LEAF FEEL ....an Environment story for 7 - 10 year olds.

Farah and her friends often played in the park. They were particularly fond of an old banyan tree. Its long hanging aerial roots made super swings and reminded them of Tarzan's jungle tree home and the old, wild climbers called liana.

They named the tree Banyano. It had a thick, gnarled, solid trunk, and seemed even to have a grandparent sort of personality!

One day the children came earlier than usual for their games. They noticed a young girl sitting at the base of Banyano. She had dark glasses, and a white stick. As the children approached, the girl - she was Usha - gathered up her things. They noticed she was blind.

Farah jumped forward to help. They bumped into each other and laughed. Soon all the children became friends.

"Lets play a game," Farah said.

"Hide and seek," Ira suggested without thinking.

"Oops!" Ranjan said, pointing silently at Usha who smiled at their awkwardness.

"I'll play too!" she said eagerly.

Joel was the Den.

In seconds most of the kids had hidden themselves behind trees and in the shrubbery. Farah noticed that Usha managed fine, inspite of her handicap. She watched as the blind girl, with amazing confidence, felt her way to a great hiding place with her hands and her cane.

What's more, they couldnt find her till the end of the round!

When the game was done, the children gathered round Usha and wanted to know all about her. Where did she study? How did she go to school? Could she read Braille?

Banyano, the old Banyan tree seemed to enjoy this conversation, and wrapped his long leafy branches around the children.

Next evening, the gang met Usha under the tree again.

"Lets play my favourite game today!" she said.

She made them all find a partner. "Blindfold your partner," she said to one of each pair. Holding the blind partner's hand, each pair had to find a big tree.

"FEEL your tree," she now said to all the children. "Check out the bark....are there any crinkles? Any scars. any branches?....Leaves? What do they feel like...?"

The children concentrated on what she was saying. Ten minutes later, she called all the pairs back to Banyano, and asked them to undo their blindfolds.

"Can you find your tree now?" she asked the blindfolded players.

Not many could! You see, the blind can "see" with their fingertips. We have to learn to "see" with ours!

"I never noticed how different the tree barks are," said Joel.

"Yup," said another child. "Powdery, paper thin, ever so hard, or with a sticky gooey resin...."

The park manager happened to pass by at that moment. He stopped and overheard their remarks, and guess what?!

He asked if they would like to paint new name boards for all the major park trees, so that children like them could find out more about those trees.

And thats EXACTLY what they did that summer holiday! Now the park is famous in town, and just about everyone knows about Banyano and all those old trees.

In fact, if you walk past Banyano, you may even hear a chuckle.....or is it the wind?!

* Illustration : Leela Gour Broome

HILL CHILLS - an Environment story for 7 - 10 year olds

Siya and Dhruv explored the Manali hillside. The air was clear and clean.
"Our city is so polluted!" moaned Dhruv.

They puffed their way up the steep slope, saw a large rock at the top, and sat down.

"Look at that ugly hillside," said Siya, pointing at the hill slope opposite, covered in red mud. Not6 a tree or a blade of grass. Remnants of slate roofed hovels were visible at the bottom of the slope.

A lone figure climbed slowly up towards them.

They noticed her weather beaten face....an old woman, with large earrings, swaying wildly.

"Namaste" she greeted them. "Where're you from?"

They told her. "And you?" the children asked her.

"That little house down there," she said, pointing to a dot in the valley. She described her home and family. She told them she climbed the hill each day to cut fodder for the cow. The children wondered how she managed that - she was atleast sixtyfive years old!

"This hill is gold for me," she told them cheerily."I get all that I need from here....grass, twigs for fuel, young fern heads for us to eat, once a week, wild flowers for puja, fresh water from the spring."

The children gave her an apple, chatting as she ate it. She told them the year before a businessman had come from the city. "He bought the entire slope," she said, pointing at the muddy hill opposite. "They cleared the hillside of all its trees and planned to start a ski resort."

"We hill people watched them and told each other "tch, tch, tch, they will have trouble, these people from the plains. They do not understand the ways of the hills....."

"Ah, they had great plans. The workers said visitors would come, there would be jobs for all... ..but the old people from our village watched and said, "What will happen in the rains...?"

The old woman shook her head, her earrinhgs dangling.

"Hill people do not meddle with Nature's ways," she told them. "A ski slope has tobe very smooth. Soon the hotel on the hilltop was ready. The first winter was perfect....." The woman looked morose.

"Last week we had five days of heavy rain. On the fifth night, we were all asleep when we heard this horrible rumble...oh! it was scary....then, so-o-o- quiet. We rushed out and looked across the valley....no lights, no voices...no people...The hillside just simply got washed away down that mud slope onto the houses in the valley. It covered everyone's home....Pukar Singh, his wife and child, my brother's entire family, even the cows and the horse...no one was left alive. It was very sad...." she said under her breath. A glint of tears, then she picked up her basket and sickle.

They said goodbye, and headed down the hill towards their parents rented cottage.

"I think we 'educated' people know so little compared to those who live with Nature," said Siya.

Dhruv nodded.

"Perhaps we need to make rules about leaving Nature's places alone," he said with a new understanding in his eyes.

