Shivani Adib's Blog, page 3

Meandering Down Memory Lane As My Third Book Is Released

The joy of releasing a book never grows old! The Magicians of Indrostan is my third published book and first self-published one. The release follows close on the heels of a recent interview , which two events nudged my thoughts on a short trip down memory lane.

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One question I’ve encountered with some regularity, as a reader and as the mother of two readers, is: “How do you get your children to read?” Alternatively: “How can I get my child to read?” The answer is simple. Begin reading to them...

Book Review: “The Tales of Beedle the Bard”

When you (and your children) are bitten by the Harry Potter bug, one thing that’s sure to happen is a burgeoning curiosity about books connected to the series. One such book is The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J. K. Rowling.

Kiddo the First had been after me to vet these tales (I read the book a few years ago and recalled there were some gruesome elements, so told her I’d have a dekko at it again to check the level of gruesomeness before she picked it up). She dug it out of the bookshelf, plac...

Remembering Tempestuous Times With Unwell Toddlers

Glad to be back to my blog after a hiatus thanks to an unusually severe respiratory tract infection (though not an entirely unproductive break – I was interviewed! https://www.kalaage.net/interview/shivani-adib). In between bouts of coughing, spells of feeling feverish, and periods of what felt like permanent exhaustion, I spent some time contemplating the ill times and the well times over the years (being stuck in bed does do that, doesn’t it). Just a few years ago when the children were qui...

Of Sibling Spats And Bonding Through Bickering

Siblings squabble, whether more or less! It’s inevitable, and it’s a rare day when a parent of more than one child, with not too much age difference between them, isn’t bombarded with high-pitched complaints and treated to an unearthly rumpus because one child is bugging the other and the other either retaliates or yowls for Mama (or, like my son, sagaciously does both). My brother teased me unstintingly when I was little, whether by pulling my braid, inventing stories featuring him as the he...

So, Do Bookworms Want To Play Sports?

It is sometimes presumed that being a booklover is synonymous with scant interest in playing sports. Undoubtedly, it is true that there are few tasks more difficult than unsticking a young bookworm from its book. Certainly, when I was a child I was greatly reluctant to leave my books to go out to play – had to be forcibly booted out by the mater otherwise I’d have been glued to them day and night (naturally, this fondness did not extend to school books)! I am, however, by no means averse to p...

Creating Musical Magic With Children

Music, quite as much as books, has been an integral part of my growing-up years. My father lovingly amassed staggering portions of classical music – Hindustani, Carnatic, and Western – and these as well as my mother’s versatile singing form an indelible part of my childhood. Extremely versatile, the mater – she sings with equal skill everything from bhajans and ghazals to Connie Francis and Harry Belafonte to Geeta Dutt and Sonu Nigam. She’s also learnt all the ragas that I learnt over five y...

The Spellbinding Dr Seuss

If I had to choose one author whom I consider synonymous with my children’s early years, that author would unquestionably be Dr Seuss*. Whether we talk about the entrancing board books for infants, the marvellous range for toddlers, or the amazing books-with-a-message for older children, all are a delight to read aloud! The catchy poetic metres of Dr Seuss’ verses, the nonsense words, and the fantastical illustrations draw children to his books like ants to honey (and a nuisance it is trying...

What To Do When Your Child Shuns Books And All Seems Lost

There isn’t a book-loving mother in the world who will not shove a book in front of her infant the instant its eyes begin to focus. In keeping with the unwritten Book Code by which we booklovers abide, my parents and I made sure that both my children were submerged in books almost from birth, leaving no stone unturned on the path that leads to glorious bookwormhood. Juhi, my senior offspring, has always stayed true to the Code. Books have to be wrested from her grasp and she has to be forcibl...

First Blog Post (being about The Plight of a Bookworm When She Becomes a Mother. And Harry Potter)

When you start a blog with a dozen ideas floating around in your head, it’s pretty much a given that you’ll spend the first hour staring blankly at the words “First Blog Post” with glazed eyes and not the foggiest notion which swirling idea to pluck from the Pensieve. What works best for me when writing stories is to just start writing and let the ideas sort themselves out on their own. Which is what I’m doing right now. It’s amazing how words just keep appearing magically, like in the Maraud...