RIP, Jan Berenstain!

Berenstain Bear Books

Written and illustrated by Stan & Jan Berenstain

Published by Random House books for Young Readers

Ages: 4-8 years

One half of a pair of writers who created one of A's favourite book series, passed away on friday, 24th February 2012. Jan Berentstain was the co-creator of the Berenstain Bears books, with her writer-illustrator husband Stan Berenstain, who passed away 7 years ago. She was 88. Co-incidently, the first book created and published in this series was The Big Honey Hunt written for The Cat in the Hat beginner book series in 1962 at the behest of Dr Seuss (Theodor Geisel), whose birthday falls on 2nd March.

A loves the Berenstain Bears Books, and we have tried to collect them all. Every time we visit a book store, she checks out their collection from the series, and we pick up the ones we don't yet have. They feature a family of bears living in a tree house (adventure!) - goofy, lovable Papa Bear, sensible, wise Mama Bear, with Sister Bear and Brother Bear, their everyday lives, the ordinary things that matter to them, the things they learn and do, and the scrapes they get into.    

When she was younger, heck, even now, the wisdom in these books guides her through many dilemmas- over and above a heart-to-heart discussion. The books make it easier for us both in considering how to approach a particular situation. Whether it was her fear of the dark, an annoying habit that she picked up somewhere, dealing with peer pressure, focusing on fixing a problem instead of trying to fix the blame,  taking a sensible stand when someone says- "I dare you to...", dealing with jealousy, stranger danger or bullies, learning about money...you name it, the Berenstain Bears had a book about it.

One does have to keep in mind, though, that even though the books offer, sensible, home-grown advice in a palatable, story form, many of these books have been written in the 60s and 70s, and there may be some dating of the context. One also needs to be mindful of some gender/racial stereotyping, much like that in the otherwise wonderful books by Enid Blyton.

A wonderful collection of books that is fun to read for both child and parent alike. We have spent many happy hours reading them together, discussing them, and returning to them again and again at any time a relevent situation presented itself. A great help to parents who may not have the luxury of an easily accesible extended family!

RIP, Jan Berenstain!

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Pictures courtesy Google Images. Crossposted at Saffrontree..

   

Violence against Women - some more books.

Here are some more books that speak about Violence against Women, and in a way that really brings home the fact that it is a universal phenomenon, and can take varied forms, from the most subtle to the extreme.

Pic courtesy flipkart

Dear Zari

Written by Zarghuna Kargar

Published by Chatto & Windus, an imprint of Random House

The story of how this book came to be written is very similar to that of 'The Good Women of China'  reviewed by me here. Zarghuna's family went as refugees to the UK after the Soviet backed government in Afghanistan fell to the Taliban. There, Zarghuna worked as a radio presenter for the Afghan Woman's Hour on BBC World Service. (Go on, click on this link to read about Zarghuna's book in her own words.)

She came across many ordinary women who told the reporters their extraordinary stories of daily struggle in a country who values its girls so little. Where boy-children are preferred, and a woman is an object of pity and malicious gossip if she does not give birth to boys. Where girls are denied an education because they are 'plants growing in the neighbour's courtyard.' Where girls as young as 10 yr-olds are given away or sold by families routinely to settle disputes or pay a debt. Or to get a bride in exchange for their son. Where girls are not educated in their own biology, but are expected to somehow know what to do when married. Where the bleeding by a woman on her wedding night is celebrated as a proof of honour, and anyone not able to give this proof or unable to give it because of an ignorance of what it is all about is hounded all her life by her in-laws and society. Where the pressure to have a boy leads some families to bring up a girl as a boy, who is treated as a boy and later a man by everyone, who is denied her feminine side all her life, although she gains in terms of freedom in society!

Zarghuna's experience with these stories motivated her enough to try and get out of her own disastrous and abusive arranged marriage.

A book worth reading. One learns so much about a country which we share a heritage with, with many similar (good and bad) traditions, and which we unfortunately do not really know much about.

Pic courtesy uRead.com

Death  by Fire
Written by Mala Sen
Published by Penguin books India

Mala Sen, who passed away in May this year, was also the erstwhile author of another controversial book on the life of Phoolan Devi, based on actual interviews with the female bandit when she was in prison. That book, too, highlights the violence faced by a young phoolan Devi, and her subsequent joining of the dacoits.

