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Multilingual
readings . . . and a surprise ending
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release
of three new picture books from Tulika
on 1st October 2004 at Goodbooks Bookstore, Chennai
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Three
books in quick succession, each in seven languages, was reason to
celebrate. And it happened Tulika-style, with books and readings and
fun, at Goodbooks Bookstore in Chennai.
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The evening began
with a brief reading from I'm So Sleepy
in English (by author Radhika Chadha) and Hindi (by translator Deeya Nayar)
— the charming story of a sleepy little elephant whose problem is that he
has forgotten how to sleep. Some mothers in the audience confirmed that this
is indeed a problem with a lot of human babies too. |
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Then, dramatically,
the lights switched off. Time to sleep? No, out of the window,
Look,
the Moon! The verse-story was
recited in English (by author Sandhya Rao) and Tamil (by
translator Jeeva Raghunath). And all that was visible in the darkness was a
moon waxing . . . and . . . waning . . . The children were fascinated, and
all at Tulika cheesily pleased with their shadow-drama. (The performance was
on again at Odyssey bookstore, Chennai, and there are more requests in the
pipeline from other bookstores, in Delhi too. There was even a suggestion
that Tulika copyrights the show along with the book.)
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But
the fun had only begun. The
Boy Who Loved Colour,
a bilingual book, was read in English by Priya Krishnan, who
challenged the audience every now and then to provide a word in
another language — e.g. 'blue' or 'house' or 'flower' in Kannada or
Marathi or. . . |
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.
. . And just when she left
the children wondering how the little boy in the book would paint the river
in many colours, out rolled three long 'rivers' of chart paper, full of
outline pictures from the book for the children to colour in — the
surprise in the tail! The pictures they coloured now add more smile to the
already cheerful Goodbooks Bookstore. |
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Who said the evening was
fun only for children!
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more
. . .
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