Indian-ness

One of the values Chubbocks' school holds dear is Pride in being Indian and they do quite a few things to inculcate it in the kids. For me, though, the issue is not only pride in Indianness but being able to relate in many ways, especially for my kids - in knowing the folk tales and the mythology of their country, knowing Indian rhymes and songs and stories, not the filmy stuff...

It's quite tough if you live in the big cities, to find good Indian entertainment material for the kids. Many years ago, Dad came across a wonderful tape of Kannada nursery rhymes, many of which had been adapted by one of Karnataka's poets, GP Rajaratnam, from the English, and many of which were of kannada origin. They had been beautifully set to music and sung by little kids and were quite magical. This was years before my sis and I were married, but dad had the forethought to pick it up and keep it safely so now my kids have a copy of it they love listening to - Bannada tagadina tuttoori was the title. I'm hoping to find some other nice material for the kids on my trip to Bangalore tomorrow.

Another nice series for kids is the Karadi tales tapes and books, which come in a few Indian languages apart from English. Chubbocks' first Karadi tales was one called The Monkey King, and he loved the story of the good monkey (kapi) and the bag monkey ( korung) - their names are also from South Indian languages, which is a nice contrast to the Mickeys and Doras the kids are otherwise awash in. He used to listen to this story each night, and then one day he psyched A by coming up with a gem of a sentence, when A was looking for one of Chubbocks' favourite toys which had been misplaced, "Look for it abba. You will be well rewarded!" It was only after a few thunder-struck moments that we realised our pal had mugged it up from the book but cleverly used it at just the right moment. One of my friends gifted Chubbocks a lovely tape of Indian songs that the Karadi people have come up with, sung by Usha Uthup. It's a really lively tape with lots of original songs and music and great fun for the kids to sing along with.

At Landmark recently, I wanted to buy Chubbocks some nice books in Hindi so he would relate to it as well as to English, particularly in terms of reading and writing. But sadly, apart from the Karadi series which is a little difficult for him to read on his own right now, the store had nothing compared to the brightly coloured illustrations that English books abound in. Finally ended up buying a Chacha Chowdhury in Hindi and a Nandan magazine. When I was in school, my hindi was a little weak, so mom had started subscribing to Nandan and Champak in Hindi which induced me to start reading on my own. But even then, I remember comparing the production quality to that of Children's World, the English magazine, and feeling dissatisfied.

I wish some of the publishing houses would take up the cause of Indian languages and folk tales more seriously, and publish books for all ages in different languages, while preserving a uniformly high standard of production. One of the Government publication agencies had produced a series of Folk tales of India - one hardbound book for each state - years ago when I was a child. Now, sadly, you can only lay your hands on those books in some forgotten corner of a dusty library. For now I'm relying on my memory and my stock of Amar Chitra Kathas...