One evening we were at Nandita's place at Navakriti. Prapti's mama had left a DVD of an Iranian movie called "Children of Heaven" by Majid Majidi. It was little Prapti's favourite movie. I seen have other Iranian movies before at the Osian and I love the way they portray ordinary women.
Nandita, Brishti, Lakshmi and I watched the sub-titled movie. Brishti could read the subtitles and so watched it intently. The movie is in Persian and is beautiful. It is silently shot in a neighbourhood with small lanes. It is about the bonding between a brother and a sister. The brother takes his sister's shoe to a cobbler to get it mended. On the way back he stops at a vegetable shop an leaves the packet with the mended shoes in between the baskets on a stack of garbage which gets cleared and taken when the boy is still in the shop.
The children decide not to tell their parents because they cannot afford to buy another pair of shoes. So the girl wears the boy's well-worn pair of sneakers to school in the morning runs back and hands them over to her brother so that he can get to school. This simple plot leads to a lot of situations. The plot is absolutely brilliantly built up and could happen in any of our children's lives.
The shoe falls into an open drain one day and gets dirty when Zahra, the girl is running back home. You don't notice that the movie is silent. I did not too. I could just hear the girl panting as she was running back home. I only noticed when Nandita pointed out. One track of very gentle music but music that tells you that something is going to happen begins as the girl is half-way home and is jumping over many drains. Only when this happens do you realise that there was no other sound except the girl's feet and her panting. The movie does not bludgeon you. It awakens you with very gentle sound. Ali, the boy is waiting.
He is late to school and the headmaster shouts at him and it leads to a series of lies. The boy who is ashamed to tell him that he shares the shoes tells him that he fell. But the socks are peeing out of his pocket and are dry...
Lakshmi just got it that they were brother and sister and they were sharing a shoe. So she just wore one pair of shoe that was lying there and was running around and then would hand it over and she would be the brother who would wear it again. She knew they were brother and sister and she felt their bonding and love. She realised the tensions and love in the family. All she understood then was that they were brother and sister and were sharing a shoe. But she kept asking questions periodically...
Q. Why is she wearing something around her head?
A. She lives in Iran and that is the design of clothes there...
was one which I remember.
She cried that night and said she also wanted a brother to share things with. We asked Vish's brother if he could get the CD for us. I then discovered through my Facebook community that many people I knew had seen this movie many times over.
It so happened that we were in school to pick up some CDs the next day and Lakshmi asked Nandita for that Girl and Boy CD. We then took it home and she saw it again with Manju aunty. Then she saw it again with Manju aunty's nieces. And with Vish the next morning. By now I have realised that kids like repetition. That is how they learn. And each time there is a quantum jump.
Just this one movie has taken us all over...(not in order)
Q. Where is Iran?
A. We go to the talking globe...Now I'm forced to find exactly where Iran is rather than knowing vaguely...
Q. What language are they speaking in?
A. Persian...
Q. Do you know Persian?
A. No. But they are writing it in English below and that is how I know what they are saying...
Q. But how are they writing? (the children's notebook where they exchange notes instead of talking in front of their parents is clearly visible...)
A. We have a Tulika book called "Can You find me?" written by Manjula Padmanabhan. It has a page full of objects and one of them is different...In each page "can you find me?" is written in a different language and then in English below.
One page is in Persian. She suddenly remembered that and brought the book. We read the persian text in English and it goes the other way. She remembers that and tells her dad.
Q. Why are they making soup and taking to the neighbour's place?
A. That is what neighbour's do. help each other...they are old people and like to see children and Zara's mom loves them...
L. But we never do that...take things to Goel uncle's house...
Q. Why does she not have another pair of shoes? I have so many...you just have to go to the ATM and get money and buy another...
A. You are lucky. Your daddy has money. Even though other people are good, they sometimes don't have money...
L. She can have my shoes. I have two pairs of sneakers to go to Mirambika. She needs sneakers to go to school and she can have one pair of mine.
Q. Why is Roya's daddy wearing dark glasses and she is helping him?
A. Because his eyes are kharab...and he needs help...
Q. Why is Zara taking caring of the baby? She will drop him...Ali is bigger...
Q. Why is the baby sucking the thumb -- you told me not to...
Q. Why is Ali's teacher getting gussa with him? he is late because his sister got his shoe wet...
Q. What are they serving in the mosque? Why is Ali's daddy crying? Do daddy's also cry?
This just went on and on...
And in between she drew the drain in crayon on the floor and ran...They play a hopscotch kind of game...we drew that and played...
The next day Manju aunty, I and Lakshmi made a Lego model of the neighbourhood in the movie...It was Manju Aunty's idea...
We made the narrow neighbourhood and the adjacent large city. In the small neighbourhood where Zara and her brother live, we made the narrow alleys, the open drain, the place where shoe falls, her house and the small fountain or fish pond in front of their house where they wash things and also play.
