Thursday, November 19, 2009

Rumniya

One of the greatest fears a young child has would be that of getting lost. I bet each of us has a story to tell about how they got lost and found and all the drama around it. I have one from the time I was three and a bit and the fact that I remember it all in vivid detail tells me how much of a big deal it must have been to me.

The flashback was brought on by Pratham Books' cute little book called Rumniya, written by Rukmini Banerji. The delightful illustrations by Henu remind me of this artist called V.B.Halbe who used to illustrate Shikari Shambhu in Tinkle (all those who remember him, raise your hands please!).


Little Rumniya, all of a year and a half, goes to a wedding with her Nani and Nana. She is attired in a lovely lehenga and bangles and looks exactly like any Indian kid on a festival/family event. The venue is done up with flower strings and colourful buntings. Waiters are going around with trays of drinks, guests are greeting each other and folks are joyfully tucking into the wedding feast. Soon Nani and Nana meet their friends and start chatting and little Rumniya, well, gets lost in the crowd.

Instead of crying (like how yours truly had!) she decides to do something. She figures that it would be much easier from her height to check out folks' footwear rather than trying to scan faces. So thats what she does. She goes around checking people's sandals and slippers till she comes to a familiar looking pair!

Needless to say this was a hit in these parts and with not just the kids!

10 comments:

Poppins said...

Aww that sounds like such a cute story and quite ingenious too :)

Meera Sriram said...

Seems like an adorable little book! My little one who never fails to notice (& remember) people's shoes, will be amused to find out that her "talent" can actually come to her rescue sometime..ha haa.ha:)

utbtkids said...

I was eyeing this book from pratham's online catalog.

Raising hand for Shikari Shambu.

I got lost at 12 months at my uncle's wedding and mom said after they found me I said that, 'The nice uncle asked me for my chain and anklets and I gave it to him.'

SoulSpace said...

love this, looks like a cute addition to the collection

sathish said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
sathish said...

:). I remember my bro' getting lost when he went out with Periappa.

And after he was found, he said - "Periappa is lost! We have to find him."

Sheela said...

How cute and how universal! Brought back memories of getting "lost" at the Madras Expo fair around 9 yrs of age - remembered my mom's beautiful saree and scanned for it in the crowd... of similar-looking sarees!!

Swati said...

bought it for my neice and loved it

Choxbox said...

thanks folks, and smiling at all your stories :)

Poppins said...

Managed to read this one Chox, very cute. Wouldn't you believe it, we found this book right after my littler one "got lost" (she'd climbed her way up three floors, before we found her - but it was a major drama for my older one).

Needless to say, throughout reading this book, we kept remembering the time Sweetpea was "lost". Truly a book that everyone can relate to since everyone has possible been "lost" sometime or the other :)

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