Archive for the ‘inspiration’ Category

On the agenda this weekend:  The Mahabharata by Peter Brook - the famed Royal Shakespeare Company director.  The film is over 20 years old (and about 6 hours long), but I’m eager to see his interpretation of the legend.

Here’s a clip exaulting the truly global casting of the film:

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Have you seen Sanjay Patel’s new Big Poster Book of Hindu Deities?  If you like his work, now you can see it enlarged – 12 removeable 11×14 prints with explanation text on the back.

We received this awhile back – and my daughter was oh-so-happy that now she could finally hang a poster of “Princess Sita” in her room (Sita art is not easy to find…).  Then she wanted more, and couldn’t decide, so she ended up with 5 posters lining her walls and closets.  Not how I’d choose to decorate, but in the interest of education, I let it be.

My older son (as competition, no doubt) wanted a Vishnu in his room, but in a surprising turn of events, he says to me “I don’t want the Cartoon Vishnu.  I want the Real Vishnu.”

I never thought about how kids visualize “God” – but lesson learned – even at a young age, it’s a very personal relationship.

So we hopped online and this is what he picked:

It’s now framed and hangs over his bed – a sharp contrast to his modern-style room – but he sleeps happy and content staring at the blue waters of the Eternal.

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I am at the gym the other day, with a back issue of The New Yorker – I see a poem entitled “Dothead” written by someone with an Indian name (Amit Majmudar) – so of course I’m going to read it.

“Well yes, I said, my mother wears a dot…”  The last few lines are (for lack of a better word) awesome - with a reference to Nataraja.

Full poem here.  Maybe I’ll start sending my kids to school with a ketchup packet.

Image from our Bindi Baby Books

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I’m no “tiger mom” (hardly), but my son actually wants to learn to play the santoor.  We went to a santoor concert about 6 months ago (read that post here) and by now he’s memorized the whole musical composition of the audio CD we purchased at the show.

But what’s a good age to start kids with music lessons?  At 5 1/2 is he still too young?  Or, according to proponents of the Suzuki Method, maybe he should have started the violin 2 years ago.

It seems that piano is the favourite starter-instrument in Western music circles – but what of the traditional Indian instruments?  It seems that age 7 is the magic number for starting kids on instruments like the tabla, sitar and veena (though age 5 may be OK for something like the mridangam).

Here are some guidelines published by the Children’s Music Workshop.  I also decided on a few ground rules of my own:
          1.  Kids should be eager to learn
          2.  They should have developed sufficient fine motor skills so they won’t get frustrated
          3.  Parents should have the time and energy to push kids to practice daily

I don’t think we’re there yet on #2 and #3, especially given the complexity of the santoor.  So for now, we’ll continue with basics of Carnatic music on the xylophone (see our post here – terrific for toddlers and up).

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Do you recognize the Indian instruments in the Google Doodle above?  It was created by 7-year-old Varsha Gupta – a Class III student from Ryan International School in Greater Noida.  It appeared on the Google India homepage today and was the winning entry in a Google Doodle competion in celebration of Children’s Day (Nehru’s birthday).

The theme was India’s Gift to the World.  In Varsha’s words, “India is a land of different cultures.  In India, music plays a very important role.  India has given many musical instruments to the world. Goddess Saraswati plays Veena, God Shiv plays Damaru.  According to our mythological stories musical instruments used to be played on all the occasions.  Even during war musical instruments were played.  Lord Krishna’s flute is known in the whole world for its magical music.  In modern days Mr. Zakir Hussain is world famous as Tabla Mastro and Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma is known as a great Santoor player all over the world.”

Here are some of the other finalists – selected from over 155,000 entries.

Developing Excellent India and World
Shibajyoti Choudhury (Group I), Little Flower School, Jamshedpur

India’s Contribution to the World – Tradition
Abhinav R (Group II), Stanes AI Higher Secondary School, Coimbatore

India’s Gift to the World – India Itself
Nishi Bordia (Group III), The Emrald Heights International School, Indore

Congratulations to all for the wonderful creations!

Images via IBN Live

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Nope, not this year.  (Well, maybe just a little – it’s hard to go back to life as usual after all that excitment!)

As we mark the final day of Diwali today, I am reflecting on some trends I noticed this holiday season.  Trends that are encouraging and give me hope that the beauty of the Diwali celebrations is finally catching on – finally being recognized and acknowledged even by non-Indians.

Yes, folks, this year Diwali was bigger, louder and as a community I think we really made some noise!

Here are some of my notes:

1.  Senate Resolution 291 – a resolution recognizing the religious and historical significance of the festival of Diwali for Hindus, Sikhs and Jains – was passed by unanimous consent in the Senate on October 21, 2011.  Full text here.

2.  We got a special Diwali Greeting by President Obama (again) this year.

3.  I noticed more of my family members and Indian friends and business colleagues took the day off from work and school on Diwali this year. 

