Prakriti Parv — Phooldei (प्रकृति पर्व — फूलदेई) follows Janki and her friends in Uttarakhand as they wake early on Chaitra Sankranti to gather buransh and phyoli flowers in little baskets. Forming a ‘Phulari’ (फुलारी) group, the children decorate every doorstep (देहली) with flowers and rice while singing ‘Phool dei, Chhamma dei’, receiving rice, jaggery … Read more
Unit 3 (आओ खेलें) begins with the humorous nonsense rhyme ‘सुनो भई गप्प’ before presenting Chapter 10, Rassakashi (रस्साकशी)—an energetic sports song (‘खेल गीत’) chanting ‘जोर लगाओ, हेई सा!’. The poem captures the excitement, teamwork, firm footing and determination of two teams pulling a rope in a tug-of-war match, followed by a witty four-line poem … Read more
Ek Jadui Pitara (एक जादुई पिटारा) is a playful chain-rhyme poem where opening a magical box releases ‘Gappu Gola’, which turns into a dancing puppet (कठपुतली), 900 camels, a betel nut yielding 9 maunds of flour, a horse flying to the sky, a balloon with 12 holes, a train engine and two buffaloes ploughing a … Read more
Apna-Apna Kaam (अपना-अपना काम) opens Unit 4 with Simran feeling tired of doing her schoolwork in a garden and wishing she could become a carefree honeybee, a fruit tree or a flying bird instead. When she talks to the bees, the tree and the birds, she learns how hard each of them works all day—gathering … Read more
Pedon Ki Amma ‘Thimmakka’ (पेड़ों की अम्मा ‘तिमक्का’) is an inspiring biography of Padma Shri awardee Saalumarada Thimmakka (‘Vrikshamata’) from Tumakuru district in Karnataka. Along with her husband, Thimmakka planted and nurtured around 385 banyan (बरगद) trees along a 45-kilometre highway between Hulikal and Kudur and over 8,000 trees in total, earning the Kannada title … Read more