a fantastical quest: there’s a mysterious one-eyed caretaker who never removes his hat, a cat who has a penchant for blood, a community of dwarves whose forefathers worked in silver mines without sunshine and fresh air, and an evil Rani and the gorgeous Reema. Bond tosses together the supernatural with adventure to put together a hilarious tale that Rusty’s old and new fans will love.

Wayside stations

Bond’s stories evoke a strong sense of place — whether it’s a tea stall tucked away in a dusty corner or a sylvan forest in the valley of a mountain. For instance, he describes a pond in Friends in Wild Places: Birds, Beasts and Other Companions , “To the inhabitants of the pond, the pond was the world; and to the inhabitants of the world, maintained Grandfather, the world was but a muddy pond.”

In another story, he writes about his fascination with small wayside stations. “…these little stations are, for me, outposts of romance, lonely symbols of the pioneering spirit that led men to lay tracks into the remote corners of the earth.” How hard is it then to imagine a muddy pond that’s home to croaking frogs, deserted railway stations, or quaint hill stations? Not very. But mostly, Bond’s stories evoke awe, concern and respect for all things wild and wonderful; whether it’s a blue periwinkle that Rusty plucks from a bush or a leopard crouching in a railway tunnel in Friends in Wild Places .

Lavishly illustrated

This book, lavishly illustrated by Shubhadarshini Singh, brings together stories, some old and others new, about his real and imaginary friendship with animals, birds, and trees.

Bond reminisces about the urban wildlife of Delhi, a tree that gives him a basket of walnuts every year, and a baby spotted-owlet who lived under his bed.

For Bond, his relationship with animals and plants is deep.

As he put it, “After all, animals only kill for food, don’t they? And we humans kill for land property, greed, envy, jealousy — these are our motives for killing. Animals need space, that’s all they want really. Let them have their forest and wilderness.” And maybe, that’s what resonates in his book, reverence and love (and some humour) for humanity and the environment. And that’s why we keep returning to his stories.

Bijal Vachharajani writes about education for sustainable development, conservation, and food security. She’s the former editor of Time Out Bengaluru .

When I find that my bank balance has become alarmingly low, I rush back and immediately get to work at my desk

Ruskin Bond

Bond tosses together the supernatural and adventure to put together a hilarious tale

Make-it-yourself

Posted on January 5, 2016 by bijalv

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/mumbai/entertainment/makeityourself/article7994680.ece
Displaying 20150503_194926.jpg

I have a confession to make — I can’t stand hobby kits. I look at them with as much loathing as Professor Snape reserved for Harry Potter. Although beautifully packaged, these kits are rarely Do-It-Yourself – everything comes pre-prepared, all the child has to do is cut, fold and glue the bits-and-bobs together. It makes me yearn for long summer days when to construct a candy stick pencil stand or a pistachio shell cottage, we had to make our way through countless mango dollies, choco-bars and salted dried fruits. Now, everything’s bundled neatly into a bag along with specific instructions. Somehow the idea of innovation and experimentation has got buried under mounds of cookie-cutter DIY kits.

Which is why I was excited about the MaKey Makey , an invention kit I bought for my nephew on the recommendation of a friend’s eight-year-old daughter. The kit comes from the hallowed MIT Media Lab and had promise written all over it. MaKey MaKey has been developed by two students, Jay Silver and Eric Rosenbaum, who crowdsourced money on Kickstarter to raise funds for the project. When my nephew ripped apart the wrapping paper, we both opened the box with barely concealed excitement. I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of disappointment as I picked my way through the circuit board, USB cable, alligator clips and jumper wires. I paid three grand for this?

Perplexed, we took to the Internet to help us make sense of what looked like a jumble of wires. We pulled up an online piano page, and hooked up the MaKey MaKey to the computer. Next, we raided the kitchen. My mother came running out, wondering why we needed the French beans that she was prepping for lunch. We connected alligator clips to the veggies, and suddenly, we were playing the piano with a cluster of beans. We’d lift a bean, and it would play a note.

MaKey MaKey connects everyday objects that can conduct a bit of electricity such as fruits, plants, coins, Play-Doh and even marshmallows, and converts these “newly-found inputs into keyboard presses or mouse control”. That means you can play SuperMario with Play-Doh, make a doll cry with foil, and use vegetables and fruits to compose a song. And yes, you can play Minecraft as well.

For my nephew, the excitement was really about the interaction it provided. It got him thinking laterally, wondering what he could hook up to the kit next and transform into a touch pad. He deliberated about objects that conduct electricity – it took a few experiments to figure that potatoes and coins worked, but Lego was a no go.