In Death by Fire, Mala Sen highlights the forced burning of 18 yr Roop Kanwar on her dead husband's pyre as a sati. Something that has happened even though the practice of 'sati' has been outlawed for more than 200 years now. She also takes up the case of 'bride-burning'- a horrific form of dowry deaths - violence in the extreme that many young women have been facing.

Mala Sen takes us through the struggle she had to undertake to have people agree to speak to her about the issues, and the hostilities she had to face while researching for the book. She also tries to analyse the whys and hows of the social dynamics of the situations that she highlights, leaving us with some answers and many questions.

Pic courtesy flipkart.com

Dowry Murder:
Re-investigating a cultural whodunit
Written by Veena Talwar Oldenburg
Published by Penguin books India

Veena Talwar Oldenburg, a historian in the US, of Indian origin, has herself been a victim of dowry related domestic violence, which, as she puts it, "could easily have culminated in murder instead of a legally acquired divorce." She links female infanticide and foeticide to dowry deaths, the only difference being that the former are in the natal home, and the last happens usually in the marital home.

Fact one: Dowry has historically, since many centuries, been also called 'Streedhan" or the wealth of a woman, given to her by parents in lieu of her inheritance, a safety net to fall back on in hard times. This is other than the 'bride-price' given to the girl's parents in some communities.

Fact two: The communities in which the incidence of dowry deaths is high are also those that historically prefer the male child.

Fact three: During British rule in India, they passed many legislations that they thought would be more in keeping with the civilised (read western) world.

Although they did a lot of good this way by outlawing horrific practices like sati and child-marriage (which continues in pockets even now), by universalising education, etc. among others, they also unwittingly did women a disservice. They introduced individual property rights, which reduced the status of women from co-owners of shared familial property to dependents on the male members who now owned this property.

Soon the connotations of dowry as the "bride's wealth" changed to "wealth brought for us by the bride". And the ownership of this wealth naturally went to the head of the household.

The author then goes on to deduce how this unique combination of age-old customs and traditions, along with misguided legislature by 300 years of colonial rule, increased consumerism post-independence, and greed calling for competitiveness in exhorbitant expenditures in weddings and dowry, with technology helping all this along- all contribute to the continuem of selective abortions of female foetuses, killing of female babies, neglect of the female child and finally, domestic violence, both in the parents' and marital home, and finally, dowry murder.

A must read for someone working in the field of domestic violence, as also for sensitizing society to this montrous practice.

Pic courtesy flipkart

The above three books are have been written by women who have been trained in the discipline of investigation and research, and have based it all on fact, not to mention first-hand experience of violence for the mere fact of having been born a woman. So they know very well how to listen to the unspoken behind women's silences

Something that is addressed very well in the groundbreaking programme "The Vagina Monologues" by Eve Ensler, now published in book form.

The book I have (which I haven't read completely yet, but have browsed enough to get the essense of) is a special edition by Villard books to mark the 10yr anniversary of V-Day, the dynamic grassroots movement to end violence against women and girls. In the blurb, it says, "Witty and wise, this award winning masterpiece gives voice to real women's deepest fantasies and fears...spellbinding, funny, and almost unbearingly moving...it is both a work of art and an incisive piece of cultural history" And no, it is NOT pornographic.

Then there is this extraordinarily useful book that I have, called Body Talk.

Pic courtesy flipkart.com

Body Talk
Written by Anjali Wason
Published by HarperCollins
Ages: 15+, young adults

Other than the expected information about biology, hormones, sexuality and feelings, this book has a useful chapter on sexual harrassment and abuse- at home, on the streets, at educational institutions and the workplace. All in a lucid, easy-to-relate-to, no nonsense way without resorting to coy euphemisms, but not in a very harsh, forbidding way, too. Perfect for the young lady about to face the world. The only lacuna is that the tone takes into account only urban, educated, upper class women, so this might not be a completely helpful books to other girls out there, poised on the brink of womanhood with dreams in their eyes. 

