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Kahani Bags Coveted Parents’ Choice Award - again!

Kahani, a South Asian literary magazine for children, announced today that it has won a 2008 Parents’ Choice Approved Award, its second such award from the nation’s oldest and most respected authority on children’s media products.

Thousands of books, television programs, magazines, and toys are submitted for contention every year. “Kahani is among the small percentage selected to receive a Parents’ Choice Award,” said Claire S. Green, president of the Parents’ Choice Foundation.

The nonprofit has been reviewing children’s media products since 1978. Only 20% of the submissions get the seal of approval. “The fact that this is our second Parents’ Choice Award is huge,” said Monika Jain, editor. “There is always the novelty factor with Kahani because there is no other magazine like it out there,” she said. “But winning two years in a row: that means the Foundation subjects Kahani to the same strict criteria as all mainstream magazines.”

“It’s solid recognition of Kahani’s quality and content,” Jain added. It won alongside National Geographic Kids and Sports Illustrated Kids.

Kahani, which means story in Hindi, is a children’s literary magazine illuminating the richness and diversity that South Asian cultures bring to

North America

. Published four times a year, it is full of short stories, art, activities, and fun facts. Unlike most magazines, Kahani does not publish any advertising and uses a subscription-based model. Subscribers include schools, libraries, and families—some as far away as Bermuda. 

         
The magazine showcases the work of South Asian writers and illustrators from around the world. The magazine’s online home can be found at www.kahani.com.

-- Syerah

 

We are not in Pakistan: Short Stories

Shauna Singh Baldwin
will be reading from
WE ARE NOT IN PAKISTAN: STORIES
Thursday, April 24th, 2008
at 7 pm at the
Toronto Reference Library
in the Beeton Auditorium

The ten stories in We Are Not in Pakistan illuminate a paradox: love and fear draw us together, yet drive us to extremes of separation. Sixteen-year-old Kathleen believes her family would be normal if not for her Pakistani grandmother. Olena a Ukrainian woman living in Moscow discovers that her husband's exciting new posting will draw her dangerously close to her disapproving mother-in-law. Fletcher, a Lhasa apso finds himself in the middle of a game between his mistress and her commitment-phobic boyfriend. Tania tries to transform herself from an exotic dancer into the wife her doctor husband wants.

Opposites clash and realign till the very last story, when Dr. Karanbir Singh receives an email from a young woman who professes to be the child of his 1980s green-card marriage. Eliciting amusement, curiosity, and wonder mingled with sadness for our post-9/11 world, Shauna Singh Baldwin lures us into intimacy with the displaced men, women and other animals who populate We Are Not in Pakistan. Along the way, she explores our complex human responses to technology, art and most of all, our fellow humans.

Check it out!

Syerah

Books with Buzz!

Ready for some summer reading?  Here are two suggestions (courtesy of Zenia from Desi-Lit Toronto):

The Jadu House by Laura Roychowdhury

Kharagpur is a Raj railway colony in West Bengal. The mock-Tudor bungalows, well-appointed gardens, red-brick churches and Railway Institute were built a hundred years ago for Anglo-Indians and engine drivers exported from Britain. Holed up for the night in the old railway inspectors' guest house, the author, a married British academic, has come here to hunt down the untold colonial history of the Anglo-Indian community, the fruit of illicit liaisons between the lower classes of the British Raj and Indian women. Her companion, Subhrasheel, is a young Bengali student she has recently befriended in Calcutta who is curious to find out more about a mixed-race community that his friends and relatives hold in contempt.

In the darkness of a power cut, veiled behind mosquito nets and with the jarring scents of diesel and jasmine rising from the damp monsoon earth, they tell each other stories of Anglo-India. Surrounded by the ghosts of the past, they conjure up the voices of Anglo-Indians they have met in Kharagpur and Calcutta or read about in moldering, forgotten files, throwing a very different light on the Raj experience as it is usually told. Whether it is the tale of Colt Campbell, a cowboy from the Wild East, or Harendra Krishna De, who was driven mad by the rules of the railway until he imagined himself to be Prince Albert, or Mahkin, the concubine who remained faithful to her fickle British lover, their stories unsettle our ideas about race, culture and nationality and show that the taint of outcast status still remains.

