News Room

"LAUNCH ‘PARTY’ "- Deccan Herald, October 16th, 2005

Living history

The party started early. Streams of tiny children, dressed in stiff khadi with false moustaches and Nehru caps stood around expectantly in Crossword, waiting to take the stage.

Sprawled around them in a semi-circle were students of various schools who had come to witness the book launch of Subhadra Sen Gupta’s latest 4-books history series for children entitled Once Upon an India. The books were released on the day before Gandhi’s birthday in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Dandi March.

A play, performed by members of the Bangalore School of Speech and Drama, was staged to mark the occasion. Called Marching to Freedom, the play was based on a story from one of the books. It portrayed events preceding and upto the Dandi march through the eyes of Dhanni, a 11-year-old boy who lived in Sabarmati Asram.

Dhanni has a goat named Binni and wants to be part of the Dandi march. A serious faced Gandhi (with skincap askew) kindly explains to him why marching to Dandi is not such a good idea since he isn’t old enough to keep up with everyone else.

Dhanni acquiesces after realizing that there are things he can do at home ( like look after Binni) which are also important for the welfare of the nation. The play culminates with tiny tots marching before the audience singing “Sabarmati k santh, tune kar diya kamaa”.

Dialogues from the book came alive with inventive props, authentic costumes and some inspired acting. Not one of the young children messed up their lines, faltered or broken scene.

After the play- which was treated to hearty applause by parents and bystanders alike-there was a short talk by Mr.Koujalgi, a freedom fighter from Karnataka Sarvodaya Sangha, who encouraged the assembled children wear Khadi at least once a week and also demonstrated the use of a charka. He spun thread from cotton and explained how the charka was used as a means to counter British machine-made cloth that dominated the market before independence.

The books were then released by the Chairperson of Pratham Books Trust, Rohini Nilekani, who asked the assembled children to help their poorer friends by helping Pratham books provide reading material for them. (Pratham Books is a non-profit publishing house for children.)

There was also a short quiz on Gandhi, which the children participated in enthusiastically and finally a chocolate cake was cut to celebrate his 136th birthday.

All in all, the programme was a most refreshing tribute to the father of the nation.

The books are priced at Rs.100 and come in Kannada, English and Hindi. They are packed in a cover that resembles a tailed kite and promise to be informative as well as entertaining.

CHERYL D’COUTO