* Illustration - Leela Gour Broome

CONSERVATION CONVERSATION - an environmental story for 7 - 10 year olds

Aranya and Mihir often went with their parents on trips to Sanctuaries. They loved India's wild life - big and small mammals, reptiles, birds, even the creepy crawlies!

They enjoyed this sort of holiday much more than watching TV or going to five-star hotels!

Last May they were at Mudumallai Sanctuary.

"Oof! This awful holiday traffic!" exclaimed Aranya, as vehicles of all shapes and sizes whizzed by in both directions. Suddenly, their guide sounded an alarm.

"Elephants...! " he whispered, pointing to his left.

They spotted a baby elephant, surrounded by several more elephants. The herd - well known to the forest guards - walked slowly and majestically across the road, just a hundred metres in front of their jeep. A heart stopping, awesome sight!

Next day they were shocked to read in the local newspaper, that a large tusker had been killed by poachers in the sanctuary the previous night.

"WHY?" asked the children in anguish.

"It's tusks were huge. That would fetch the poachers at least two lakh rupees," the forest guard told them.

"Can't we do something to stop them?" Aranya asked her father.

"There are ways to stop the poaching," Papa told her. "But first we have to make people aware that ivory and elephant products should NEVER be bought. If we all stopped buying them, the elephant would not be killed anymore..."

That day they discussed this with Mr.Krishnan, a famous businessman in Coonoor. He offered to help. They spent five days meeting local businessmen, collecting donations.

On day five, they printed 50,000 copies of these words on sheets of paper.....

' PLEASE HELP TO SAVE THE ELEPHANTS!
a) NEVER buy ivory products
b) Shoot elephants with a camera, not with a gun.
c) Tell everyone around you never to buy ivory and why!

WOULD YOU RATHER SEE ELEPHANTS IN A MUSEUM,

OR ALIVE IN OUR
SANCTUARIES ??? '

Then they went to the local schools and colleges, shops, forest department offices, guest houses, cafe's and restaurants, even local homes.

They left small bundles of copies at all these places. On Saturday, a local tribal chief came to visit Aranya and Mihir.

"We also need a healthy jungle," he told them. "We want to help. Tell us how.......!"

Mr.Krishnan and the forest officers held a meeting with the tribals and offered ten of the young men in the tribe a monthly salary.

"Help us to keep guard on the local elephant herds," he said."Tell us if you spot anyone trying to sneak into the forest, especially any poachers."

"Yes, yes" they nodded eagerly. "We'll also warn the shopkeepers not to stock ivory stuff! We wont supply them honey, if they don't listen," they said as they left.

The Forest Department called it "Operation Hathi Bachao".

Now, tourists who visit Mudumallai are surprised to see more elephants on the road as they drive by, and often there is a large tusker in the herd. Wonderful, proud, majestic creatures!

Aranya and Mihir like to think they had something to do with that!

* Illustration by Aranya Pathak Broome , 8 yrs.

EARTHQUAKE BOY

This is the name of my first book for children 12 plus.
The story is about a fourteen year old boy found in a fallen down building in Bhuj, five days after the quake that struck in Jan 2001. Rushed off to hospital, they discover that he has amnesia, and cannot recall anything about himself.
Through the pages, the reader discovers about his nature and his talents, and a very gradual understanding of his background. Dubbed Binna - Bey Naam, ie Without Name - by the hospital staff, he recovers physically, but still has no idea of his own family, his background or his past.
When he's about to be shifted to a local orphanage, as no one comes forward to claim him, he runs away.
There are several scenes in Mumbai, his journey by train to the big city , and his encounters with a street gang and its boss. He eventually finds himself a job and a place in the hearts of several people, whom he helps in small ways.
There are street scenes in the old shopping area of Pune, and his escapades on the Mumbai platforms, as well as his interaction with a home for street children in Mumbai. Also a couple of chapters deal with the Ganpati festival and the life in Dharavi, the largest slum in Asia.
Eventually, ofcourse, he discovers his own grandmother, still living in a Wada in a historic part of Pune city. And gets to be reunited with her, and all the other families living there.




FLUTE IN THE JUNGLE

Thats the name of my second book for children aged 12 plus. Its a story set in South India, in a beautiful sanctuary. Ashiya, thirteen, is the only child of a Forest Ranger, and attends the local village school.
Her mother abandoned her when she was just three, to return to the stage and Bharatnatyam. Ashiya is lonely, and has few friends. She also has a handicap, having had polio as a young child.
But, she's intelligent, and has a keen interest in nature and the biodiversity around her. She's much more comfortable in the forest birdwatching and interacting with wild life, than in school with her classmates.
The story centres around her obsession with learning to play the flute after she hears it once in the forest........her father having banned music in the house after his wife leaves them. He's afraid his daughter,too, will abandon him, and make the stage her life, and forbids her to learn the instrument.
There is a parallel thread in the story. It tells of a rogue elephant, who starts out being awfully dangerous and unpredictable, and at the end of the story, he turns over a new leaf and surprises everyone with his changed behaviour. The reasons for this change and his connections with Ashiya and the flute master who teaches her, are left to the end.
Ashiya takes many lessons with the musician, against many odds, and unknown to her father.
Eventually, she plays the flute at a special occasion, and surprises him with her skill. She also tells him she would like to continue with her masters research work with a local tribe - the Kurumbas.
At the end of the story, the reader gets to know of her future plans, and everyone lives happily ever after.