 

Love Marriage by V. V. Ganeshananthan

In this globe-scattered Sri Lankan family, we speak of only two kinds of marriage. The first is the Arranged Marriage. The second is the Love Marriage. In reality, there is a whole spectrum in between, but most of us spend years running away from the first toward the second. [p. 3]

The daughter of Sri Lankan immigrants who left their collapsing country and married in America, Yalini finds herself caught between the traditions of her ancestors and the lure of her own modern world. But when she is summoned to Toronto to help care for her dying uncle, Kumaran, a former member of the militant Tamil Tigers, Yalini is forced to see that violence is not a relic of the Sri Lankan past, but very much a part of her Western present.

While Kumaran’s loved ones gather around him to say goodbye, Yalini traces her family’s roots–and the conflicts facing them as ethnic Tamils–through a series of marriages. Now, as Kumaran’s death and his daughter’s politically motivated nuptials edge closer, Yalini must decide where she stands.

Enjoy and let us know what you think of it!

- - Syerah

The Age of Shiva

On March 26, Manil Suri will be at the Harbourfront Centre reading from his greatly anticipated new novel, The Age of Shiva, at once a powerful story of a country in turmoil and an extraordinary portrait of the devastating conflicts of a woman's heart.  Manil Suri was born in Bombay. His first novel, The Death of Vishnu, was awarded the 2002 Barnes and Noble Discover Prize, shortlisted for the PEN/Faulkner Award and was received with international critical acclaim.

March 26, 2008 at 7.30 pm

Brigantine Room 
HARBOURFRONT CENTER
100 Queens Quay

About the book: Coming of age in Delhi in the fifties, Meera takes her father’s atheism and progressive attitudes for granted, but she keenly resents the tyrannies of her favored older sister, who forces Meera to play the go-between in her romance with the handsome Dev. When Dev is dumped for a more suitable fiancé, Meera rashly attempts to console him; soon she is stuck with yet another of her sister’s hand-me-downs—this time, forever. Dev drinks too much, and his family lives in a one-bedroom flat by the railroad tracks. Only when Meera conceives a child will she truly have something to call her own. Suri’s second novel is a sensuous, nuanced portrait of motherhood, but it also sparks with the frictions of being female in an India where television soaps and political slogans compete noisily with Hindu myth. Here a wife may find herself eating the scraps off her husband’s plate one day and spitting on him the next.

- - Syerah

Beat the cold with Three Cups of Tea

Winter has arrived. As I look outside my window, I see rooftops, roads, and all things green, covered in a thick layer of snow. It’s the first major snowfall of the year.

When I was younger, I remember feeling overjoyed by the mounds of fresh snow, and welcoming it by wearing my snow pants and tobogganing down the hill in our school yard.

But now, things are a little different. I went out for a couple hours to shovel the driveway, and I couldn’t believe how cold it was. Every time I took a breath, I felt like the icy air was going to freeze my insides, even thought I was wearing a bazillion layers. I never remember it being THIS cold when I was younger! Brrrrr…

So, when I came back inside, I decided to make a cup of hot tea to help myself defrost. I know hot chocolate, cocoa and coffee can all do the job too, but there’s just something special about a steaming cup of tea (or chai as we like to call it) .  As many South Asians know, tea has all sorts of magical qualities. It can chase away the flu, help with digesting a meal or serve as a drink of choice when families visit to solidify marriage unions.

However, Greg Mortenson, an American mountain climber, learned just what kind of value a simple cup of tea has in Pakistani and Afghani society.

In 1993, he came across a small Pakistani village in the Karakoram mountains after an unsuccessful quest to climb K2, the second tallest mountain the world. Inspired by the kindness of the village people, he decided to undertake mission to build the village their very own school.

As he shared numerous cups of tea with village people across the mountainous regions of Pakistan an Afghanistan, Mortenson quenched his thirst to provide education for thousands of children who would never have gotten the opportunity otherwise.