Violence Against Women- Some books

Violence against women. When I searched my shelves for books on the topic, I found many. What is the use of reading these books? Same as reading the survivor stories. Or reading posts by experts working in the field. One can learn so much. Become aware of realities that might have seemed fantastic. True nevertheless.

The Good Women of China
Written by Xinran
Vintage, Random House.

This book comes from a country about which we really know so little. It has been just a few years now that China has opened up, and we can look into its heart. Whatever little we knew about it-we have to thank writers like Pearl S Buck whose books bring to us in vivid detail the life of common Chinese woman, and who had been banned from China for the rest of her life for having done just that...spoken about things that might be taboo.

Xinran, a radio presenter came across the stories of many women and had to interview them in her official, and sometimes in an unofficial capacity- when those women's stories cut too closely at the ruling party's ideals. In fact, as we read story after story, we realise that the government system in China and the party's ideals were a major part of the violence perpetrated against women, never mind that the picture presented to outsiders was of equality for all citizens.

In fact, Xinran openly states in her afterword, that the only reason that she could publ;ish was because it was done in the UK, and back in her country she might have been imprisoned for it.

Belonging
Written by Sameem Ali
Hachette books

Sameem is the youngest child of Pakistani immigrants to the UK. As her mother, who no longer lives with her father, is too ill to look after the child, she is taken over by a Children's agency, through which she is placed in a foster home. This, as it turns out later, was fortunate for her, as in the 6-odd years of her life, she was relatively secure, well cared for and loved- something that gave her the strength to face the incidents which later unfold.

At 6 yrs, she is taken in by her mother and the rest of the family. She feels like an alien for a long time, bewildered by everything, by the lack of warmth, lack of love, neglect, and active violence- everyone, her mother, her elder brother, her older sisters, her sister-in-law beat her up, keep her hungry, make her do work not suitable for her tender years. Sameem endures it all in the hope that one day her mother will accept her, care for her, love her in the way mothers loved their children in the books that she had been read to as a young child.

Something that is not to be. At 13yrs, she is taken to Pakistan, and married off to a much older man, and pregnant withing a few months of marriage. Since her husband wanted to have a child who is a UK citizen, she is sent back to the UK, where she delivers her baby. Later, when she is older, she runs away with a good man who loves her, marries her, and also helps her and her son to get out of the situation.

In the afterword, Sameem says that she is aware of the ground realities, that she knows she could get out of the situation with her son and make a better life for herself only because she wasn't still in Pakistan, where the laws would not be favourable to her.

In the Land of Invisible Women.
Written by Dr Qanta Ahmed
Shree Book Publishers

Dr Qanta takes up a medical post in Riyadh. She gets an unparalleled insider's view of the almost mythological medieval practices in the Saudi Kingdom. She is unusual in that she is a woman professional of Pakistani origin, born and bred in Britain, with medical education in the US. However, she soon finds out that the fact of her being a woman colours every experience in her erstwhile home. It begins at the airport on her entry into the kingdom, where a mere escort, male, sent by the hospital peremptarily takes charge of her passport and she has to cover herself up in that stifling black shroud- the abbayah- making her invisible.

As a doctor, she gets to interact with the commoners from whom her patoents come, as well as the 'intellectual glitterati' who comprise  her contemporaries. Some of whom have royal connections.

She soon realises that all we hear of the inequalities, and more, is true. Among her experiences she tells us of a female TV presenter, Rania, who is regularly beaten up by her husband- for being a famous face. She talks about women stalked by the Mutaween- religious police- who are omnipresent. She talks about how her women patients' relatives are more worried about them being veiled than about them getting the right treatment.

The dependency and helplessness of the women, even educated ones, because they cannot drive, cannot go out without a malke escort, cannot go out with a male not related to them by blood or marriage, cannot take any financial or educational decisions without the permission of males in authority, cannot be considered natural guardians of their childre. Something that was the case in another  book, Not Without my Daughter, written by Betty Mahmoody. This book chronicles Betty's escape from an abusive marriage, her fleeing with her daughter, whom she could not legally take with her under her husband's country's laws.