Once Manju aunty had made the layout of the city with two neighbourhoods, Lakshmi got going. She made individual pieces. In the large city she made a sky craper and put a large fan on top of the building. "The fan cools the whole place down" she held forth. One morning because of the crumbs we had dropped on the model, there were ants in it. Lakshmi howled and we told her that the ghost city now had people.
That evening, Alpana and her little daugher Urvee dropped in home. We showed them our city. Alpana, an architect and an energy efficiency consultant built a narrow building and showed Urvee that this building wuold have light all over and would not need articificial lighting and put it in Lakshmi's city. Lakshmi heard that and built a similar one and repeated that! Her earlier sky scraper was square and squat!
Then Lakshmi was showing Alpana Zara's house. And she was trying to show Alpana teh road in which ran and the drain...because of the way Lego is the drain is as big as the road on both sides...Alpana mistook the drain for the road...and then she figured and was telling lakshmi --- oh! this is an open drain and that is how it was before...
Soon Urvee was making little houses of such interesting shapes...We had to tell Lakshmi that it was ok to dismantle the city because we were architects and had to build many different models each time...
Alpana saw Lakshmi's fan over the building and said "This can also make electricity while cooling!
Lakshmi was pointing out at the city saying this was the electricity factory...
Alpana told her that the fan was the electricity factory...I had to tell Lakshmi then that this was a flat windmill...
We kept talking and chatting and watching Urvee and Neha didi play...and suddenly Lakshmi piped up saying "the fan only turns when the sun is hot!" Otherwise it is off!
Alpana was mumbling something about a sensor when Lakshmi pointed to a little green lego "factory" that she had put on the fan that knew when the sun was on!
That reminded me of two incidents...
The digital activism project that MIT did in the late nineties where they got children from across the world to express how they would like technology to make the world a better place...
A boy from rural china who had never see a computer before put a chip in a shoe in a drawing -- that was for his blind friend and it would tell him what to do after detecting the space...this was at that time the subject of post doctoral research at MIT...
Another when Brishti was so moved by the birds that she built a card board computer and a user interface where she could access all related info -- movies, sounds, songs and stories of any given bird easily...
This is the current subject of research at all major technology research labs...
You cannot teach! You have to consult the mind and learn together and magic happens...
It has also broadened my knowledge films...I google on the greatest Iranian films...found that they make brilliant children's films. The same director Majid Majidi has made another film called "Children of Paradise" where one of the children is blind...I have now also re-learnt from my geek cousin in the US how to download movies off the web...and that is my next project...The director has also given Prapti's dad permission to copy the film...
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Dance at school...
I love being in singing classes at her school. One day I happened to be in one of those classes. They were sitting in a circle. Didi held the ladoos in her left hand. Made a trunk mudra with her right hand and the trunk would come to get the ladoos. She also sat with one leg hanging and another leg folded under. She explained this many times to get the children going. It was so beautiful!
Shree Vakratunda mahakaya koti soorya samaprabha,
nirvighnam kurumedeva shubha karyeshu sarvada
O lord with the twisted trunk, with the effulgence of a billion suns, always remove the obstacles when I am on an auspicious undertaking.
When she came to nirvighnam she fisted both her hands, crossed them and brought it down with a lot of emotions. Lakshmi was sitting next to me and wanted to know what that was. I did not know. I was doing it mechanically. I asked her to wait till one round of the song was over. Promptly she got down went and showed didi the action with that that same determined eye movement she had seen and asked her what that meant.
That prompted me to come home and google for those lines and what they meant. The school also got us to sing and make mudras for all these songs in the next parent meeting we had. That was a beautiful part of the meeting.
Watching many performances has helped. She has begun noticing that it is a language. Not only that, she has begun watching sculptures more carefully.
We went to her pediatrician's place yesterday. They had a giant Ganesh where he was picking ladoos with his trunk from his hand. Her pediatrician's wife is a kathak dancer. His daughter is doing her masters in dance from (bharatanatyam) Kalakshetra in Chennai. She started singing this song sitting next to the Ganesh. Suddenly she noticed that his hands are not folded in the mudra that she is doing. Then the doc's wife explained to her that she was making the trunk with her hand in sign language.
Shree Vakratunda mahakaya koti soorya samaprabha,
nirvighnam kurumedeva shubha karyeshu sarvada
O lord with the twisted trunk, with the effulgence of a billion suns, always remove the obstacles when I am on an auspicious undertaking.
When she came to nirvighnam she fisted both her hands, crossed them and brought it down with a lot of emotions. Lakshmi was sitting next to me and wanted to know what that was. I did not know. I was doing it mechanically. I asked her to wait till one round of the song was over. Promptly she got down went and showed didi the action with that that same determined eye movement she had seen and asked her what that meant.
That prompted me to come home and google for those lines and what they meant. The school also got us to sing and make mudras for all these songs in the next parent meeting we had. That was a beautiful part of the meeting.
