Books.Books.Books - Wonderful Books!

I have always loved books throught out my growing up years - there's little time to read now a days - but the love for books and the pleasure of reading the backcover and picking up a book is tempting! Hubby treasures his childhood Sherlock Homes and the many Targets, TinTins which are now torn, turned brown but locked in a safe!

Not sure if becuase of that S likes books but today when he told me that he is very excited to go to school because he has library class, I feel good - not that he will become a great scientist or a philosopher when he grows up but happy to relate to him. Just the thought of being in the middle of tons of books, freedom of picking any book you want, turning through its leaves and putting it back is - enlightening.

Obviously his interest in books is way too different from us when we were his age - he is into Nature Science, Dinosaurs, Reptiles and other graphical and sometimes gory books - I can't even stand a picture of a Gila monster in one of his books! My early books were the gentle Enid Blytons...I guess the new generation has the tendency to know and know more, perhaps moving away from Fiction.

On libraries, I wonder what libraries in schools now are like - do they have that bespectacled, qualified librarian who is super well-read and who knows the kind of books you might like, the small ladders to reach the top shelves, the 'silence please' boards which are always ignored, huge wooden long tables and comfortable chairs...and most important that smell of books. Ah, heaven...I most definitely enjoyed my school libraries the most. By the time we got to college, it was mostly limited to text books, and no time to sit and read. There were more hippier things to do, you see! And by the way, one of the "in-things" those days was also to visit the foreign libraries in town. The ones like the British and the American libraries. What fun it was visiting them - trying to look busy browsing in midst a rather hip and intellectual crowd!

Sadly, there aren't many around - and the crosswords of the world - definitely can't replace the old library charm. Hope our next generation gets to have fond memories with books and their adobe starting from school!

Explaining Natural Disasters to Kids

This post is triggered by a fancy and imaginative story about demons and monsters who created a tsunami, which S recently narrated to me. He apparently heard it from his friend who was told so by his mother.

I believe every parent has a way and method to explain natural disasters to kids. In this new age media where dramatic pictures are all across television and print, it is impossible to shield children from brutal reality - and may be we should not.


With what happened in Japan, S's (who is going to be 7) curiosity knew no limits - his questions ranged from what is a tsunami to if Japan still exists as a country or are we short of one country in the world!

It is hard to answer all their questions where you are balancing between being practical and at the same time assuring. After all, how would one respond when the kids ask - "what if it happens to us"? I usually respond by saying, hope and pray it doesn't and ever happens to us. But that leaves me wondering if that is enough - how do we prepare them for future, how do we make them brave, how do we make them resilient?

As someone said, let them be, they will learn on their own. And surely they will - but I believe a lot of our kid's behaviour is a reflection of our own - we need to be more prepared, brave and resilient. In a crisis situation, do they see us as facing it head-on or are we getting worried, stressed and breaking down. From what I see in Japan, people have been awesomely stoic and brave even after what they have been through. I haven't seen many wailing people across streets on television - perhaps thats taking things head-on. Perhaps their children have been and will be better prepared for future - even if it means going through a nuclear disaster...only time will tell! Surely something for us and our kids to learn...