Behind closed doors
Domestic Violence in India
Edited by Rinki Bhattacharya
Sage Publications

This is a collection of narratives by 17 women who are survivors of domestic violence, and who have been courageously come out with their stories, not only in print, but also in the documentary film Char DiwariBoth have been made by Rinki Bhattacharya, herself a domestic violence survivor. The heartrending narratives bring home to us how widespread the problem is, and how no privilege can save a woman from a violent situation.

'Behind closed doors' are the operative words- as these incidents were believed to be in the sacrosanct family, and as such not brought out in the public. They still aren't, for the fear of social stigma. Even the apathy of the powers-that-be can be guaged by the fact that the documentary has been aired only twice, that too late at night, when its audience would not be very wide.

There are also essays by experts, feminists and workers in the field of domestic violence, who have tried to make sense of the phenomenon. How could women be marginalised like this in a country which worships the female form of Shakti, as the Goddess, or Devi? One essay argues that in certain communities, where the Devi is worshipped in the original form women still have a better position. As Sanskritisation took place, in the post-vedic period, a 'spousification' of this Devi took place, putting the husband above her, and fettering her feared unbridled sexuality. This is seen more in the upper classes, where the need for financial independence of the wife is not felt. There is also a busting of the myth that educated financially independent women do not face violence, and the reasoning behind that.

Further essays also talk about the Domestic Violence Bill and its loopholes, the introduction of a clause for 'mandatory counselling' that aims to preserve the family structure in its present form instead of redressal to the victim of violence. Police attitude towards women and their hand in the actual violence, lack of political will or even the attitude of politicians towards these issues play a big role in law-making, enforcement and any justice.

There is also a roadmap for support to victims at the end of the book. A must read for those working in the field and those seeking an understanding of and a way out of the mess.

There are so many more books that I can write about. Maybe in another post.

Images: Courtesy flipkart.com

Rhymes- by a mother for her son

Pic courtesy flipkart.com

Rhymes for Ranga
Written by Freda Bedi
Illustrated by Anna Bhushan
Published by Random House India
Ages: 6+

Remember Winnie-the Pooh? That bear who was a result of the wonderful tales A.A.Milne spun for his son Christopher Robin around his toy bear? Which parent has not told a bedtime story of their own making to a child who wanted to be told a story with elements and characters familiar to it? We all do it as parents sometimes. These stories may be loved by the child long after outgrowing them.

Freda Bedi, the writer of the book Rhymes for Ranga, did something similar. She was a British woman married to an Indian. When her first son Ranga was a baby, she realised that she did not know any rhymes for him which incorporated the surroundings familiar to him, activities and festivals. So she simply set about writing her own for him. This was in the pre-independence era- around the 1930s-40s, and these remained as a collection within the family. They were recently published by her second son, the actor Kabir Bedi, and here they are for everyone to enjoy. A mother's labour of love.

This is what she has to say in a letter to her son, which is published at the end of the book. "These rhymes grew up with you, Ranga, and they grew out of you, because it was sometimes the little words you said, and the nonsense songs you sang, that quickened something in me and gave them birth."

The rhymes are very simple, and speak of the family, the land, the familiar birds, animals and trees around, and common festivals like Diwali and Eid. They show how completely she had made this country and its people her own. She had joined in the freedom movement against the British, a fact that is reflected in her rhymes about Gandhiji, freedom and the tricolour. Towards the end of her life, she had embraced Buddhism and renounced everything to become a nun, and these leanings too are seen in some rhymes.

The dated feel of the rhymes adds to their appeal, for the India of the 1940s that they depict is very different from the India of today, yet very familiar- not very far from how rural India is even today.

The book is beautifully illustrated by Anna Bhushan, a multiple award winning UK based illustrator of Indian lineage. Very charming watercolours, in full colour, sometimes full page.

Here is one of the rhymes that will give a foretaste of the book.

One is a peasant, working with the plough.
Two is the milkman, milking a cow.
Three is a shopkeeper, selling his eggs.
Four is a gentleman, crossing his legs.
Five is a driver, his hands on the wheel.
Six is a housewife, cooking a meal.
Seven is a teacher, stern and tall.
Eight is a merchant, fat as a ball.
Nine is a dhobi, with a bundle on his head.
Ten is a thin man, with his wife well fed.

Can you imagine the figures?