Watching many performances has helped. She has begun noticing that it is a language. Not only that, she has begun watching sculptures more carefully.
We went to her pediatrician's place yesterday. They had a giant Ganesh where he was picking ladoos with his trunk from his hand. Her pediatrician's wife is a kathak dancer. His daughter is doing her masters in dance from (bharatanatyam) Kalakshetra in Chennai. She started singing this song sitting next to the Ganesh. Suddenly she noticed that his hands are not folded in the mudra that she is doing. Then the doc's wife explained to her that she was making the trunk with her hand in sign language.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Sattriya Dance
It was Tuesday and just the second day after school started. Lakshmi had come back from school and had had a good sleep in the afternoon. She woke up, had bath and had some noodles to eat. She was in a really good mood and wanted to go out.
I had read about "Soul of Sattriya" a classical dance performance from Assam in the papers that day. I asked her if she wanted to go out and see dance in a theatre. She readily agreed. She had playing a theatre ticket counter for a while now. She would issue tickets and then come and announce "Ladies and Gentlemen, Thank you for being here. Please shut off your mobile phones. Don't crunch your chips in the auditorium or talk loudly". I reminded her of that in the car.
Watching those DVDs has helped. She noticed each movement of the hand and body and wanted to know what was happening. As usual the music and dance were getting to her and she was sitting below the seat everytime the dancer sat and getting up. She danced in the aisle for a while. She was entranced. She sat through all the five pieces.
In the end they (Mridusmita Das -- the dancer) and her gurus Ramakrishna and Rumi Talukdar invited Sonal Mansingh and Shovana Narayan on to teh stage and they touched their feet and mentioned that the day was Guru Purnima.
She asked me what Guru Purnima was. I said it was teacher's day and Purnima ment a full moon and so they were touching their teacher's feet. she wanted to touch her teacher's feet. So we went to Nandita's at Navakriti and also carried one folder with a dance VCD for her. She touched her feet and came home and touched my feet, manju aunty's feet and her dad's feet.
After she slept I read up on Guru Purnima. We also have teh dance VCD which we shall watch again. This was the first time I had seen Sattriya. It was absolutely divine and the drums in the music...
I had read about "Soul of Sattriya" a classical dance performance from Assam in the papers that day. I asked her if she wanted to go out and see dance in a theatre. She readily agreed. She had playing a theatre ticket counter for a while now. She would issue tickets and then come and announce "Ladies and Gentlemen, Thank you for being here. Please shut off your mobile phones. Don't crunch your chips in the auditorium or talk loudly". I reminded her of that in the car.
Watching those DVDs has helped. She noticed each movement of the hand and body and wanted to know what was happening. As usual the music and dance were getting to her and she was sitting below the seat everytime the dancer sat and getting up. She danced in the aisle for a while. She was entranced. She sat through all the five pieces.
In the end they (Mridusmita Das -- the dancer) and her gurus Ramakrishna and Rumi Talukdar invited Sonal Mansingh and Shovana Narayan on to teh stage and they touched their feet and mentioned that the day was Guru Purnima.
She asked me what Guru Purnima was. I said it was teacher's day and Purnima ment a full moon and so they were touching their teacher's feet. she wanted to touch her teacher's feet. So we went to Nandita's at Navakriti and also carried one folder with a dance VCD for her. She touched her feet and came home and touched my feet, manju aunty's feet and her dad's feet.
After she slept I read up on Guru Purnima. We also have teh dance VCD which we shall watch again. This was the first time I had seen Sattriya. It was absolutely divine and the drums in the music...
Monday, July 6, 2009
Do I make her lie?
I came home from an outing in Bangalore and my mom told me that I needed to take her to a doctor for de-worming. She had done potty on the front steps and there was a three-inch long worm. But her panty had been clean and she has never done potty or susu outside a loo in a long while.
But she had been lolling in a tub of water and had briefly mentioned that she wanted to go to the loo and then said no and when I got back she seemed to be getting into the tub again.
I gently asked her if she had done potty there. And she said "Yes". I hugged her and asked her how that had happened. She explained to me that she had not soiled her panty and that she did not have the time to get to the loo. But she also mentioned that she did not tell me because it might upset me.
I had to tell her that it happened to everyone sometimes when they were not well. And that it happened to me and dad too when we had runing tummies and that if something like this happened I should know and that she should tell me. I also explained that we would have to get medicine for her tummy not to run.
I probably get upset or annoyed enough for herto keep things from me. A big warning for me. I always thought I was very gentle and patient with her and she was not afraid.
But she had been lolling in a tub of water and had briefly mentioned that she wanted to go to the loo and then said no and when I got back she seemed to be getting into the tub again.
I gently asked her if she had done potty there. And she said "Yes". I hugged her and asked her how that had happened. She explained to me that she had not soiled her panty and that she did not have the time to get to the loo. But she also mentioned that she did not tell me because it might upset me.
