Nerves of steal

Posted on by bijalv

Get ready to be spellbound by Sarah Prineas, author of The Magic Thief series, who will be in Mumbai this fortnight (Sadly, Sarah fell ill and didn’t make it to Mumbai. But she did sign me a copy that too in her secret language).

sarah prineas, magic thief, Books, fantasy books, bookaro festival

 http://www.timeoutmumbai.net/kids/features/nerves-steal

Sarah Prineas’s three-book series, The Magic Thief, tells the story of Connwaer, an orphan who lurks in the alleys of the magical city ofWellmet, picking pockets and steering clear of the Underlord and his goons.Conndiscovers he’s  a wizard when he steals the wizard Nevery’s locus magicalus (a magical stone). As Nevery’s apprentice,Connbegins studying at a magic school and starts investigating why the magic in their city is dwindling. The trilogy has some fantastic characters, including tough-guy Benet, who loves to knit, and bakes scrumptious biscuits. This fortnight, children will have a chance to meet Prineas, who will be signing books in Mumbai at Crossword Bookstore. She’s inIndiafor the Bookaroo Children’s Literature Festival which is being held inDelhithis fortnight. She spoke toTime Out about books, baking, and writing for children.

What was the inspiration behind The Magic Thief series?
The first lines of The Magic Thief are “A thief is a lot like a wizard. I have quick hands, and I can make things disappear.” I kept those lines in a file on my computer for a long time, but I had no idea who said them. Finally I started wondering. What kind of character could be both a thief and a wizard? Immediately,Connleaped into being, completely himself, and ready to get into trouble and jump-start the story. The inspiration is that I’ve read loads of fantasy, and I wanted to write a book with all my favourite fantasy things in it: magic, adventure, wizards, dragons, peril, biscuits and bacon.

Connwaer is extremely believable, even though he lives in a magical world.
Connis so incredibly fun to write, because he’s a true protagonist – his actions make the story happen. He’s completely himself, so I always know what he’s going to do in any situation. He’s also full of contradictions: he’s a thief who never lies, he is smart and yet he does unbelievably stupid things. He is stubborn and he is brave, he thinks a lot but says very little.

How difficult was it to create the magical city of Wellmet?
When I first started working on the Wellmet world, I was inspired by nineteenth-century maps of London, with the twisty streets and dead-end alleyways with funny names, like “Mouse Hole” or “Cutpurse Lane”. Pretty soon, the setting started growing into a distinct place not like anywhere in our world. The concept of “balance” became important. Wellmet is a city that depends on balance, the run-down, dangerous Twilight on one side of the river, the wealthierSunriseon the other, and the wizard’s houses on islands in the river itself. One of the big questions thatConnhas to deal with is how to bring the various parts of the city back into balance with each other.

Tell us about tough guy Benet.
Benet was a funny character to write because he started out as a minor character, a simple tough guy bodyguard. Then I started thinking, “What do bodyguards do?” Well, they take care of people, usually by being tough and knocking heads together. But what if this bodyguard took care of people in other ways? So Benet started baking biscuits and knitting sweaters and scarves, and he became a much more important character, really the centre of Conn’s new family.

Can we expect a fourth book in The Magic Thief series?
I have written a fourth Magic Thief book, though I don’t know when it will be published. My next book starts a brand new series, the first book is calledWinterling. It’s a fantasy story that begins in our world and goes into another, magical world, and the main character is a girl.

By Bijal Vachharajani on November 26 2010

Minor accomplishments

Posted on by bijalv
Time Out looks back at 2010 and realised that it was the year the kids held the reins

children's Books, dvds, art 4 all, Suar Chala Space Ko, aria panchal, jalebi ink

What happened in 2010? Hundreds of children’s books, tons of toys and dozens of DVDs lined the shelves of bookstores. Over the year, puppet plays, film screenings and clowns entertained kids as well. A study by the TV channel Nick India threw up disturbing results: only 25 per cent of children across six metros actually played outdoors on a daily basis. While there was lots of activities for kids, 2010 was really the year when children held art exhibitions, wrote books and even worked on a commercial play, with a little help from adults, of course.

