Children's Books

Reproduced below is a compendium of children's books that appeared in Young World of The Hindu today. A good list, I thought, when you are in the market next time to buy a book for your child. The first ten in this list were called out as 'Must Read.'

• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass: Lewis Carroll
• Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
• Charlie And The Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
• Heidi by Johenn Spyri
• The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett
• The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
• The Mahabharatha by Vyasa
• The Narnia Chronicles by C.S.Lewis
• The Ramayana by Valmiki
• What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge
• Hardy Boys by Enid Blyton
• Swami and Friends by R.K.Narayan
• Feluda series by Satyajit Ray
• Stories from Ruskin Bond
• Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• Treasure Island by R.L. Stevenson
• Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
• Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
• The Boggart by Susan Cooper
• Are you there, God? It’s me, Margaret by Judy Blume
• Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
• Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

Chikka Tirupati

Another day, another trip. This time to a nearby place, Chikka Tirupati which means 'Little Tirupati'. Twenty-seven kilometers from Bangalore city limits and a nice short drive away is this cute little temple. There are signboards on the way (my advice: when in doubt, just take the left!). Areas in and around Sarjapur are quite green and that makes this short drive, a scenic one.

There are many farms en route and we stopped in one of the Chrysanthamum farms on the way back. In addition to being great spas for the mind, these stops also offer good photo opportunities. While clicking our way to glory in the field, there was this one small boy who came running and was curiosly watching what we city aliens were up to. He figured out none of us had seen so many flowers in one single place together before and he let us have fun. I offered to take his snaps and in his true village innocence said, Yes and readied himself for the click. And when we walked back to our car 10 minutes later, there was placed on the windshield of our car a nice big chrysanthamum flower. Oh boy, you really warmed our hearts by this nice gesture.

Every short trip through a village always gives back nice memories. Village is where life is playing out. Producing real products from the earth. Where men and women are naturally in harmony with the environment. Where there is still place for little pleasures. Villages are real, authentic. For all the material comforts a city offers you, sad that it still lacks genuineness. Never warms one's heart and mind.

So here I am, blogging from a big city about a nice little village on the outskirts.

Happy Onam!