Crossposted at Saffrontree.

I am entering this book for the Reading the World Challenge 2011 over at Papertigers.

Review- On My Honor

Pic courtesy goodreads.com

On My Honor
Written by Marion Dane Bauer
Published by Yearling books, an imprint of Random House Children's books.
Ages: 8-12, 12+

Peer pressure. Everyone faces it, children more so. It looms large in their small world, often leading to literally life-and-death situations.

Twelve year old Joel and Tony are 'best friends', very different in temperament, often squabbling and bickering, but inseparable.

Tony- exuberant, fun-loving, risk-taking, with a devil-may-care attitude. Joel, the more cautious of the two, introspecting, sensitive to undercurrents in a situation, a foil for Tony.

On the way to a cliff-climbing trip, (which Joel had earlier tried to wriggle out of, hoping his father would not give him permission to go), the irrepressible Tony had decided he wanted to go swimming in the river instead. The turbulant, treacherous Vermillion river, known for its rapids. Inspite of having promised his father 'on his honor', that he would not do anything dangerous, Joel falls for the bait when Tony accuses him of being over-cautious.

"Sometimes, Bates, you sound just like your old man."
Joel could feel the heat flooding his face. "What's wrong with that?"
" 'Be careful in that tree, son,' " Tony mimicked, " 'you might get hurt. Watch Bobby when he crosses the street. Those drivers never pay any--' "
Joel had been moving closer to Tony as he spoke, and now he gave him a hard shove.

Tony keeps needling Joel, driven by bravado and dare-devilry, goading him to challenge Tony to a swimming race to a sandbar a hundred yards away. With terrible consequences.

Peer pressure. Wanting to fit in. Misplaced confidence. A sense of being indestructible. A devil-may-care attitude. Inability to lose face. Unwillingness to be perceived as a 'coward' when being just sensible and careful. A recipe for disaster?

Marion Dane Bauer has written a fast-paced, racy, but sensitively told story based on a real incident that happenned in the town where she grew up, at the very same place as described in the book. A very short, 90 page book that is very hard-hitting.

Bauer's potrayal of Joel's effort to get out of what is very clearly a fool-hardy venture, without losing face- first hoping that his father would not give his permission, then trying to make Tony see sense is very realistic. It happens ever so often in our own kids' peer-group. The disaster comes on unexpectedly, chillingly, with everything else seemingly the same, unchanged.

The potrayal of Joel's survivor guilt is heart-wrenching. The disbelief, denial, anger, dissociation, grief, a desire to hide, not face the parents, an obsessive 'washing-off of the stench of the river', are powerfully written. It helps, that his father is understanding, trying to help him let go of the paralysing, mind-numbing grief.

The wracking sobs flowed out of him like water.
His father held him for a long time, saying nothing, until Joel's tears came without sound and his breaths were quivering gasps. Even then, his father held him.
"Do you believe in heaven?" he asked at last. "Do you believe Tony's gone there?"
"I don't suppose anybody knows," his father answered gently, "what happens after...I believe there's something about life that goes on. It seems too good to end in a river."

It is a Newbery Honor winner, 1987, and the William Allen White Childrens' book award winner, 1989. A wonderfully written book, that chills me on each reading. Given a thumbs-up by A.

Crossposted at Bookreviews and Saffrontree.

A Summer To Die

Another book by Lois Lowry. This one is for IHM, who lost her daughter Tejaswee recently, and for Starry, who so bravely shared her loss with us.

Image Courtesy Amazon. 

A SUMMER TO DIE
written by Lois Lowry
Published by Delacorte press, an imprint of Random House.
Age 12+

Two sisters : Molly and Meg. Very different persons. Both in their teens.

Molly is the older, tidier, prettier, golden-haired, outgoing, happier, more popular, cheerleader type. More like her mother in temperament. The one who wants to grow up to get married and have her own babies...babies to love and take care of.

Meg is the younger, messier, plainer, dark-haired, reserved, upended, difficult, not-easily-popular type. More like her father in temperament. The one who is passionate about her photography hobby, developing and printing her pictures in her own dark-room. The one who is going to grow up to have a career. Be 'a writer, or an artist, or a photographer.' The one who looks up to and admires her older sister, everything that she aspires to, but isn't.