4.  My Inbox was filled with many messages from my non-Indian friends and colleagues wishing ME and my family a Happy Diwali.  This felt wonderful.

5.  Last but not least, I noticed more people were shopping for their kids compared with last Diwali season.  Although it is my personal hope that Diwali will not become overly commercialized and remain focused on family and spirituality, I am sincerely happy that more and more families are actually celebrating Diwali with (and for) their children.

Thank you all for letting Gnaana be a part of your Navratri and Diwali celebrations.  I hope the energy and excitement we tried to create on our site, and the articles and resources we offered helped to make your holiday season extra special.

And let’s make even more noise next year!

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It all started with a children’s book – Going to School in India – for which authors Lisa Heydlauff and Nitin Upadhye traveled for a year collecting 25 inspirational stories of children going to school in India: how they get there, what motivates them to stay and study and how they learn. Going to School now has over 10 members on its team and has produced mini-books in regional languages and mini-movies – all with a message of hope.

You can purchase the book and a video collection, but if you have some time I strongly recommend checking out Going to School’s Main Site and viewing some of their videos and reading about their initiatives.  The wealth and breadth of information available here is a tremendous feat.

My son’s favourite is about Anita the Beekeeper (part of their Girl Stars series) in which a young girl Anita fights her parents to let her stay in school and gets creative to earn tuition money – first by tutoring other kids in her village and later by farming bees and selling their honey.

If your kids are having any back-to-school jitters read them the book or spend some time on the Going to School website with them – they are sure to be thankful for being blessed with easy access to education!

Check out this amazing organization!

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My family is going through a difficult time…I am reminded about this quote from Tolstoy’s War and Peace.

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image via I Paid a Bribe

I still feel like there’s a shotput in stomach whenever I think back to one of the worst days of my life:  my husband and I had just moved to Bangalore from the US and we had to go to the Bangalore aiport to claim some items we had shipped over.  The nightmare began as soon as we entered customs – you can’t bring in this and this, actually you can’t bring in any of this.  We only had books and a high resolution computer monitor – but they were medical books that my husband needed for his work – so of course their eyes were bulging rupees.

I don’t remember the exact amount of the “facilitation fee” we ended up paying – I think around 50,000 rupees (gulp!).  But I do remember feeling utterly powerless and completely helpless.  I even cried from fear when I was seperated from my husband for a brief moment (these men were obviously “above the law” so you can imagine what I was thinking…).

Corruption in India is the single reason I never felt safe living there.  Because, apparently, you can even get away with murder (see the Jessica Lall Murder Case, as dramatized in this year’s critically-acclaimed film No One Killed Jessica).

But there seems to be a new wave of hope sweeping over India – a grassroots movement in favour of empowerment of the people.  The movement is fueled in part by the leadership of Anna Hazare and by social media.  Check out www.ipaidabribe.org – a website where people can anonymously report incidents of corruption and tell the world what department was involved, the circumstances and how much they were forced to pay.  Genius!

Wherever you are in the world, I urge you to take part in this movement:  Join the Facebook pages of India Against Corruption and of I Paid a Bribe and spread the word to your friends and family.  If you live or travel to India and are forced to “pay up” – report it on IPaB.  As members of the Indian diaspora, we can help India be free and independent from corruption.  The web and social media makes it easy for all of us to have our voices heard.  And the strength is in the numbers:  India (finally) ratified the UN Convention against Corruption last month.

Gandhi gave the world Satyagraha.  India is now on the brink of breaking free from another captor – in a novel way that could yet again set an example for the world (Chinese activists have already copied IPaB’s model).  So, please, join the Anti-Corruption Movement – it is real, it has a leader and it’s gaining speed fast.

We owe our children a corruption-free India!

Tags: Gandhi
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“So why are Indian parents so into spelling bees?“  This was the question one of my friends (she’s Japanese) posed to me a few weeks ago.  Normally, I despise broad generalizations – but in this case it was so true.   I didn’t really know what to tell her – it’s like asking Chinese or Korean families why they insist on having their kids play piano or violin.

Really though – winning spelling bees has become a matter of pride in our community.  According to the Deccan Herald, even though Indian Americans make up only 1% of the US population, they dominate the spelling bee circuit.  Eight of the past 12 Scripps champs (well, now 9 out 13) have been of Indian descent.  We even have our very own exclusive South Asian Spelling Bee – started by the founder of the North South Foundation and sponsored by MetLife.  Imagine the stress level for those kids!

Some people criticize spelling bees – saying the immense amount of pressure to perform is detrimental to a child’s development, and that they don’t teach kids anything beyond the mere spelling. 

Will I have my kids do spelling bees?  I’m not sure – but I most certainly want them to compete in something that they are talented in  – be it sports, music, writing or something else.  Competition is thrilling, motivating and a fact of life.

Congratulations, Sukanya Roy – I hope you and others will inspire the spirit of competition in other South Asian kids!

Image via ESPN (2005)

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