Mortenson help build over 55 schools, including schools for girls. In the novel, Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, the authors recount Mortenson’s skillful ability to submerse himself in a culture so different from his own, in order to “promote peace…one school at a time.”

Although a cup of tea has many purposes, Haji Ali describes the role of a cup of tea in Mortenson's humanitarian efforts best.  Ali, a village Chief from the Karakoram Mountains says "Here in (Pakistan and Afghanistan), we drink three cups of tea to do business: the first you are a stranger, the second you become a friend, and the third, you join our family, and for our family we are prepared to do anything - even die."

Take a break from the cold and curl up with this worthwhile winter read.  Mortenson's extraordinary and selfless efforts are not only going to make you thirsty for a hot beverage, but will warm your heart.

Keep warm!

Until next time... WORD!

 

 

South Asian novelists nominated for Governor General's Literary Award

According to the Toronto Star, South Asian-Canadian novelists, Michael Ondaatje and M.G. Vassanji have been nominated for this year's Governor General's Literary Awards.

Onjaatje, author of The English Patient,  has been nominated for his fifth book, Divisadero. While Vassanji has been nominated for The Assassin's Song.

Both authors are nominated in the English-language fiction category. Click here to read the full article about the awards, authors and other Canadian nominees.

Short and Sweet

As a journalist, one of my main goals when writing an article is to write economically. Instead of using four words to describe something, I try and use one. However, in literature, the rules of the game are a little different. It takes pages of description and explanation to develop characters, climax to the conflict, weave in irony and resolve issues.

But some writers are able to take the formula of a long-winded novel and re-package it into a smaller literary offering known as a short story.

One of my new favourite authors, M.G. Vassanji has a great book of short stories called When She Was Queen. The Giller-Prize Winning author tells stories of East Africans living in pre-revolutionary Tanzania and their connection to the familiar streets of East York.

The title story in Vassanji's book is about a young East African man living in Toronto who tries to figure out what happened to his mother the night his father, Rashid, lost her to his friend during a reckless night of gambling.

Shauna Singh Baldwin's We Are Not in Pakistan also includes ten stories of characters from various walks of life, living a paradox. From a sixteen-year-old girl, Kathleen who has a Pakistani grandmother, to a Punjabi doctor who receives an unexpected e-mail from a girl claiming to be his daughter, the stories are about people who are or feel "displaced."

I've always preferred reading a novel over a book of short stories. Short stories have always reminded me of Grade 11 English class and the hours spent analyzing symbolism and metaphors.

But after reading these books, I look at short stories in a different light. They have the same depth and meaning as a long novel, but take less time to read. It's something any good writer - or reader for that matter- can appreciate.

Until next time... WORD!

The Song of Kahunsha

I've only been to India once. It was a three-week long vacation filled with visiting ziyarats (mausoleums where religious leaders are buried), eating chaat on the streets and haggling in bazaars in whatever city we were in that particular day.

Although there are many visible differences between India and Canada, the one I found most interesting and disturbing was the thousands of beggars on the street.

When I was in Mumbai, we would often have men, women and children knocking on our car window asking if we had spare change. To be honest, it was quite scary at times. Sometimes beggars would even slip their hands through a slightly rolled down window while we were stopped at a red light.

Unlike me, my savvy cousins in Mumbai were immune to being accosted by the poor. But I always wondered what it feels like to live on the streets. Are the poor aware of their social status? What does it feel like to not have enough to eat - or worse, not have an education? Do they have dreams like me?

Anosh Irani's new book, The Song of Kahunsha answers these questions and much more. The novel is set in the busy streets of Mumbai in the early '90s in the midst of religious violence. The reader sees the world through 10 year-old Chamdi's eyes.

As he ventures from the confines of his orphanage in search of his father, Chamdi meets siblings Sumdi and Guddi. In hopes that one day the exciting and unsympathetic city of Bombay will become Chamdi's fantasty city called Kahunsha, we see that the dreams of the poor are not so different from our own.