Authors
When he was just 15, Christopher Paolini began writing Eragon, a story about a boy who takes up a quest along with his pet dragon. The book became a bestseller and was even turned into a Hollywood movie. Bollywood isn’t exactly enthused about signing movie deals with children, but this year two books written by children found mainstream publishers. Anshuman Mohan, 15, wrote Potato Chips (Harper), an earnest work about Aman Malhotra, who switches schools to join the prestigious St Xavier’s and tries desperately to fit in. Written with almost frank brutality, the book is packed with adolescent jokes and teen angst.  Another author, the 17-year-old Arun Vajpai, teamed up with Anu Kumar to write On Top of the World (Puffin), an account of his expedition to Mount Everest. Vajpai is the youngest Indian to have climbed the mountain.

Publishers
At Jalebi Ink, a media company for young adults, children got a chance to air their views about their neighbourhood, the environment and the world around them. In October, young reporters from Jalebi Ink’s Green Squad published Junknama, a newspaper about the environment. They wrote about garbage disposal, water woes and the diminishing green cover. They also visited Dharavi to witness waste recycling, interviewed environmentalists and covered programmes such as the Carter Road Car-Free Day. In a story titled “Trash Troopers”, the reporters  pointed out that Mumbai produces more than 6,500 tonnes of garbage every day, “roughly equivalent to17 fully loaded Airbus A380s”. On October 10, the children distributed copies of the newspapers to evening walkers at Carter Road in Bandra and marched holding solar lanterns.

Artists
At Dreammakers 2010, students of Art 4 All managed to do what most adults haven’t. They displayed their paintings at Chemould Prescott Road Art Gallery and even sold some. “Mumbai through the eyes of children” featured iconic landmarks such as Flora Fountain surrounded by Gothic buildings and hoardings, the Bandra-Worli Sea Link and Rajabai Tower, all painted by children. Images of traffic jams, petrol pumps and fishing colonies were rendered in bright colours. The kids were understandably excited about their paintings being displayed, but a few were concerned that if someone other than their parents bought their work, they wouldn’t be able to take it home.

Playwrights
When director Shaili Sathyu wanted to produce a children’s play this summer, she delved into a pool of ideas generated by kids. The result wasSuar Chala Space Ko, a quirky play about a smelly pig who travels to space. “The play is based on a puppet play originally written by children during a workshop that I conducted in 2001,” said Sathyu. “The play developed in an organic way, with children thinking of different plots and putting them together. The title of the play was conceived by the kids.” In May, Thespo, a youth theatre initiative from Q Theatre Productions, conducted “Dramabaazi”, a children’s workshop. The result was The Mighty Mirembayanna and the Prisoners of Peace, a play about peace and war. Toral Shah of Q Theatre said that they thought the workshop was a great way for kids to experience “what it’s like to go through a rehearsal process, learn lines, get into costume, wait in the wings for their entry and have an audience”. With most plays for children being written and performed by adults, this summertime was a welcome change.

By Bijal Vachharajani on December 23 2010

Rear window

Posted on by bijalv

Ranjit Lal on why his writing table faces a wall (or the story where I finally talk to my absolute favourite Indian author)

http://www.timeoutmumbai.net/kids/features/rear-window 

kids books, ranjit lal, birds from my window, indian bird guide, wildlife

House crows that filch melba toast from under the noses of members of the Willingdon Club in Mumbai, a lady sparrow that throws a tantrum and a “pipsqueak of a purple sunbird” who goes berserk on a bottlebrush tree outside author Ranjit Lal’s house are some of the protagonists of his new book, Birds from my Window and the Antics They Get Up To. In the introduction to this book, Lal said that he has been watching birds from his window and balcony for several years and finds it a “wonderful way of never having to get bored”. Peacocks, bulbuls, babblers and sparrows are always at hand to distract him so now his writing desk faces the wall, or “this book would never have been written”.

What inspired you to write Birds from My Window and the Antics They Get Up To?
There was so much happening around the home, with regard to everyday birds that it was worth following up their lives and writing about them. Also, there are a lot more species of birds around in cities like Delhi than one would imagine. Basically you just need to spend a bit of time, standing and staring!

Your book is a guide to Indian birds but unlike most guides, it’s laced with generous bouts of humour.
Birds can be quite hilarious – in looks, deportment, behaviour – and on occasion they’re not too different from us! They have the same ego issues, desire to impress the fair sex (though in birds the males are the dandies and the females are the critics!).

