Friday, January 17, 2014

Bindaas Bandhar

We have been inspired by the recent visit to Karadi Rhymes' Once upon a bak-bak tree.  The kids have not heard much of Karadi rhymes but Sammu and I really loved some of the songs Usha Uthup sang at the show.  Since then we have been singing 'Monkeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey' and 'Chai-chai' at home and even Ani has picked up the 'Chai-chai' song from our broken renditions.

So today's story was about a monkey.  We are calling it the Bindaas Bandhar.  Bindaas bandhar was a little monkey who lived in the middle of a dense forest.  She had a minor fight with her mother and decided to go away from home for a while.  So she jumps from branch to branch, muttering to herself angrily under her breath and before she knows it, she is lost.  She has come a far way from home.  She peeps out from the branches and finds strange things under her.  A black ground... that travels like a snake along the side of the treees... and things that go 'Vroooom', 'Vroooom' in the flash of a second before she can really make out what they are on that black ground.  Across the black ground, some distance away, she can see more inviting green trees and what looks like a group of banana plants.  But how to get across the black ground, she is scared that the 'vrooom' things will hit her.  She waits it out.  Soon the sun is disappearing in the sky and Bindaas is really hungry.  The banana plants that she thinks she sees are calling out to her.  So she decides to risk a dash across the black ground.  She waits until she can't see those 'vroom' things in the near distance and darts across the black ground - running until she reaches the other side.

Phew!! Panting a little, she reaches the other side and scrambles up a tree.  She jumps from tree to tree until she reaches the banana plant and devours the not so ripe bananas she sees there.  Blech... but something is better than nothing and she is really hungry, so she eats them.  She thinks longingly of the bananas her father would have given her back at home.  Then she decides to climb up a tall tree so she can search for a way home.  She climbs up, up and up.  From the top of the tree, she sees a strange sight.  The line of trees end a small distance away and she can see coloured rectangle somethings.... she does not know what they are called.  She sees some strange lights and decides to go closer.  She goes closer to one of the rectangular tall objects (taller than many trees) and nearer to the lights.  She can see flashing lights and a tinny voice from inside.  She sees a little girl sitting on a seemingly soft something, holding colorful sticks in her hand and dragging them across some white somethings...

She is exhausted by all this watching and decides to sleep awhile.  She finds a corner of the tree that she likes and curls up to sleep.  The next day, she wakes up, hungry as always.  She can see the girl again and decides to go say hi.  The girl screams on seeing her and Bindaas motions for her to keep quiet.  'Be quiet, i won't harm you', she says and strangely the girl seems to understand!!  The rest will be continued tomorrow...

Our Bindaas bandhar story cost us a few precious minutes in the school rush this morning and I ended up putting Sammu in uniform to school on a Friday morning, when she is expected to be in colour dress...  But that is a story for a different day!

In other news, we are having a lot of precious conversations between the siblings these days , a few days back, Ani was trying to get his father's attention.  'Appa', he began... There was no response from R, so this progressed to 'Dai Appa'!! Still no response but his sister piped up:  'Ani, you should not say Dai Appa.' I was listening to this with amusement and wondering when she grew up so much when she continued, 'you should say, 'Aei, appa'!!! I burst out laughing and could not control myself when Ani looked at her soberly and continued... 'Aay, appa'!! :-D  And finally he had his father's attention!

Tuesday, January 07, 2014

Another story - after a long break

So we will call this - the story of the talking vegetables.
My daughter has a need to give vegetables faces and voices.  Not all, because then she would not be able to eat them.   But just those that come in a story.  So we had to come up with a story about a carrot and a beetroot.  Here we go:

There was once a carrot and a beetroot that lived on a farm near the banks of a golden river.  This carrot and beetroot were the talking kind and had faces.  They were also very good friends.  But the carrot was not a happy one.  She was always sad.  She kept moaning and whining that she did not like her colour - Orange.  She kept asking the beetroot how to change it.  And since they both did not know what to do, they decided to take a walk by the river.  Along the golden river they walked.... quite a long distance for them, you see, because a carrot and beetroot are quite small.

And after some time, they saw a row of pots on the other side of the river.  So many pots and when they looked closely, they found that these were pots of paints.  Pink and fuschia and maroon.  Peach and purple and mauve.  Pale greens and dark greens and oh so many colours.  It was such a wonderful sight to see.

And it was then that the carrot got an IDEA!  Let's go across the river and use those pots to change my colours, she said.  What a wonderful idea, said the beetroot.  Let's do just that.  And they tried to go across the river and then realized that they were neither tall enough to wade through it and neither did they know any swimming.  They wondered what to do next.  It was now the beetroot's turn to have an IDEA!  Let's use a banana leaf to float across the river, he said.  Super idea, beamed the carrot.  So they walked across to the banana plant to get a leaf to float across the river.  The beetroot spoke to it's friend, the banana and asked it for a leaf.  The banana agreed but then they realized that a banana leaf is slippery, so they did not know what to do.  And then.... the carrot said it would ask it's friend the tailor bird to stitch up the banana leaf into a boat.  So they went to meet the tailor bird and stitched a banana boat.

Sometime later, the banana boat was ready.  The two friends clambered into the boat with great joy and anticipation.  The boat went across the river.  And they found themselves amidst all the pots and pans.  What a jolly time they had.  They poured the paints on one another and had a jolly good time.  The carrot was no longer just orange.  It was a multi colored carrot.  And then they came back to their own side to stay happy ever after!!