The two often do not see eye-to-eye, and there are frequent fights, as only sisters so near-in-age, but so different from each other, can have. Inspite of that, are inseparable.

That summer, they move to the country where their father, who is a professor of literature, can get peace and quiet to finish the book he has been trying to write.

The girls start getting settled at their new school, when things take an unexpected turn. Molly starts getting nosebleeds. At first it is diagnosed as something to do with summer, and hormonal, but it turns out to be something more sinister. Molly has cancer. And it is incurable. She is going to die. 'It's as if she has become, suddenly, old.' Molly is wasting away- She has acute myeloid leukemia.

Her parents had not told her the bad news for a long time, not until they were sure of it, and were able to deal with the reality of it. Until she realises it herself one day. When Molly is taken away to the hospital, with no idea when she would be back.

"I knew then that they hadn't wanted to tell me, and they knew that I knew, that Molly wouldn't be coming home again, that Molly was going to die."

Meg cannot believe her beautiful older sister, the one who was going to be a bride, and have many babies, will die before the summer is over. It makes her feel very angry. It isn't fair!

"Why Molly? Dad, I'm the one who threw up on my own birthday cake, who broke the window in kindergarten, who stole candy from the grocery store. Molly never did anything bad!"
"Meg," he said. "Meg, don't."
"I don't care," I said angrily. "Someone has got to explain to me why."
"It's a disease, Meg," he said in a tired voice. "A horrible, rotten disease. It just happens. There isn't any why."

Molly passes away before the summer is over. It is a summer in which Meg grows up. Through her sorrow, she discovers her own voice, her own worth. She finds a friend in Will Banks, the seventy years old owner of the house that they have rented. Will becomes her student, and learns photography from her, and in his turn introduces her to the wildflowers growing all around. Helps her to find herself- likening her to the fringed gentian, a shy late-bloomer that flowers deep in the woods, long after other flowers have reached their glory and gone.

He also helps her to mourn her loss, and her encounter with mortality.

'On the drive home, I told my father, "Will Banks said a line from a poem to me once. He said, 'It is Margaret you mourn for,' and I told him I never mourn for myself. But I think he was right. So much of my sadness is because I miss Molly. I even miss fighting with her." '

There is a parallel story in the book about a young couple Ben and Maria, who have moved into another of Will's cottages, and who have a baby before Molly passes away. It is a re-affirmation of life, of it's continuity.

At the end of summer, after the book is finished, the family does move back to London. But Meg does return to the place as she has promised Will that she would be there to see the fringed gentian bloom. Healing is on its way.

Here is a poem about the fringed gentian that I would like to share, which is so like Meg's journey.

To the Fringed Gentian
by W. C. Bryant.



Image courtesy wikipedia 

 THOU blossom bright with autumn dew,
And coloured with the heaven's own blue,
That openest when the quiet light
Succeeds the keen and frosty night.

Thou comest not when violets lean
O'er wandering brooks and springs unseen,
Or columbines, in purple dressed,
Nod o'er the ground-bird's hidden nest.

Thou waitest late and com'st alone,
When woods are bare and birds are flown,
And frosts and shortening days portend
The aged year is near his end.

Then doth thy sweet and quiet eye
Look through its fringes to the sky,
Blue—blue—as if that sky let fall
A flower from its cerulean wall.

I would that thus, when I shall see
The hour of death draw near to me,
Hope, blossoming within my heart,
May look to heaven as I depart.

And here is the poem about Margaret, which helped Meg deal with her loss.

Spring & Fall :(Margaret, Are You Grieving?)
by G. M. Hopkins.

Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By & by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you wíll weep & know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sorrow's springs are the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What héart héard of, ghóst guéssed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.

A wonderful book, written in her usual sensitive style by the two-times Newberry award winner, Lois Lowry. In an afterword, she tells us that as she wrote the book, she was remembering her own sister, who was lost to cancer many years ago. That does not, however make the book an autobiography. The setting, situation, all were fictional. What were real, though, in her words, are 'the feelings. The relationship between the sisters-best friends and worst enemies, sidekicks and bullies-complete with the jealousies and bickering, as well as the fierce, protective love. The anger, helplessness, and anguish that overcome an entire family caught in an unfair, inescapable situation.'