I had to tell her that it happened to everyone sometimes when they were not well. And that it happened to me and dad too when we had runing tummies and that if something like this happened I should know and that she should tell me. I also explained that we would have to get medicine for her tummy not to run.
I probably get upset or annoyed enough for herto keep things from me. A big warning for me. I always thought I was very gentle and patient with her and she was not afraid.
Cranky panky
"Why is the Cranky Panky coming?" we asked her throughout the trip.
Once I told her "Look, cranky panky is coming." I counted on my fingers. "One, you are hungry. Two, you are sleepy. Third, you are hot and sweaty and need a bath" what is it?
She has over the period of time learnt to tell us at least fifty percent of the time what is happening. At forty percent of the times we just follow our gut feel and guess which one. One of them usually sets her right.
Very rarely is something else the reason. We are egtting there in getting her to recognise or tell us.
Once I told her "Look, cranky panky is coming." I counted on my fingers. "One, you are hungry. Two, you are sleepy. Third, you are hot and sweaty and need a bath" what is it?
She has over the period of time learnt to tell us at least fifty percent of the time what is happening. At forty percent of the times we just follow our gut feel and guess which one. One of them usually sets her right.
Very rarely is something else the reason. We are egtting there in getting her to recognise or tell us.
My Eagle Puppet
Through the summer I joined a puppet workshop conducted by Dadi Pudumjee at the Aurobindo Society. Except for a teacher from Navakriti, the other participants were children. But I enjoyed myself thoroughly. I took it up because through the year we have been doing our own little puppet shows at home with soft toys and odds and ends.
We had also built a tree puppet for Navakriti and also a puppet for little Avani's birthday. We have also been going to Ishara's puppet festival for three years now and Lakshmi is absolutely fascinated. Once a turkish puppeteer allowed her to play an accordion. A German puppet show had snow falling and plants growing around a cottage. Then we went backstage and took a look at their fox and the cottage. The puppets itself were small but with just so little it looked so grand and entrancing.
But I guess the interest in puppets got started because of Leigh ho! Leigh ho! in Sound of Music. We have seen that atleast a 100 times. Oh! I forgot we saw Puran Singh's traditional puppets at the Meghdoot Theatre in Sangeet Natak Academy. Puran Singh is a traditional puppeteer who had been training the next generation of traditional puppeteers from the Shadipur Depot and was funded by the academy. Lakshmi had been absolutely fascinated when we went to see his students perform.
The Rajasthani puppets that they had made could pick up their skirts and dance! When Puran Singh's 5-year-old grandson came and did his show she went up and hugged him and he showed her his puppet. After that after every puppet show we go behind the screen and take a look at the puppets. Another Turkish puppet show had two puppeteers dressed like mime artists and they were manipulating a table top puppet who was a writer and he was trying to write fairy tale and was getting stuck. That fairy tale was shown as a shadow puppet show along side. That was absolutely riveting. I can still remember the shadow puppet ship.
Now we were going to build our own puppets. In the first class Dadi took a pair of shoes and animated them. That was so funny. They really looked like characters. After that I have started looking at every shoe and started naming them and thinking of their expressions. He then animated bags. He asked the kids what the story was after he played out and we realised it could mean different things for different people. Just draping a scarf around something could change everything.
In another class he showed us different kinds of puppets. There was one table top puppet which three of them were manipulating together. What co-ordination!
The first puppet we made was a soft puppet with a sock. We slit the toe side of the sock and made it a throat. We pasted red for the mouth and tongue, stuck ping pong balls for eyes, wool for hair. I made mine with two plaits to make it look like Lakshmi and Shanaiya, an eight-year-old who was in the class and in the same table as me.
The second puppet we made was a stick puppet with thermocol. All of us had to draw a character and bring it to class. I was excited. We were going to make a sculpture! I had always wondered how someone could look at a stone or a piece of metal and imagine what they were going to do...
Here I would at least get a glimpse of the process. We were to draw the front, the side ...at home. I drew just the front of a woman. But it turned out that all of us were making some version of a female character and Dadi wanted us to think differently...
I then decided to make a bird. An eagle, because that is always what Lakshmi wants to be. Little Soham decided to make horse because he goes riding -- I was on the same table as him. I tried drawing the bird with a little help from Sanchita Didi. We tried drawing Soham's horse on a rectangular block. But the block was not long enough. So he decided to turn it into a bull because it reminded him of the Gaur he had seen on a jungle visit.
It was so much fun, cutting the thermocol, sandpapering it, pasting layers and layers of paper. Lakshmi came along everyday and sat through the class for two hours just watching. She did not talk till break time, just sat in pin drop silence. She was just watching everyone sitting in one chair. Somehow, the work atmosphere seemed to have got to her. She also made things quietly out of waste thermocol lying around. A computer one day is what I remember now...
