First, for a little throwback
time –
Last year, around this
time, around fifteen of us - a bevy of picnic-savvy buffs - were lounging at
Yercaud, a lovely little hill station in Tamil Nadu.
We had booked on our
accommodation much in advance, at an amazing hilltop hotel that overlooks a
deep gorge and a lovely ravine, an ambience that was very much alive to the sounds of Mother
Nature’s pretty-witty solemn notes of grandeur!
The resort was quite popular
for its campfires by nights!
So all of us quickly finished
off on our nibbly-nibbly dinners, and enthusiastically rushed headlong to the
campfire space, our gala jubilee-time of the evening!
Indeed a crackling campfire
awaited us all!
The campfire was set up in a
lovely ambience, again, overlooking the deep valley, with the
evening’s gentle breeze fanning up on the flames and charcoals so gentle and so graceful, and with night lights so beautifully dim that they attracted a range of crickets
and beetles that caught up with us all, along with the barn owls and the hermit
thrushes, that acted our avian accomplices on the fun!
Added, we were also offered the
music of our own sweet choices too!
You just had to tell them on a peppy
number that you so liked, and hey presto, they had them played out for you the
very next jiffy-o-jiffy!
Lovely, ain’t it!
Thus was our campfire night all
decked up to pep up big-time, the energizer bunny in us all!
But who pray, was going to
start first on the jig?
Everyone seemed to be pretty
reticent on initiating the first moves on the dance!
You go first, please!
You first, buddy!
No! You begin, and then we follow!
Not meee! Nooo wayyy!
These were some of the
voices babbling up the hillside that evening!
Reticent hearts and reticent
voices, that in the words of Pope, Alexander Pope,
were,
Willing to wound, and yet afraid to
strike! ;-)
Then came along a middle-aged
guest, with a lovely paunch on him, who, without caring a hoot to the hullabaloo
happening all around, straightaway plunged into his flawsome dance moves that
almost flabbergasted everyone around him!
But the celebratory spirit
within him ain’t give a heck to them at all!
He was so absorbed on his
moves!
Involvement you see! ;-)
Indeed, all of us, who were lined up beside
the campfire, [should be around sixty of us in number,] were quite flabbergasted
at his flawsome jigs, to begin with! ;-)
But then, this was the
trigger we’d soooo wanted!
This was the spur that
we’d so badly needed!
This was the initiative we
were so desperately waiting for!
And surprise of surprises,
quite soon, the whole campfire place was filled with festive fun, with everyone
of us falling into the fun, ;-) that went on and on for so long, that the
resort people gracefully extended on the campfire time that evening!
Later on, after the dance-fire
oops camp-fire fun almost got over, some of us gracefully went up to the gentleman,
and much appreciated him on his gesture that helped ‘launch a thousand ships’
straight on starboard! ;-)
Why pray, did I go down memory lane
and kindle up on these campfire musings for us all!?
With a purpose at that!
Well, I was quite reminded
of this memorable incident that became etched-o-etched in our hearts, while
reading through Katherine Applegate’s amazing novel in free verse, titled, Home of the Brave published in the year
2007.
There’s this little flashback narration by Kek the little immigrant boy, who says,
I remember something my mama
used to say on dark days:
If you can talk, you can sing.
If you can walk, you can dance.
Indeed, the essence of
this children’s novel, is about Kek,
an immigrant fifth-grader, who falls upon dark days, and still, initiates his
dance moves, braving all odds, and coming up in his life, in spite of the
insurmountable odds stacked up hard against him!
A loveable read, a compelling
read, an inspirational read!
Rarely do you come across
a novel that’s written entirely in verse, free-verse, with such depth and feel
to its storyline!
And by the time you’re done
with this 200-page children’s read, you get to experience a real cathartic feel on you
big-time, you bet!
Such is the power of this
poignant free-verse novel and its protagonist Kek over us all!
A children’s novel that
beautifully brings out the immigrant experience to kids!
In fact, everything about the new place
bewilders and unsettles Kek!
He quite can’t relate to
anything in his new home!
Except for one thing – the cow!
As a cattle-herder back in
Sudan, he was adept at grazing and handling cows and hence has had a deep fondness
and love for them!
That was his one thing
he could pretty well hold on to, in his new dwelling place, he feels!
Just giving y’all excerpts from
the initial pages to the book –
this cold is like claws on my skin!
I look around me.
Dead grass pokes through
the unkind blanket of white.
I try out my new English words:
How can you live
in this place called America?
It burns your eyes!
The helping man greets me
The man gives me a fat shirt
and soft things like hands.
Coat, he says. Gloves.
He smiles. You’ll get used to it, Kek.
I shake my head.
I say, This America is hard work.
The helping man
is called Dave.
We are like a cow and a goat,
wanting to be friends
but wondering if it
can ever be.
In my old home back in Africa,
cattle mean life.
They are our reason
to rise with the sun,
to move with the rains,
to rest with the stars.
They are the way we know
our place in the world.
So poignant a feel! in so
intense a read!
Dear reader, do grab for
yourself a copy of this wonder-read aysap! And with a cuppa coffee in hand,
jumpstart on your reading right away!
On how, Kek takes us, readers,
into vignettes of his life that are heart-rending!
Many things about this free-verse
novel endears itself to us all!
Firstly, Kek’s unique ways of
braving all odds and overcoming all obstacles that come his way; which he does
through his gut feeling and resolve!
Secondly, the style and the diction that’s so engaging!
Thirdly, the pace of the
novel, that’s so gripping!
Fourthly, the language of
the novel, that’s so charming!
Fifthly, the quotable quotes
from the novel, that’s so appealing!
Finally, the message from off
the novel, that’s so inspiring!
But wait!
There ain’t gonna be any spoilers
anytime for y’all! ;-)
Still, would love doling
out some amazing inspirational quote-lines that I found so so lovely from Home of the Brave! ;-)
Here goes –
I think maybe some of the students
are laughing at me.
But I don’t mind
so much.
To hear the cattle again
is good music
I know about chocolate.
At the camp, a helping doctor
gave me a small piece to try.
This is what laughing tastes like,
I told her.
I remember something my mama
used to say on dark days:
If you can talk, you can sing.
If you can walk, you can dance.
My people are herders.
We move with the seasons,
with the wet and the dry,
so that the cattle
may be strong and well fed.
We cannot carry much with us,
and so our stories don’t
make their homes
in heavy books.
We hold our stories
in our songs.
I hear the fear and hope fighting in my voice.
I remember my aunt’s words:
Kek finds sun when the sky is dark.
Indeed, Kek really finds sun
when the sky is dark!
And howww!
image: amazondotcom