Of increased prices and a book won

Auto fares in Bangalore are up from Rs 14 to Rs 17 minimum. It takes a while for the meters to be re-calibrated. For the past few weeks, whenever we travelled by auto, it was always one with an old meter. So there we were, consulting a printed list of revised fares everytime. Until yesterday, when we boarded an auto to go to the library.

A immediately noticed that the meter said 17 oo.

"Aai, the meter is not right." A.

"Hosa meter idiya? (Is it the new meter?)" I asked the driver.

"Haudu, amma.(Yes, Ma'am)" he said.

"The auto rates have increased, A. This meter has the new rate." Me.

"So now we have to pay 17 instead of 14?" A.

"Yes." Me.

"Why?" A.

"The government has recently increased the rate, A, because the price of petrol or gas, on which this auto runs, has gone up." Me.

"So because the autowallah has to pay more for the gas, we have to pay him more?" A.

"Yes, you're right." Me.

"So if we had to pay Rs50 to go till the library earlier, what do we have to pay now?" A.

Doing some quick mental math, "Maybe Rs 60-62."

"So everytime we have to pay him Rs 12 more. That means we will have that much less with us." A.

"That's right, A." Me. Told her about how everything goes up in price as a result of gas rates increasing.

We went along in silence for some time, during which I was mulling over the slightly more we always end up paying because of 'cannot get a customer from the outskirts,' or 'there is no change,' or the ubiquitous 'haggling' that Bangalore autowallahs indulge in.

"But Aai, then even Baba's office should pay him more. Otherwise we won't have any money left if we keep paying everyone more."

I hope the husband's employers are listening!

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Image Courtesy Amazon 

On a different note, I had written earlier that I had won a signed copy of Wake Up! written and illustrated by Katie Cleminson at a giveaway contest at a favourite blogger's blog, Playing by the book. The book arrived in the post yesterday, and A and I are thrilled with it.

WAKE UP!
Written & illustrated by Katie Cleminson
Published by Red Fox, an imprint of Random House Children's Books.
Ages:  2+ Read aloud, 4+ Read alone

The book takes you through a day of a child as he gets up, gets ready and goes to school.

It then takes you through his day at school, learning, listening up...and up... playing and having fun.

Then he goes to play after school, where he climbs trees, swings up...and up...on a swing, jumps and slides, and has a lovely time altogether.

Then he goes in to dinner with his family (consisting of a lion, a hippo, a cat, an elephant and a racoon!) to eat up...and up...until

it's time to wash up...and up...and then to choose the perfect book for bed-time reading and then to cuddle up...and up...and go to sleep.

A wonderful book. As she has told Zoe in her interview, Katie Cleminson uses a pipette to do her illustrations, with a lot of watercolours, charcoal, and pencil and brush for detailing. The lines have that slightly raw, scratchy look that I instantly associated with with the application of henna.

The illustrations are lively and you can almost feel the flow of the child's activities. They, along with the simple words of the story had A enthralled. Reminded me of the time when she was 2-4 years old, and her favourite bed-time story would be one with her as the central character doing all the things that she did in her day.

Thanks, Zoe. You can read her review here.

The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas

A very different book on the Holocaust. One that was crying out to be written.

THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS
Written by John Boyne.
Cover illustration of a boy. From the Panstwowe Museum Oswiecim Brezinske, Auschwitz. By Ali Campbell.
Published by Black Swan books for Random House.
ISBN: 978-0-552-77380-5
Ages: This could be disputed. Check out this interesting discussion and judge for yourself.

Image: Courtesy GoodReads.

Bruno is the 9yr old son of a senior Nazi officer, and lives with his parents and elder sister Gretel in Berlin. His father is posted 'to a far-away place,' Auschwitz, so the family has to move. Against his wishes, he is taken away from his friends to a place where his family are the only occupants of a solitary house, with no neighbours, and certainly no little boys to be his friends.