But at home she was always cutting thermocol and sandpapering...we have been through a wide range...the latest being a Piano...She knows the process -- draw on the thermocol, cut it nearly into shape, sand paper for smoothness, stick odds and ends, put a stick through and paint...(that is her process)
I learnt so much from Soham. Whenever I was tempted to paste large pieces of paper, I would see him carefully pasting small pieces and then be reminded to do it carefully. I just made the body of the bird in my rectangular block. I then made a face with another small rectangle, a curved beak, large eyes.
Both Shameen and Yadu Bhaiyya, who were mostly with us when we were making the puppet just increased the scope of the puppets. At no time did they short cut something to make their lives easier. Shameem bhaiyya asked me to put a spring between the head and the body so that the bird would nod...
I started falling in love with the puppet. We drove in a bamboo rod...and painted it. I had the choice of making it goofy or real...I preferred real...so we painted it a shade of yellowish brown and then speckled it black for feathers...We were to add wings in the last class which was postponed.
I had to leave it to others to finish my puppet and also missed the show. I really wished the workshop went longer. Though I loved the process of making a puppet I would have loved to have practiced for a show.
For example I realised that in a puppet show you can be seen, but as long as you are looking at the puppet your audience will look at the puppet. Three people, all fully visible were manipulating a much smaller table top puppet and we were not looking at these people but were looking at the puppet instead! Also that we were to be minimal in the way we moved the puppet...
I would love to be part of the process of not just making a puppet but also learning how to manipulate one...the language...
We had also built a tree puppet for Navakriti and also a puppet for little Avani's birthday. We have also been going to Ishara's puppet festival for three years now and Lakshmi is absolutely fascinated. Once a turkish puppeteer allowed her to play an accordion. A German puppet show had snow falling and plants growing around a cottage. Then we went backstage and took a look at their fox and the cottage. The puppets itself were small but with just so little it looked so grand and entrancing.
But I guess the interest in puppets got started because of Leigh ho! Leigh ho! in Sound of Music. We have seen that atleast a 100 times. Oh! I forgot we saw Puran Singh's traditional puppets at the Meghdoot Theatre in Sangeet Natak Academy. Puran Singh is a traditional puppeteer who had been training the next generation of traditional puppeteers from the Shadipur Depot and was funded by the academy. Lakshmi had been absolutely fascinated when we went to see his students perform.
The Rajasthani puppets that they had made could pick up their skirts and dance! When Puran Singh's 5-year-old grandson came and did his show she went up and hugged him and he showed her his puppet. After that after every puppet show we go behind the screen and take a look at the puppets. Another Turkish puppet show had two puppeteers dressed like mime artists and they were manipulating a table top puppet who was a writer and he was trying to write fairy tale and was getting stuck. That fairy tale was shown as a shadow puppet show along side. That was absolutely riveting. I can still remember the shadow puppet ship.
Now we were going to build our own puppets. In the first class Dadi took a pair of shoes and animated them. That was so funny. They really looked like characters. After that I have started looking at every shoe and started naming them and thinking of their expressions. He then animated bags. He asked the kids what the story was after he played out and we realised it could mean different things for different people. Just draping a scarf around something could change everything.
In another class he showed us different kinds of puppets. There was one table top puppet which three of them were manipulating together. What co-ordination!
The first puppet we made was a soft puppet with a sock. We slit the toe side of the sock and made it a throat. We pasted red for the mouth and tongue, stuck ping pong balls for eyes, wool for hair. I made mine with two plaits to make it look like Lakshmi and Shanaiya, an eight-year-old who was in the class and in the same table as me.
The second puppet we made was a stick puppet with thermocol. All of us had to draw a character and bring it to class. I was excited. We were going to make a sculpture! I had always wondered how someone could look at a stone or a piece of metal and imagine what they were going to do...
Here I would at least get a glimpse of the process. We were to draw the front, the side ...at home. I drew just the front of a woman. But it turned out that all of us were making some version of a female character and Dadi wanted us to think differently...
I then decided to make a bird. An eagle, because that is always what Lakshmi wants to be. Little Soham decided to make horse because he goes riding -- I was on the same table as him. I tried drawing the bird with a little help from Sanchita Didi. We tried drawing Soham's horse on a rectangular block. But the block was not long enough. So he decided to turn it into a bull because it reminded him of the Gaur he had seen on a jungle visit.
It was so much fun, cutting the thermocol, sandpapering it, pasting layers and layers of paper. Lakshmi came along everyday and sat through the class for two hours just watching. She did not talk till break time, just sat in pin drop silence. She was just watching everyone sitting in one chair. Somehow, the work atmosphere seemed to have got to her. She also made things quietly out of waste thermocol lying around. A computer one day is what I remember now...
But at home she was always cutting thermocol and sandpapering...we have been through a wide range...the latest being a Piano...She knows the process -- draw on the thermocol, cut it nearly into shape, sand paper for smoothness, stick odds and ends, put a stick through and paint...(that is her process)
I learnt so much from Soham. Whenever I was tempted to paste large pieces of paper, I would see him carefully pasting small pieces and then be reminded to do it carefully. I just made the body of the bird in my rectangular block. I then made a face with another small rectangle, a curved beak, large eyes.