Many of your books introduce children to animals and birds in the city.
Well, if you’re just a little observant and interested in the world around you, you can’t help notice the creatures that share our space. Keep observing and you’ll see patterns of behaviour emerge, showing that they too have orderly, disciplined lives, which generally will fit into the grander scheme of things.

How difficult is it to hook young readers onto wildlife?
The trick to get them interested in wildlife is not to make an academic meal out of it. It’s got to be fun and appeal to their sense of adventure, not to say curiosity.

What’s your average day like with the birds in your garden?
I’ve started putting out bajra and peanuts every morning, plus of course water. The peanuts get gobbled up very quickly – by peacocks, mynahs, babblers  sparrows et al. The bigger guys usually shove the little ones away. There are ego issues within species too, some big dada sparrows will bounce down and drive the wimps away. They hold their parties at any time of the day; it could be early morning, mid-morning, afternoon, evening: there seems to be no fixed time, probably because a lot of other people also leave out stuff, so the birds are spoiled for choice!

Tell us about your experience of birdwatching in Mumbai.
I wasn’t very interested in birds until I bought my first pair of large (and rather heavy) binoculars. We had a peepul tree growing outside the verandah and so I trained my binoculars on that. The first bird I spotted and saw close-up, was the coppersmith barbet, which had a face like a clown (and seemed a little tipsy, what with its hiccups). That was enough – if the first bird I saw looked like a tipsy clown, what would the other 1,200-1,300 be like, I wondered. That’s what I’m still finding out. Incidentally, that peepul tree, that overlooked the whole of Central Bombay, had over 15 species, including a pair of nesting black kites, which would dive-bomb me when they had chicks. And they were very cunning about how they went about it, slipping off the nest, below the cliff, banking away to one side and then gaining height out of sight, before zooming around the corner and whistling down screaming, with claws extended! Exciting stuff.

Birds from my Window and the Antics They Get Up To, Scholastic, R125. Ages 8+

By Bijal Vachharajani on May 26 2011

Dino more

Posted on by bijalv

History repeats itself at the Nehru Science Centre

http://www.timeoutmumbai.net/kids/features/dino-more-0

 nehru science centre, musuems for kids, brachiosaurus, dinosaurs, science

A giant Brachiosaurus plant-eating dinosaur cranes its neck and nods benignly at visitors. In another corner, a Baluchitherium, a hornless rhinoceros, munches leaves from a tree. A Pterosaur, a giant flying reptile, is suspended mid-flight. There’s rarely a dull moment at the Prehistoric Life Gallery at the Nehru Science Centre in Worli. This recently renovated gallery has 35 prehistoric animals that will grab the attention of students as well as dinosaur devotees.

The exhibition models may not be as well-crafted as the ones in international museums, but there are plenty of things for children to discover. The displays focus on the evolution of early life forms – one-celled organisms in the sea, invertebrates and vertebrates. Apart from dinosaurs, there are models of the Neanderthal man, land scorpion, lemur, woolly mammoth and sabre-tooth tiger. Children will love the animatronic dinosaurs that dip their heads to lap water from an artificial pool while swishing their tails, a musk ox that shakes its mammoth head and a giant squid that’s constantly rolling its huge round eyes. All this is set to the background score of growls and screeches – sounds that the creatures are believed to have emitted.

Each diorama is equipped with a well-lit information display in both English and Hindi that flashes information about the prehistoric animal’s height, weight, food habits and habitat. There is also useful trivia, such as the fact that the dragon fly lived three crore years ago, and the Dimetrodon , a predator that lived during the Permian period, weighed 250 kilos.