The Song of Kahunsha, a Canadian bestseller, was chosen by CBC Radio as 'Canada Reads' selection this year.

Dutch MP Proposes Ban on Qu’ran

A couple of days ago, I was flipping channels when I came across a story on BBC News that frustrated me- and made me a little angry.

According to BBC, a Dutch MP proposed to ban the Qu’ran in the Netherlands. He compared the Qu’ran to “Mein Kamph,” a book written by Adolf Hitler, the leader of fascist Germany during World War II.

The UK Reuters website reported that MP Geertz Wilder said, “Ban this wretched book just like Mein Kamph is banned. Send a signal… to Islamists that the Koran can never, ever be used in our country as an excuse or inspiration for violence.”

I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears after watching the story. I couldn’t believe that elected politicians could be so ignorant.

I am aware of the stereotypes broadcasted by news media about Muslims being evil, turban-wearing terrorists – but that is not who I am. So, as a Muslim, I feel it is my responsibility to give people like MP Wilder an education.

To me, the Qu’ran is far from “an excuse or inspiration for violence.”

If MP Wilder read the Qu’ran, he would know that the Qu’ran like other religious books provides guidance, encourages peace and good will, and helps people lead fulfilling spiritual lives. It also brings hope and healing.

Religious texts make up a substantial part of South Asian literature. They are the pieces of a mosaic that encourage the diversity of languages, colours and ideas – especially in India.

It is sad that a few terrorists have been able to manipulate Islam to feed their own interests. But war, bombs and violence is not what Islam is to me, or the majority of Muslims.

I am glad that the Dutch government is not supporting Wilder’s preposterous and racist views.  In fact, I believe MP Wilder’s statements ironically coincide with Hitler’s plan to eradicate the Jewish people. MP Wilder has publicly spoken out about banning headscarves/ burqa’s worn by Muslim women and preventing Muslims from immigrating to the Netherlands as well.

I appreciate being able to live in a country that encourages religious freedom. I am fortunate that I am able to cover my head, read my Qu’ran and attend mosque – without fear. I hope MP Wilder realizes that his remarks are not only ignorant, but hurtful to many Muslims. It is time that we learn from history and move forward with open minds and open books.

Children's book tackles global issues

Every week, when my sister and I were younger, our parents would take us to the local library. Those were the days when we didn't have chatting services like MSN, own a c.d. player or weren't even allowed to watch TV for more than half an hour a day.

In the summer, we'd either walk or bike to the community library. Sometimes we would simply scan the shelves and pick out books. But if we were lucky, the library would have a special arts and crafts demonstration, magic show, or reading circle scheduled during vacation months.

My favourite books growing up were Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, Amelia Bedilia by Peggy Parish and EVERYTHING Robert Munsch - especially, Love You Forever.

But when I first started kindergarten, I didn't understand English because my parents had made a point to speak to me in Gujrati, so I would retain my mother-tongue.

It was hard learning English back then. But now, for some children, it might be a little easier.

Chadpur Press is launching a bilingual children's book in English and Gujrati. The Fisherman and the Cat by Keya Ashraf tells the story of a small village in India where local fisherman are being overtaken by commercial fishing.

According to Chadpur Press and ActionAid, the purpose of the book is to encourage bilingualism in Britain, unite communities and raise social consciousness. The publisher will also donate 5 per cent of the sale price of every book to ActionAid. The book will be released on Aug. 1.

In the press release, the author describes why it was important to tell this particular story.

"I used a traditional style of story telling to highlight the devastation that international fishing fleets cause local fishermen. In Bangladesh, where my family comes from, fishing communities are suffering from the impact of commercial fishing," Ashraf says.

"After writing the story I became aware of ActionAid's Take the Fish campaign and their work to stop Pakistani fishing communities losing out to corporate trawlers. It just felt natural that the sale of this book should help their campaign to highlight the link between global trade and poverty."

Although it is still unclear if this book will be released in North America, its nice to know that children are being made aware of global problems at an early age, so they can get a head start on coming up with the solutions.

Until next time... WORD!