Both Shameen and Yadu Bhaiyya, who were mostly with us when we were making the puppet just increased the scope of the puppets. At no time did they short cut something to make their lives easier. Shameem bhaiyya asked me to put a spring between the head and the body so that the bird would nod...
I started falling in love with the puppet. We drove in a bamboo rod...and painted it. I had the choice of making it goofy or real...I preferred real...so we painted it a shade of yellowish brown and then speckled it black for feathers...We were to add wings in the last class which was postponed.
I had to leave it to others to finish my puppet and also missed the show. I really wished the workshop went longer. Though I loved the process of making a puppet I would have loved to have practiced for a show.
For example I realised that in a puppet show you can be seen, but as long as you are looking at the puppet your audience will look at the puppet. Three people, all fully visible were manipulating a much smaller table top puppet and we were not looking at these people but were looking at the puppet instead! Also that we were to be minimal in the way we moved the puppet...
I would love to be part of the process of not just making a puppet but also learning how to manipulate one...the language...
Rangoli, Numbers and Drawing Classes
The good thing about moving to a ground floor house is the front yard. We wash our yard every morning and do Rangolis albeit with chalk.
The first few days I drew traditional designs that I remembered. Then I started drawing trees, lotuses, birds, peacocks and lamps. Then I started matching it with the weather. Peacocks when it rained. Lakshmi tries to draw with chalk in the front yard too.
When we went to Bangalore my mother taught her to use the rice powder. She spread it around and said she had drawn clouds.
My mothers house has rough black granite where the Rangoli is usually drawn. She played there with stencils one day.
One day she started writing numbers in Chalk. We wrote till 10. Then from 11 till 20. Then 10, 20 thirty till 100. Then 10, 100, 1000 till 1followed by seven zeroes. She now knows there are large numbers.
Right now she can count exactly till 5. But can recite till twenty. Just for fun she goes "2 and 2 is..." and we say twenty two. 6 and 6 sixty six.
We have just started with saying if you have 2 fingers and we have three and she tries to count it accurately.
We now play a board game called "the Hungry Caterpillar" game where she has to spin a wheel with five numbers. she can take her caterpillar on the spaces by counting five accurately.
But that day the writing numbers game, which I suspect is more a drawing game, then turned to drawing the leaves and flowers in my mom's garden.
I still continue it. We returned to a very hot Delhi. On the day the first showers in June came, I had just gotten out to shop. I turned the car around and got home. We watched the rain. Then played with the wiper and later brought out the chalks. We drew the potted palm tree. I drew the bowls that were in the pot, one a bird bath and another which has flowing jade. She coloured the water. Then we drew a bird...we draw, write letters and numbers and it is all the same...
When the water dries the chalk marks appear so bright...it is a treat to watch.
The first few days I drew traditional designs that I remembered. Then I started drawing trees, lotuses, birds, peacocks and lamps. Then I started matching it with the weather. Peacocks when it rained. Lakshmi tries to draw with chalk in the front yard too.
When we went to Bangalore my mother taught her to use the rice powder. She spread it around and said she had drawn clouds.
My mothers house has rough black granite where the Rangoli is usually drawn. She played there with stencils one day.
One day she started writing numbers in Chalk. We wrote till 10. Then from 11 till 20. Then 10, 20 thirty till 100. Then 10, 100, 1000 till 1followed by seven zeroes. She now knows there are large numbers.
Right now she can count exactly till 5. But can recite till twenty. Just for fun she goes "2 and 2 is..." and we say twenty two. 6 and 6 sixty six.
We have just started with saying if you have 2 fingers and we have three and she tries to count it accurately.
We now play a board game called "the Hungry Caterpillar" game where she has to spin a wheel with five numbers. she can take her caterpillar on the spaces by counting five accurately.
But that day the writing numbers game, which I suspect is more a drawing game, then turned to drawing the leaves and flowers in my mom's garden.
I still continue it. We returned to a very hot Delhi. On the day the first showers in June came, I had just gotten out to shop. I turned the car around and got home. We watched the rain. Then played with the wiper and later brought out the chalks. We drew the potted palm tree. I drew the bowls that were in the pot, one a bird bath and another which has flowing jade. She coloured the water. Then we drew a bird...we draw, write letters and numbers and it is all the same...
When the water dries the chalk marks appear so bright...it is a treat to watch.
Everest is in India
When we were in Chennai, I met one of Vish's cousins and her daughetrs for the first time. One of them is going to pre-medical school this year and another is perhaps in Grade 8 or 9. Lakshmi just took to them and decided that they would all draw.
