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Fun, fact and fusion Role Call Again by Poile Sengupta Rupa & Co. Pages 131. Rs 95
Flowing from a teacher’s pen, each story is replete with insights culled over years of teaching. There are stories about the rituals that define each academic session, be it The Great Class Arrangement, A Brown Paper Study, and Smile Cheese. There are others that give a teacher’s perspective to annual events, like September 5th: A Tribute. Even schooling practices and issues that are reflective of our education system are commented upon, but in a lighter vein. Careering Decisions is a staff-room debate on teaching as a profession and With a House on their Backs talks of the burden of schoolbags. The wit and brevity of the narrative style enliven even the most mundane matters. The book is a study in school life without being a lesson in moral science.
Aditi and the Marine Sage by Suniti Namjoshi. Tulika. Pages 80. Rs 80
Their mode of transport in this trans-continental journey is not any hi-tech flying machine, but their old friends, dragons Goldie and Opal. From braving hurricanes with these laser beam-spewing dragons to taking trips in a thought submarine to using a microscopic chip that emits beeps for tracking down members of their group, the protagonists have an adventure that is laden with action, emotion and exploration. By placing her cast of characters in situations that are innovative as well as flush with scientific possibilities, the author lends futuristic strokes to the traditional canvas of jungle life.
The Forbidden Temple stories from the past by T. V. Padma. Tulika. Pages 95. Rs 115
The Hunt is set in the age of the early hunter-gatherers and tells the story of a boy whose hunting prowess as well as humaneness is put to test. Footloose in the City and A Westward Journey have the common thread of cultural shock and assimilation running through. Tales like To Follow a Dream; For Love of a Game and Boat Song embody the big dreams that define the lives of small people over the ages. The title story, about a lower caste girl’s stepping into a forbidden temple, is symbolic of the challenge that was posed to the caste system by the Bhakti saints. "Checkmate" is the tale closest to the present and is a tribute to the scores of commoners whose little acts of bravery made the fight for Independence a huge movement. The author’s artistry
lies in weaving a rich tapestry of fiction around strands of historical
facts that have been so picked as to bring in shades of different eras.
The patchwork of informative tidbits sprinkled across the text plus a
well-illustrated activity trail at the end provides just the right
finishing stitches. |
Meant "for all those
who went to school", this book indeed recreates images that would
be familiar to anyone who’s ever been a teacher or among the taught. A
collection of short essays, it provides funny insights into things that
characterise school life—the flurry of activity that marks each new
session, class arrangements, annual days, the anxieties of examination
time and so on.
This is an adventure that
truly juxtaposes contemporary technological reality on to a world of
make-believe. The four adventurers—Aditi, her one-eyed monkey, the ant
and the elephant—leave on a mission to find the sister of Island Sage,
the Marine Sage, who lives in a sea off the coast of Australia.
In this book too, fact has
been fused with fiction, but in a purely historical context. The author’s
flights of fancy ride on well-researched historical facts about life on
the Indian subcontinent from 3500 BCE onwards to give shape to the 10
stories.