A Wandering Mind

We are a family which speaks   more often in English or Hindi than in our mother tongue – Tamil. We are more comfortable in these languages, and don’t even know to read and write Tamil properly. But there is one field in which our mother tongue comes first, and we discovered that when my son was born! We most often spoke to him in English/Hindi, but when it came to playing with him, the first songs which came to mind were the ones our grandmothers sang – in Tamil! We had to try hard to remember the words of some of the songs and rhymes, but somehow, we enjoyed those a lot more than any English rhymes we could sing….. In fact, for the first time I realised how wonderful they were, and thought of recording them for posterity. As things happened, we had no time for that, and we soon forgot all about them as my son outgrew that stage…. Thanks to   Tulika, and their fourth blogathon,   I now have a chance of re-remembering some of them…. so here I go…. Note:   please exc...

First, apologies to Tulika for the delay in putting up this review…. Things have been so hectic of late, I have tons of stuff to write about, and no idea when to! Second, this is supposed to be a review of ‘Upside Down’ from Tulika books, but is more about the experiences we had with this book, which I thought would be more appropriate in this case…. Hope all of you like it….. When Tulika Books announced their blogathon , I was surprised and pleased to see that the topic was one that had been haunting me for a while – the feeling that I should teach my son our mother-tongue, the issue compounded by the fact that I had to first learn it myself! Well, I sat down and poured out all my thoughts on my blog, and there it was, my contribution to the blogathon, and I thought that ended matters. It was therefore a big surprise when Tulika announced that all contributors would receive books soon! I happily sent in my address and waited for the post to bring me the first bi-lingual boo...

Tulika’s blogathons are giving me lots of things to write about, more importantly, topics which I relate to. This week’s topic is their book ‘Water Stories from around the world’, launched just recently. Take a look at the slideshow about the book . The topic triggered so many things, I just had to write about it at once. Warning! This is going to be one long post, with no photographs at all! these are a compilation of my thoughts at the moment, not all related to the book, but to water, in general, a topic which is very much at the forefront of all my thoughts these days……. When we first came to Bombay in 1980, it was a wonder to see water flowing 24 hours a day, since we came from Delhi , where water cuts were a regular feature, and something we were used to. In no time at all, we were so used to the constant water supply that if the water did stop, all we did was rush to call the watchman, and ask what the problem was. Usually it turned out to be something connected to the pump...

Tulika Books has come out with a blogathon , and here is the first topic…… How different are the written and spoken forms of your first language? If you want children to become familiar with their first language, which form would you look for in children's books - formal or informal? Why? The minute I read this , I wondered what to write about my mother tongue, which I speak, but barely…. read, just about, and write, not at all…. Contrast this to the fact that I can speak, read and write English, Hindi and Marathi very well, can read and write Sanskrit, and even talk passably good French, in addition to writing and reading well in the language. Add this to the dream I have of learning German some day…. and you will wonder if I ever wanted to learn my mother tongue, which is Tamil. Growing up in Delhi and Bombay , my mom tried her best to teach me Tamil. My summer vacations were devoted to learning the language with her, and she even brought me loads of books from T.Nagar on ou...