A little bit of Magic

I had ordered my copy of the book with “The Story Lady” written by Shruthi featuring in it from Flipkart and it got delivered yesterday. Holding it in my hand was a very different experience, a first for me, mainly because I’ve purchased hundreds of books over the years, but this was a new thing for me – buying a book written by someone whose writing I have followed for so many years now and who I know to be one of the finest writers I’ve ever read on blogosphere. So here I was with a book actually written by someone known to me.

To say I couldn’t wait to read out this story to Nannu is an understatement, both for the above mentioned reason as well as the fact that this was something completely different from her usual fare of fairy tales and the make believe stuff that S and I conjure at the very moment of story-telling. So I announced the new book to her as soon as I got home from office and obviously she insisted on seeing it immediately! The colourful book cover and the images thereof got my daughter, who loves colours in any case, all excited. And the next logical step (at least for Nannu) was to have the story read out to her even before dinner time. A few bawls later, she and me settled down with the book opened in my hand and her running her fingers along the illustrations.

Since I myself hadn’t read the story before, it was a revelation for me as well. I started reading the story aloud, and for some reason, even though it is a fantasy, I found a strange logic to the tale. :-) I just changed the name of the little girl in the story from “Meenu” to “Nannu” (sorry, Shruthi, but I’m sure you will understand) and went on this little journey with my little one hanging on to every word.

Since Nannu is only 3.5 years, I used Hinglish to ensure she understands what I’m reading to her though I also made it a point to read the English first and the explain it again. About the story itself, I won’t divulge any of it as I would definitely like every parent to discover it for themselves. But I would definitely go on to say, it’s a very sweet and imaginative one with a lot of attention to detail which may be the reason for my concurring with its logic. :-) It gave my child a fresh perspective about the stories she so loves hearing from us and I could see her actually sitting with her mouth and opening and trying to grasp this new idea that Shruthi has put across so well.

Since this was just the first time I was telling this story to her, she was more interested in listening but knowing her, I am sure she will ask a lot of questions when she hears it second time round. :-) Also, obviously I am still to tell her the other story in the book by Rachna Chhabria so thats a different session altogether. S too, will soon have the chance of venturing into this magical world described by Shruthi with Nannu by her side – and I say magical not just because both S and me are big big fans of stories in general. :-)

So, Story Lady, how about now compiling a book full of such stories now?