booklist

The list is about halfway read with the top priority being the Fulbright recommended reading. These books were sent to us last week as the topics will be the focus of our pre-departure seminar July 1-3 at the South Asia Institute at the University of Texas, Austin. I am looking forward to meeting several of the authors.

Fulbright Booklist:
Stitching Identities in a Free Trade Zone
In Spite of the Gods
Darsan: Seeing the Divine Image in India
The Gujurat Series
Everyday Life in South Asia

Personal Booklist:
Eat, Love, Pray
Planet India
The Namesake
The Space Between Us
A River Sutra
Wolf Girls
Roller Birds of Rampur
Tales from India
Interpreter of Maladies
Culture Smart! India
Ghandi
Indian Fairy Tales
The Sari Shop
Holy Cow
A Fine Balance
Homeless Bird
The Magic Flute
The Room on the Roof
Vagrants in the Valley
The Conch Bearer
Jahanara, Princess of Princesses
Daughter of the Mountains
The Mirror of Fire and Dreaming
East West Traditions

Brenda’s Booklist:
Untouchable
The Painter of Signs
Third Class Ticket
Nectar in a Sieve
A Handful of Rice
Train to Pakistan
Chemmeen
Pather Panchali
Godan
I Shall Not Hear the Nightingale
A Life Full of Holes
Learning about India Through Indian Eyes

Related to Sri Lanka:

Running in the Family
Anil’s Ghost
When Memory Dies
On the Fifth Day
Buddhism in a Nutshell
Explorations and Excursions

intriguing tidbits

Planet India (Kamdar) lends a comprehensive perspective on the largest Democracy in the world. Here are some little facts that struck me as I was reading:

• “There are 22 official languages in India. India’s diverse population includes Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Jains, Zoroastrians, Jews, and animists.”
• There are “800 million people who live on less than $2 per day.”
• “India is the world’s youngest country. Fifty percent of India’s people are under the age of twenty-five. By 2015, there will be 550 million teenagers in India.”
• “India is facing a severe water crisis. With 17 percent of the world’s population but only 4 percent of the world’s freshwater, India’s water resources are already stretched beyond capacity.”
• Walt Whitman wrote about India in Leaves of Grass (1855):

Passage to India!
Lo, soul, seest thou not God’s purpose from the firs
The earth to be spann’d, connected by network,
The races, neighbors, to marry and be given in marriage,
The oceans to be cross’d, the distant brought near,
The lands to be welded together.

storytelling

Looks like learning about these fables, tales, myths, and legends will give me a little insight into Indian folklore. Sounds like many of these stories, though centered around animals or mythological figures, have a moral theme of friendship or getting along with one’s neighbors.

Now if only I could learn to read Telugu script!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vikram Betal Stories

Panchatantra fables

Rama and Sita tales

Stories of Birbal

Stories of Tenali Rama

Ganesh myths

Mahasona legends

Jakata Tales

 

 

india info

The list of books to read about India is growing…

Planet India
In Spite of the Gods
The Untouchables
Interpreter of Maladies
Eyewitness India
Stories from India
Tintin’s India Diary
The Jungle Book
Kim

         

hai means yes!

In order to share my experience with my middle school students, I wrote this book:
Hai Means Yes!

book blog

I’m fascinated with the way people use words, authors particularly. Graham Salisbury uses words to create vivid images so that I can see the events play like a movie in my mind. “The tension outside the Japanese camp in Honolulu was so tight you could almost hear it snapping in the air. Pop mumbled, ‘Bad, bad times’ and mashed his lips together” (p. 1). The use of onomatopoeia lets me hear the character’s struggle.

Salsbury is also a master of the simile. Here’s a description his dog: “That ratty dog stuck to me like glue.” And can’t you just picture Pop? “He was forty-eight years old and starting to get a bouncy stomach. His undershirt was white and clean, tucked into his khaki pants that hung on him like drying laundry, bunched at his waist with a piece of rope” (p. 3). Figurative language appeals to the sense of sight, helping the reader visualize events and people.

I also enjoyed this metaphor – a highly creative comparison – that uses the techniques of personification: “The sun was just climbing into a pink morning sky. Out to sea, the ocean breathed slow and soft, a body sleeping under silk” (p. 17).

This author sure makes it easy for a reader to see what he’s saying.