"All around the house in Berlin were other streets of large houses...he liked to stand in front of these stalls and close his eyes and breathe in their aromas, feeling his head grow dizzy with the mixed scents of sweetness and life. But there were no streets around the new house...when he closed his eyes, everything around him just felt empty and cold, as if he was in the loneliest place in the world. The middle of nowhere."

So there was Bruno, with no friends, an elder sister who was more into teen interests and parents who were distant, and who do not answer his questions about the change. Until one day, Bruno looks out of a window into the distance, and sees a huge wire fence extending in both directions further than he could see. Beyond the fence, there were "nothing but low huts and large square buildings dotted around and one or two smoke stacks in the distance."  The place was teeming with people men, young and old, boys, too. But no women. They were all "wearing the same clothes as each other: a pair of grey striped pyjamas with a grey striped cap on their heads."

Bruno is puzzled by all he sees, but gets no answers from anyone. When he asks his father who all those people were, he is told "Those people...well, they're not people at all, Bruno." A Nazi officer's view of the Jews. Bruno asks his mother and sister about them, asks the maid too, but gets the same answer: Just keep quiet, don't ask too many questions, and just keep themselves safe until all this is over. But no good answers.

So Bruno decided to explore the inside and the outside of the new house. The inside was soon done, and there wasn't much to explore outside on their side of the fence, so he decided to go walking along the fence. Inspite of being warned countless number of times not to go anywhere near the fence or the camp. What was a boy to do with no-one to play with, no-one to speak to and nothing to do?

So he sneaked out and went for a long walk along the fence. The whole area was deserted, except that he saw a speck in the distance on the other side of the fence, who he realised was a boy about his own age when he came nearer, a boy in the striped pyjamas and an armband with a star on it.

courtesy wikipedia

They got talking, and soon became friends. Shmuel, the boy, told him that he and his father lived there and there were hundreds of boys there. But they all always had fights, so he had come there to be on his own.

"It's so unfair," said Bruno. "I don't see why I have to be stuck over here on this side of the fence where there's no one to play with...Why are there so many people on that side of the fence? And what are you all doing there?"

Questions similar to the ones he had asked his family, and had been fobbed off. So now Bruno gets answers from a boy his age. Someone who knows that he and his family had to leave their home and come to this place in a horribly crowded, smelly train, and that his mother had been taken away from them along with the mothers, aunts, grandmothers and sisters of the other boys. A boy who is as much unaware of what it was all about as much as he is. Who has been uprooted from the familiar as much as he is. A kindred soul. Like any other nine-year-olds, they try to make sense of their world from whatever they know of it from what is happening. A very dangerous thing, as we soon realise.

Bruno decides to keep his friendship a secret. 'After all, he reasoned, they might not want me to be friends with him any more...when it came to parents...what they didn't know couldn't hurt them.' So their friendship continued, and Bruno went every afternoon to that spot near the fence, and Shmuel was always there. 

Then one day, lice are found in Bruno's hair, and it had to be shaved off. Upset by this, his mother insists that she and the children go back to Berlin. But now Bruno does not want to go back. What happens after that is horrifying- a twist in the tale. Read the book to find out. It has also been made into a movie in 2008.

The ending packs quite a punch. An innocent boy, at the wrong place at the wrong time. The boy in the striped pyjamas. The horror of the Holocaust comes across in unexpected ways. Without there being anything explicit about the horror. No descriptions about the torture, the killings and yet mind numbing. 

Tracks leading to Auschwitz II camp
Courtesy wikipedia

Auschwitz is in Poland, and had two camps: Auschwitz I which was a concentration camp, and Auschwitz II which was an extermination camp. Both were operational from May 1940 to January 1945, when it was liberated by the Soviet army. An estimated 1.1 million people were killed there, mostly by gassing (using an insecticide gas Zyklon B), but also by torture, illness, starvation, medical experiments by the infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele or point-blank killing. The dead included not only the Jews, but also ethnic Poles, Gypsies or Romas, and Soviet prisoners of war.

After the war, Auschwitz I was restored by the Polish government and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum (Panstwowe Museum Oswiecim Brezinske) was established, in honour of the victims of Nazism. Auschwitz II was preserved  as it was, and a visitor gets a feel of the horrors of this infamous extermination camp. It is an UNESCO World Heritage site.