By Bijal Vachharajani on June 09 2011 6.30pm
Photos by Amit Chakravarty

DVD review

Posted on by bijalv

http://www.timeoutbengaluru.net/film/dvd-reviews/arthur-christmas

Arthur Christmas All regions. Sony DADC R499


This year, the Google Santa Tracker made Christmas special for all those good children who were excitedly waiting with cookies and milk for Santa Claus to deliver their presents. The Santa Tracker mapped Claus’ journey across the globe, even telling us the number of presents he delivered on Christmas eve. The Santa Tracker might as well have been part of Arthur Christmas, a 2011 animated film. Arthur (voiced by James McAvoy) is the younger son of Santa Claus, who has to get around the world in one night and deliver billions of presents. How in the world does he do it? He’s helped by an elf battalion that takes 18.14 seconds to drop off a gift per household; they have a scanner to check if the kid’s been nice or naughty, and they use the milk and cookies for biofuel. All this is only possible because of the North Pole Mission Control, manned by Arthur’s brother, Steve (voiced by Hugh Laurie), also Claus’s heir apparent. Arthur, on the other hand, is Koumpounophobic (fear of buttons) and is only “good at worrying”. But he is the one who responds to all the letters sent by children and truly believes in the magic of Christmas.

But despite all the high-tech wizardry at their disposal, the mission control misses out on a child. When none of the Clauses want to go back, Arthur along with Grand Santa and elf Bryony sneaks off to deliver the present. It’s all merry-making and goofy fun from there.

Arthur Christmas is an earnest film about the magic of Christmas. But it’s oodles of fun, with lots of laughs packed in. The movie breaks through the clutter of festive films, just by its sheer peppiness. And though Arthur is endearing, but you can’t help but love Steve, who really is the man who runs the show and ensures that Claus can zip around the world in one night.

The special features are bland compared to the film. There’s “Un-wrapping Arthur Christmas” and “Progression Reels”; both take a behind-the-scenes look at the movie; and an Elf Recruitment video, which is quite clever. But tweens will love Justin Bieber’s song “Santa Claus is coming to town” and they can also hear the pop star talk about the video.

By Bijal Vachharajani on February 01 2013

Imli Cafe and Restaurant

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A charming cafe with food that will receive mum’s emphatic approval

http://www.timeoutbengaluru.net/restaurants-caf%C3%A9s/reviews/imli-cafe-and-restaurant

Missing mommy’s aloo puri? Or craving hot phulkas straight off the tava? On days when you are weary of calorie-laden pizzas, insipid cafeteria food or greasy north Indian fare, we suggest you head to Imli, the latest swatch of colour in Indira Nagar’s patchwork quilt of eating establishments. The bright yellow bungalow that houses Imli is hard to miss. We were taken with the restaurant’s spacious terrace dining area, where you can sip tea redolent of home and watch squirrels scampering around, or play Jenga with friends. And it’s good that the furry animals and board games were there to keep us company, because service was a tad slow: on the day of our visit, the plates arrived after the food.

But that’s just a minor quibble. The food at this veggie restaurant is homely and delicious, even avowed chicken tikka devotees will approve. Since it doubles up as a cafe, there’s a range of snacks available including cheelas, thin savoury pancakes made out of chickpea flour or pulses; aloo poha; and jhaal moori, bhel puri that swirls a Bengali twist of mustard oil into its ingredients. We loved their sabudana vadas, they were crisp, topped with tangy amchur powder and perfectly paired with wellspiced coriander chutney. And there’s reason for transplanted Mumbaikars to rejoice: Imli also has vada pav on its menu. While it may not have the same panache as the street food version sold back in the island city, we couldn’t find anything to complain about the crisp batata vada, the bountiful lashes of lasoon (garlic) chutney, and the accompanying mirchi fry. We washed this all down with mild imli ka panna and sweet lassi.

Imli will find patronage among office-bound folks in Indira Nagar: it offers reasonably-priced combination meals that include two vegetables, a dal and dessert. The bhindi pyaaz was as good as the stuff ladled off saucepans up north, and the desi dal tadka mercifully wasn’t wallowing in oil. After that extremely satisfying meal, our phirni was a bit of let down: it was a little too sweet for our taste.

But it didn’t matter, as we barely had room for dessert. That’s because the portion sizes at Imli are large, bordering on gargantuan: exactly as mum would have it.

THE BILL
Papdi chaat R80.00
Bhindi pyaaz R160.00
Phulkas x 4 R80.00
Imli panna R60.00
Sweet lassi R80.00
Vada pav R60.00
Dal tadka R150.00
Phirni R100.00
Total (including tax)  R870.00

 

By Bijal Vachharajani on November 23 2012 12.35pm
Photos by Selvaprakash L