Drawing maps is a fascination with her. We draw maps of the school, of where we live and sometimes an India map. She has a talking globe which has animals and some landmarks in it and so she is familiar with a world map. She plays with it for hours and has been doing so for a couple of years now. There is mount Everest near India, an Elephant in South India, a bald Eagle in LA where her periappa lives and the Statue of Liberty where her mama lives and these are her references.
She is however more familiar with the India Map. She knows where we live, where Pati in chennai lives, pati in Bangalore lives, where Chong Chong (her pre-school teacher) from Manipur lives, Where the Olive Ridley turtles come (from a book) and Kashmir where Gulla a character from a book lives. Over a period she kept asking me where different people live and I have now forgotten.
She asked me to draw her an India map. Then she made a dot in the neck and told them that
that is where she lived. She drew a line down approximately to the coast near the south and told them that was pati's house. She put a dot in the left fork and said "That was Gandhi's house". I did not know how she knew that. She drew mount Everest right in the middle of India. She gets most upset if you draw it outside. Then coloured map green and different colours and explained that that was how land was. Then coloured the area out side the whole map blue. India was surrounded by oceans! It was an island. Then she wanted us to draw the turtles and the elephants and tigers -- just where the head was.
This was the first time I had seen her put together everything she had heard at different times. What a picture!
Drawing maps is a fascination with her. We draw maps of the school, of where we live and sometimes an India map. She has a talking globe which has animals and some landmarks in it and so she is familiar with a world map. She plays with it for hours and has been doing so for a couple of years now. There is mount Everest near India, an Elephant in South India, a bald Eagle in LA where her periappa lives and the Statue of Liberty where her mama lives and these are her references.
She is however more familiar with the India Map. She knows where we live, where Pati in chennai lives, pati in Bangalore lives, where Chong Chong (her pre-school teacher) from Manipur lives, Where the Olive Ridley turtles come (from a book) and Kashmir where Gulla a character from a book lives. Over a period she kept asking me where different people live and I have now forgotten.
She asked me to draw her an India map. Then she made a dot in the neck and told them that
that is where she lived. She drew a line down approximately to the coast near the south and told them that was pati's house. She put a dot in the left fork and said "That was Gandhi's house". I did not know how she knew that. She drew mount Everest right in the middle of India. She gets most upset if you draw it outside. Then coloured map green and different colours and explained that that was how land was. Then coloured the area out side the whole map blue. India was surrounded by oceans! It was an island. Then she wanted us to draw the turtles and the elephants and tigers -- just where the head was.
This was the first time I had seen her put together everything she had heard at different times. What a picture!
Whose Statue is this?
As we were walking back home on the Sunlit Path from school, lakshmi saw the statue of Shri Aurobindo. She has always been fascinated by this statue. She began looking at it when she two.
The questions started.
"Whose statue is this?"
Shri Aurobindo.
"Who was he?"
He did many things. He had many good ideas and also wrote poetry.
"What ideas did he have?"
On how children's schools should be...
"He did many things?"
Yes.
"He did them all at the same time?"
No He was a poet and a philosopher.
He finished one thing and then did another.
"He had many ideas? what ideas?"
Like what a beautiful school should be...
"Did he die? What happened to his bones? Are they in they in the statue?"
No his bones are part of earth now.
"So why did they put his statue here?"
Because he inspires people. he makes them get many ideas. he makes people happy.
Don't you like the statue?
"Yes I do"
Now I am browsing his biography more carefully to see if I can show childhood pictures of his and also for things that will move her. I know that this is not the end of that line of questioning. This is just teh beginning of history lessons.
The questions started.
"Whose statue is this?"
Shri Aurobindo.
"Who was he?"
He did many things. He had many good ideas and also wrote poetry.
"What ideas did he have?"
On how children's schools should be...
"He did many things?"
Yes.
"He did them all at the same time?"
No He was a poet and a philosopher.
He finished one thing and then did another.
"He had many ideas? what ideas?"
Like what a beautiful school should be...
"Did he die? What happened to his bones? Are they in they in the statue?"
No his bones are part of earth now.
"So why did they put his statue here?"
Because he inspires people. he makes them get many ideas. he makes people happy.
Don't you like the statue?
"Yes I do"
Now I am browsing his biography more carefully to see if I can show childhood pictures of his and also for things that will move her. I know that this is not the end of that line of questioning. This is just teh beginning of history lessons.
Cinanmon Bittern
Yesterday, Sunday 5th July, we put a sleeping Lakshmi in the car and took her for a bird walk with the Delhi Bird group. We arrived there at 5:30 am. We walked along the riverside towards the banyan tree. Little Urvee, Alpana and Neeraj came too.
We walked down towards the tall reeds. She was excited -- "Grass house" she screamed referring to the poem about a little girl who pretends that her house is in the tall grass in the book called "Out and About" by Shirley Hughes. She is now interested in looking into a pair of binoculars. Peter Kaestner who was leading the walk pointed out a green bee eater to her.
