The little book of fish

Remember the very tiny alphabet book and the little red book of Malayalam Alphabet? We made another little book, this time about fish. This is dedicated to Daniel and his love for fish. 

Mee Mee is the kid lingo for fish in Malayalam. He calls fish Mee Mee! 

There is a tiny aquarium in dmy place in Kerala. That was bought in when Maman was a little boy. Maman was the first batch of DPEP, the primary education program that emphasized on alternative methods of learning. The aquarium is kept alive even now. I remember the little boy Maman obsessed with creating a perfect natural habitat for the fish. His text book told him to create an 'avasa vyavastha' for the fish. Avasa Vyavastha was probably the first ever big malayalam word he learned. Anyway, years later, Daniel too enjoys looking at Maman's aquarium and the fishes in their aquarial avasa vyavastha :) 

And like any other fellow Mallu, he loves his fish fry with his rice. :) That makes him a well rounded fish-lover.

His favorite fish is Rohu. While we are in North India, we try to overcome our coconut oil hangover and fry the Rohu pieces in Refined Mustard oil.

But we love other fishes too, sea fish, fresh water fish, dried fish, pickled fish, all kinds of fish.

And that is our little story about mee mee.

The little Red Book of Malayalam Alphabet

After the wild and unimagined success of the alphabet book I made for dan (it was the most widely read post on this blog so far and it got featured in Malayala Manorama, so double yay!), a little boy's pretty mom asked me to make a custom book for him. So I made one. My first attempt at making a full fledged hard bound book from scratch!

Ta-da!

The little red book!

Well, it is completely handmade and hand bound and I don't have a letterpress or professional cutting machines. So excuse the amateur look! 

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But it is pretty, no? I feel major amounts of pride in making it. :) 

                                                                      The title page

There are about sixty little pages and pictures. It will be impossible to post all the pages. And hence here is a sneak preview into few of my favorite pages...

Like this mother and child who are doing a balloon stroll...

Or this cute snail and chameleon perfectly rocking this pink page,

Or the medicine bottle and the teddy bear,

This father who sits cozily and reads a story to the child,

This little fellow peeping from the window,

This scene from the sea,

And D is always Dinkan in the mallu child imagination! :) Say it loud, folks! "Ethiralikkoru Porali!"

This stick figure Dolak player!

And the parrot which gave green its name and fame,

This charming fruit basket....

This deer whom Salman Khan might have wanted to pursue,

This cow, oh, this cow, does she need a description?

A lion in most child related households are zimba, but in our household a lion is always "Alex, the Lion!"

This pictogram representation of rain, the ultimate mallu fantasy!

This whimsical well with face and a smirk!

This kungfu kid!

This peacock, this fish!

The book will now rest and set under thick academic books we have in plenty. The book will then be sent off to the lovely little boy, Noonu :) I hope Noonu will like it. I will look forward to reader's approval from Noonu and shortly from his little brother/sister! :)

Thanks a lot Joshina Ramakrishnan for asking me to do this. Doing this was a really really happy experience! I also learned a lot about the lipi from the chats we had on facebook. :) Much love,

Handmade Alphabet Book in Malayalam

This was a craft experiment to see if I can make interesting yet sturdy books for Dan. Board books are available in English, but not in Malayalam. I wanted a simple 4 page book with thick paper so that he can easily flip it. The finished book is approximately about 7 cms long and 5 cms broad. It is perfect for Dan's tiny hands. It has no stitching involved, just simple folding and gluing. I used a single chart paper to make this book. The chart paper was first folded in half, then a cut was made in the middle to create a sense of different pages, then I used fevicol to keep the pages together. Once the basic book shape was done, I used water colour to cover the white space and put the letters and simple sketches down using Indian Ink. Now that this came out successful, I am going to make more Malayalam Board Books for Dan, probably write some stories and illustrate them too. I will take step by step pictures of making the book next time, I promise so that any one interested can try too. 

Take a look, take a look. 

Cover page for the mother and the son :) I am possessive and I show off a lot, whatever.

The "u" sound is for Umma, the word for a kiss in Malayalam. This is for my boy who learned to kiss even before he could walk or talk. I remember meeting fellow baby holding moms showing off their babies who could do all sorts of tricks including "smile and wave" and "namaste" the minute they turned eight months or so. My baby didn't do any of that when he was eight months. But if I kissed him, he would immediately kiss me back. This "Umma" is for my dear little boy. One good life skill you have mastered, my dear.

Since I am raising my child in Delhi, he is going through a lot of language confusion right now. We talk to him and talk to each other in Malayalam all the time at home. When we step out of the home, people talk to him and us either in English or in Hindi. Initially Dan had this blank expression to both English and Hindi. Now he responds to both these languages. He is more comfortable in Malayalam still, but I know things will change the minute he steps into a playschool. Hindi is bound to be the language he is going to grow comfortable with. But I wanted to do whatever little I can to help him be grounded in his mother tongue.

We subscribe to a Malayalam Newspaper, we have plenty of books around. But there should be more stuff to catch the interest of a child, especially when he is not surrounded by that language. This is what prompted me to try and work this out.

I have promised myself to tell him stories and now that this became successful, I will make storybooks too for him, I really hope. I will definitely teach him to read and write Malayalam. No, too many languages will not overburden kids. Kids are really smart, one should not underestimate their potential. It is easier for any kid to learn multiple languages as early as in utero.

Malayalam is the language his parents use, his grandparents use, all his relatives use. It is only through this language that he will relate with and connect to them all. I want him to have that connection. I want him to eventually be able to read and write in Malayalam, enjoy and understand the literature, the poetry, the movies, the abuses, the puns, the minute shades. I do not worry about Hindi or English for Hindi will happen when he starts playing with his friends in the neighbourhood. English will happen when he starts going to a school. This humble effort is for the Mother Tongue.

And my little reader approves, I think.