Dancing in the Rain--Actually a Monsoon!

For the last few days, I've been especially drawn to the picture book Monsoon by Uma Krishnaswami (author) and Jamel Akib (illustrator). Maybe it's because I just got back from India, and the book is about an Indian girl who is eagerly awaiting the arrival of the monsoon. Or maybe it's because I'm working on a picture book manuscript with an Indian theme, and I want to read lots of other books with Indian themes. Or maybe it's simply because it's been raining here lately, and rain is on my mind...  

I do love the rain. I love its rhythm--the thumpety thump of the drops against the window pane. I also love the mood a good rainstorm can gently ease me into. So calm, so relaxed, even when thunder booms and lightning sparks across the sky. I love the book Monsoon, too, because it makes me feel the same way.

Uma Krishnaswami has such a beautiful way of describing the activity in the streets of India as all different kinds of people await the much needed rains to break the thick summer heat. Her writing is so full of sights and sounds, smells, and emotions that you really feel like you are experiencing the story as you read the book. (I think the fact that I've been to India several times makes this effect even stronger.)

In the street, a taxi driver honks

an angry horn, 

but the cow is tired

and will not move. 

Wheels inch around her. We laugh.

The driver frowns

and wags his head at us,

and tears off in a cloud of dust.

The illustrations by Jamel Akib are gorgeous. The colors in the book are bright and plentiful, just like the colors of India. But the images are also a little blurry, sort of how things might look when you view them through a rainstorm. I think this quality, along with the poetic nature of the text, contributes to the peaceful feeling I get when I read the book.

So, what does all of this have to do with dance? Well, because I was feeling so drawn to the book and wanted to feature it on my blog, I came up with a couple ways to weave dance into my post. First of all, in the last scene of the book, the young girl and her brother "dance with the joy of earth's sudden sweet scent." What a lovely ending.

But also, in an author's note in the back of the book, I found out that classical Indian dancers have special hand gestures for several words related to rain. I looked into this a little more and learned that these hand gestures are called mudras, and each one has several meanings, depending on the context of the dance and the subtle differences in the way the hands move during the gestures.

In the video above, the first of the single-handed mudras is called Pataka, and it can mean clouds. The second mudra, called Tripataka, can mean thunder. Lightning and umbrella are among the other rain-related words that different mudras can represent. What a complicated, but beautiful, form of dance. 

Complicated but beautiful is probably a good description of India as well. And Monsoon--well, that's simpler. It's just beautiful!

UPDATE: Not long after I posted this review, Cynthia Leitich Smith interviewed author Uma Krishnaswami over at Cynsations. It's a wonderful interview that includes some great advice for other writers and some background information on Uma's new middle-grade novel The Grand Plan to Fix Everything. You don't want to miss it!

Thakitta Tharikitta: The Rhythms of Indian Dance

Today is my last day in India, and I wanted to make sure to blog about a book related to Indian dance while I was still here. I chose Thakitta Tharikitta Bouncing Ball, by Jacob Samson Muttada (author) and Ashok Rajagopalan (illustrator), because it captures some of the rhythms of Indian dance. I wish I knew more about all the different forms of Indian dance, but I know that at least some of the rhythms in the book are from Bharatanatyam--one of the most popular forms of dance in south India.

At the opening of the book, little Abu is playing with his big red ball. But before too long, the ball rolls away, and Abu's adventures begin...

Thakitta tharikitta thakitta tharikitta

Abu plays with a big red ball.

Tharikitta thakitta tharikitta thakitta

The big red ball runs away.

The ball rolls and bounces further and further away, and Abu chases it all over his village--up the mountains, down the hills, through the market, and elsewhere. Each time the ball ends up somewhere new, we hear a different sound used in Indian dance. Thom! Deem! Thindanam tha!

My understanding is that when Indian dancers hear these different sounds, they know exactly what dance steps correspond. I believe they first learn the dance steps to these sounds, and once they understand the "language" of the dance, they set their steps to music.

I found a great video of very young children performing Bharatanatyam only to sounds (without music), and I found it amazing that the children were such accomplished dancers at such a young age. You can see the video here.

The book doesn't seem to be available in the U.S. market at the moment, but it is available from the independent Indian publisher Tulika Books. It was originally written in Malayalam (the language of the people who live in the Indian state of Kerala), but is now available in seven languages, including Hindi and English.  

We're heading off for the airport in a few hours to return to the states, but before we go I wanted to mention one more book that I really love. It is called My Dadima Wears a Sari, written by Kashmira Sheth and illustrated by Yoshiko Jaeggi. 

This is a sweet book about Dadima (a Hindi word for "Grandma") and her two granddaughters. Throughout the story, Dadima teaches the girls about saris, and they share their ideas about all the different ways a sari can be used. Dadima also shows the girls three of the saris that have been most important in her life, and the book ends with instructions on how to wrap a sari. 

The watercolor illustrations are rich and beautiful, and the text lives up to the illustrations. Because the book has a special meaning to me, I wanted to mention it here, even though it is not directly related to dance. Here, however, is a short excerpt that is...

She wears them made out of cotton. She wears them made out of silk. Sometimes she tucks the pallu, the end of her sari, tightly. And sometimes she lets it dance in the wind...

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi!

I am very lucky to be in India for Ganesh Chaturthi, a Hindu festival celebrating one of the most beloved of the Hindu gods. Ganesha is best known as the god of wisdom, prosperity, and good fortune. I wish you all of these wonderful things today!