However the bird that caught her attention was the Cinnamon Bittern. After much persuasion she looked into a scope and saw the Bittern. That is the advantage of going in a group. Binoculars are hard to focus for her yet. But if someone has zoned a bird in a scope it is easy for her. She saw the bird in its breeding form -- with a red beak. After that we saw three more in flight.
"Why is it called Cinnamon Bittern?" she wanted to know. Because it is a bittern which is cinnamon colour. "But that is brown" followed. "There are many shades of brown and this is cinnamon brown" we told her.
It was a sweltering day. She got a bit cranky and we had to carry her back. The group has breakfast together. It was a sumptious feast that day cakes, kakras, moori chickis, poori aloo...nimbu pani, rooh afza...we had taken pongal and chutney. Sheila said "Your next birthday gift should be your own binoculars" and laughed. That amused her and she laughed her heart out.
We got home, fed her and showed her a cinnamon bittern on the computer. We drew a bittern and she coloured it purple with a green beak. "It is a short bird with a long beak and is usually in the river sides" we told her. We called it purple bittern. We had also seen prinias, weavers, coucal and yellow and black bitterns. But we decided to show her just one bird and just talk about what had caught her fancy. In the night, we read the poem about the Grass house.
Before I could start reading she started
"My grass house, my private place...only the ants know where I am..."
This is going to be our book for the week and is on the headstead on the bed.
It really kicks her to have a grass house. She would not go into the reeds though. we need to do this more often by ourselves for her to be that comfortable.
We walked down towards the tall reeds. She was excited -- "Grass house" she screamed referring to the poem about a little girl who pretends that her house is in the tall grass in the book called "Out and About" by Shirley Hughes. She is now interested in looking into a pair of binoculars. Peter Kaestner who was leading the walk pointed out a green bee eater to her.
However the bird that caught her attention was the Cinnamon Bittern. After much persuasion she looked into a scope and saw the Bittern. That is the advantage of going in a group. Binoculars are hard to focus for her yet. But if someone has zoned a bird in a scope it is easy for her. She saw the bird in its breeding form -- with a red beak. After that we saw three more in flight.
"Why is it called Cinnamon Bittern?" she wanted to know. Because it is a bittern which is cinnamon colour. "But that is brown" followed. "There are many shades of brown and this is cinnamon brown" we told her.
It was a sweltering day. She got a bit cranky and we had to carry her back. The group has breakfast together. It was a sumptious feast that day cakes, kakras, moori chickis, poori aloo...nimbu pani, rooh afza...we had taken pongal and chutney. Sheila said "Your next birthday gift should be your own binoculars" and laughed. That amused her and she laughed her heart out.
We got home, fed her and showed her a cinnamon bittern on the computer. We drew a bittern and she coloured it purple with a green beak. "It is a short bird with a long beak and is usually in the river sides" we told her. We called it purple bittern. We had also seen prinias, weavers, coucal and yellow and black bitterns. But we decided to show her just one bird and just talk about what had caught her fancy. In the night, we read the poem about the Grass house.
Before I could start reading she started
"My grass house, my private place...only the ants know where I am..."
This is going to be our book for the week and is on the headstead on the bed.
It really kicks her to have a grass house. She would not go into the reeds though. we need to do this more often by ourselves for her to be that comfortable.
The Pregnant Deer Dance
On our trip home we managed to get DVDs of Bharatnatyam. It is a series called "When Gods Dance" produced by Lata and Gita. Lakshmi has watched several dances now. She likes VP Dhananjayan's Kathakali piece about a pregnant deer. He doesn't wear a mask in this one and it is a very interesting story about a deer that has been trapped from all four directions by a hunter, fire, stream and a tiger. Miraculously the deer gets saved a new deer is born. She loves the expression on the mother's face when she sees her new born. Lakshmi's face too turns tender when that happens and she comes and rubs her cheek with us. She loves teh steps where teh new born deer is trying to walk but falls and eventually learns to walk and runs away. "When I was small, could I walk?" is teh question and she loves to hear how she tried gettign up and kept falling. Since it is one dancer who is everything I was amazed that she could get it.
The few DVDs we have of this series has been a big hit. She loves watching students at Kalakshetra dance. She liked Chandralekha's troupe dancing -- It has kalaripattu like movements. We wanted to take her to Kalakshetra but it was closed for vacations.
During the whole trip she was asking various people to dance like a Shiva to her Parvati. The Signature opening and closing for each of the pieces in the DVD is a Shiva and Parvati dance.
But she is still walking on tip toes like a ballet dancer.
The few DVDs we have of this series has been a big hit. She loves watching students at Kalakshetra dance. She liked Chandralekha's troupe dancing -- It has kalaripattu like movements. We wanted to take her to Kalakshetra but it was closed for vacations.
During the whole trip she was asking various people to dance like a Shiva to her Parvati. The Signature opening and closing for each of the pieces in the DVD is a Shiva and Parvati dance.
But she is still walking on tip toes like a ballet dancer.
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