The wonderful thing about this is that children can connect with science and technology through play. Many children today are familiar with technology, but few understand the workings of their app or game. MaKey MaKey gives another dimension to play – by offering them an insight into the workings of the technology they are experimenting with. Since there are barely any instructions provided by the inventors, it comes down to the child’s imagination and ideas. Without realising it, they end up learning the basics of physics, music, sound, technology. Since it’s participative, a play date can become the start of a music band or a group game.

As the makers wrote on their Kickstarter page, “We believe that everyone can create the future and change the world. So we have dedicated our lives to making easy-to-use invention kits. We believe that the whole world is a construction kit, if we choose to see it that way”. While the MaKey MaKey is a great interface design for children, it’s a handy tool for adults especially designers, artists and engineers. Actually scratch that, most of us would have fun experimenting with this kit.

MaKey MaKey is available on Amazon.com. The writer has now got her own MaKey MaKey kit and has a fridge-full of toys to play with. The writer is the former editor of Time Out Bengaluru and writes about education for sustainable development, conservation and food security.

Play mats

Posted on January 5, 2016 by bijalv

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/mumbai/entertainment/plays-mats/article8020403.ece

Keeping kids occupied at mealtimes just got a tad easier thanks to these activity placemats

Restaurants often offer puzzle placemats to keep diners occupied while waiting for their order. Spot-the-difference puzzles, word games and number challenges serve as appetisers until the real food arrives. Now, entrepreneurs are creating interesting placemats that can keep the little ’uns occupied at the dining table at home as well.

My Mumbai (Rs 500) is a set of eight colouring placemats that introduces Maximum City to children. Perfect for children aged four and above, the black-and-white posters by Yellow Pinwheel Kids Project offer a slice of Mumbai’s life. In one of the placemats, commuters are seen wending their way around the city, passing through the sea link, boarding a local train, and hopping on board a BEST bus. Another one is crammed with the city’s people — street vendors frying vadas for vada pao, Bollywood actors, Koli fisherfolks, paan wallahs, and of course, the dabba wallas. And the third is a glimpse into festivities. The illustrations are done by Abhishek Panchal, who founded Bombay Pencil Jammers.

The placemats encourage children to explore their city with the help of trivia pull-outs. Young explorers will engage with Mumbai’s architecture, the diverse cross-section of its people, and understand its geography. There’s a DIY map of Mumbai, which children have to draw themselves — the map starts at Gateway of India and ends at the Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Borivali. “My Mumbai is targeted for an age group of four to 10. It seems wide but the activity is different for each age segment. The four to six-year-olds will possibly use it just for colouring, but older children will use it as a mapping exercise to discover their city,” said Shinibali Mitra Saigal, who created the activity kit along with Shivani Lath. The entrepreneurs are former journalists, while Mitra Saigal is the co-founder of Kahani Karnival, a Mumbai-based children’s festival.

The Mealtime series by BrownBox Toys (Rs 450) is another charming set of sticker placemats that offer a culinary tour of India, China and England. Each set comes with four posters of typical Indian, Chinese or English meals, with stickers of the food items. The series introduces toddlers to different cultures and helps them understand food habits across the world. For instance, Mealtime England has a poster for fish n’ chips, complete with stickers of tartare sauce, mustard, crisps, peas, vinegar, and other sauces and condiments. Toddlers paste the stickers on the brown paper illustration on the page, to learn what a complete fish n’ chips meal would include. Mealtime India has a range of samosa, thali, kebabs, and dosa and idli. The selection is a mix of familiar and new food, which encourages children to try new dishes as well. The idea is to spark curiosity in young minds.

Then there’s PoppadumArt’s adorable Chalkboard Puzzle Mats (Rs 390) with a range of shapes such as sheep, goats, and bunnies. The animal’s head detaches to become a coaster. Children can write on the mat with chalk, wipe it off, and then scribble again. Made out of medium density fibreboard with a foam backing, the placemat is easy to wipe and reusable, said Saanwari Gorwaney, who started PoppadumArt four years ago to make what she calls “happy things to make spaces happy and bright”. Gorwaney, who is now based out of Gurgaon, worked in advertising before she embarked on this online venture. Out of the three, the chalkboard puzzle mats are easily reusable when it comes to dealing with messy hands. Both Mealtime and My Mumbai would need to be laminated before they can be used as permanent placemats. Of course, they might just end up being displayed on the refrigerator as works of art instead.

To order My Mumbai, visit http://www.facebook.com/My-Mumbai-1701714190047560/?fref=ts. The Mealtime series can be ordered online on http://www.brownboxtoys.com/ and the Chalkboard Puzzle Mats on http://www.poppadumart.com.

Entrepreneurs are creating interesting placemats that can keep the little ones occupied at the dining table