In his long life of 89 years, Ruskin Bond has gained enormous experience and a large fan following across the country and beyond — among children who are still children, the children who have grown up into handsome youth, and the children who are getting ready to enter the senior citizen club. When he speaks, people listen. In fact, there are people who take the trouble to travel all the way to Mussoorie just to be able to meet him and listen to him in person.
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One question that teachers and mentors have to face on a routine basis is — how to talk to children. The question is asked in a general sense — spanning across diverse fields, like talking to them about social and behavioral issues, storytelling, science, and education in general. Communication with children is a problem because the usual prevailing methods either treat them as stupid or use a language which is far advanced for their age. If you have ever spent even a couple of minutes with a child of any generation, you must have been astonished at the gross underestimation of their intellect. This is even more pronounced in the current times of large information inflow when children are exposed to and are aware of advances in diverse fields. When I receive books for children for review, this is the aspect that I look for, and sometimes I do get disappointed at the underestimation of children’s understanding of scientific concepts and their curiosity. There are some very good writers, some of who are also good artists. Even if they are not, this task can he delegated to professional artists. So there should not be any problem with presentation of content — in design or illustration. The only task — the biggest taste — is an accurate understanding of the child’s mind, its needs and likes.
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This is my first review of any Sudha Murty book. I had previously gifted couple of books to my niece but I myself never had read any of her books. If you are even casually aware of the Indian literary scene, then you would know that Sudha Murty is one of the leading writers of Indian English literature, particular of children’s books. I had watched couple of her interviews on YouTube and was impressed by her simplicity and charm. So I decided to give her a try and check for myself her style and the content of her books.
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Astronomy, astrophysics and planetary science are testimony of humankind’s curiosity. A peculiar feature of this curiosity is that it is not satiated by a hypothetical or mythological explanation; on the contrary, any unconvincing explanation only adds fuel to the curiosity. Humankind doesn’t stop at contemplating the various possibilities, but explores and investigates the problem using whatever tools are available at its disposal — theoretical calculations, experimental measurements, or even space missions. Understandably, it doesn’t stop at finding answers to immediate problems, instead every resolved problem pushes the boundary to investigate further, farther, deeper, more. We haven’t yet completely understood the earth, our exploration of the planets is still an ongoing process, and we have already started seeking the boundaries of our solar system, and what lies beyond it.
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It was his birthday. I called him up with a lot of enthusiasm and excitement to extend my wishes. But upon my wishing a long life full of love, happiness and success, the way I do most of the time, he replied in a disappointed voice, “What use is a long life, living till 80 years, when my eyesight would have fallen, joints gone weak, maybe no teeth? It’s better to live a short but healthy life.” And he was saying all this on the day when he had reached 42 years of age! In short, he poured buckets of cold water on all the warmth I was trying to convey. I wanted to ask his rationale behind associating old age with fragility, weakness, and maybe multiple illnesses. Why couldn’t old age remind him of the long experience which he would have acquired, several people he would have come across, several bitter and sweet memories, several events which he would have witnessed in his life and which will certainly go down in history books one day? I wanted to ask these and several other similar questions. But it was his birthday and I did not want to upset him, irrespective of the fact that he himself did not find any charm in that.
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Once I suggested my friend who was fatigued from office work to take a short break and start again when feeling fresh. She replied that she can’t even think of sitting idle, doing nothing. Nothing — ‘doing nothing’, ‘saying nothing’, ‘thinking nothing’ — is something that scares people off, for some it is something inconceivable. But this nothingness, whether of space or time, is something interesting and opens doors to new and interesting experiences and insights.
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Today I will share with you the summary and my views on the book Penny, The Engineering Tail Of The Fourth Little Pig by Kimberly Derting and Shelli R. Johannes, and illustrated by Hannah Marks, which is the third and final book from Capstone Editions that I have recently received for review. While going through these books, I spent some time scrolling through Twitter timeline of Capstone Editions, and came to know the wide spectrum of popular science books published by them. It is indeed a commendable job and worth appreciating. The future of society lies in the hands of future generation, and how the future generation would look like is decided by the type of investment we make in them. Considering the change in brain activity with age, it is important to ‘catch them young’, inculcating habits from an early age. Science is not just about learning facts and understanding the world around us; instead, it teaches us to go beyond superficial appearances, dig below the surface, and examine everything logically and rationally. It is these concerns that make the contribution of Capstone Editions and similar publishers all the more praiseworthy.
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I am not sure whether I understood the the book Think Like An Artist Don’t Act Like One by Koos De Wilt correctly. The title seems to suggest aspiring artists not to consider their art merely as a set of skills or their profession, instead to inculcate an artistic mindset and lifestyle so that everything one does has an aesthetic or an artistic element in it. I was sure that this is what the book is about and that it would be full of motivating, inspiring and stimulating passages that would keep the creative fire aflame within me. This is important because in arts, like in any creative pursuit including science, it is very common to succumb to monotony and lose interest or initial vigour. Thus, any words of encouragement and inspiration are always helpful. I wonder how far would creative people go when left only to their own inner fire, without any encouragement from outside.
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In this post, I would share my opinion about the second out of the three books meant for children that I have received for review. The book is titled Moving To Mars, written by Stef Wade and illustrated by Erin Taylor. The title is self-explanatory to a certain extent. This book is meant for children and is part picture book and part story book. Here space science or rather space exploration is presented as a potpourri of art, science, and humour. I haven’t yet come across any other book of this nature and never thought that science in general and space science in particular could be presented in such a charming manner. This book is unique on all accounts.
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In my early youth, I loved strolling on my terrace looking at stars, enjoying cool breeze and letting my mind wander off in random thoughts. This favourite pastime got interrupted when I entered PhD. But I remember that day when, without any thought or intention, I climbed up the stairs to the hostel terrace and spent not just couple of minutes, instead around 2 – 3 hours. However, this time they were not random thoughts, instead I was looking at my life lived till that day. It had been a long journey and hopefully I still had a long way to go. To my own surprise, I had a strong memory and recollected quite well all the major and minor incidents of my life. It was a refreshing experience as it put my whole life into proper perspective showing the journey of life as a single showreel.
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Pradyot 