10 Reasons To Read Indian Tales

1. For entertainment value – the stories are fun, adventurous, magical, and warm.

2. For visual effects. Christopher Corr’s illustrations are married to the text and perform an intricate Indian dance. Corr is the award winning illustrator in UK who also worked on the Royal Mail millennium stamp for the UN Peace-keeping Force in Bosnia. 

Pooja Makhijani,Cybil award winner of Mama’s Sari’s, says Corr's paintings are just so beautiful; he immerses the reader in the color and contrasts of India. I particularly appreciated his attention to detail such as the bandhani, or tie-dye, fabrics showcased in "The Drummer Boy," a story from Gujarat or the abundant use of pink in "Shaira's Secret," a story from Rajasthan. The two-page spread of Ravana that closes "Hanuman's Adventures" is both awe-inspiring and scary, much like the demon king himself.

3. For the love of language. When read aloud, some of the words and songs will reverberate in your minds – In The Drummer Boy whose name is Ghopal – when his mother reminds him to get on with his chores, she cries Gho-pal, Gho-pal Gho-pal. But Ghopal is busy dreaming of owning a drum and singing
If I had a drum, a big drum, a big bass drum
My heart would boom, boom, boom
Tak dhama dhoom, dhoom, dhoom 

4. For Emotional Resonance- the stories will touch your feelings – Priya’s story may make you cry while Five Men in a Cart may tickle your funny bone. You may even hear their cart drawn by bullocks the tinkling brass bells on their thick necks, tolling, doh, doh, dhong as the wheels of their cart rattle thup, thup, thup along the rugged road.

5. The stories are inspiring and intellectually stimulating. Albert Einstein said:
If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales.
If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales5.

6. To empower you by highlighting universal human virtues like kindness, courage, honesty; some of them exemplify the battle between good and evil.

7. Sharing folktales is a bonding experience. You and the children can explore your feelings together.

8. It is educational. For teachers exploring Folk Literature thru Storytelling is a fun way to enhance the Social Studies curriculum especially when working on multicultural units.

9. You can compare the Indian myths to Greek legends. Hanuman’s Adventures is adapted from the great epic Ramayana in Sanskrit has 100,000 couplets and is 7 times the Iliad and Odyssey combined. In the story, Hanuman the monkey-boy, helps Rama, the exiled Prince to rescue his beloved wife Sita from the demon Ravana. It’s hard to fight Ravana because the demon has ten heads, ten arms, ten faces similar to the many headed Hydra that grew 2 heads for every head that was chopped off.

10. Lastly you can step into the stories. I saw Prince Rama’s victory celebrated live when I visited Cuttack in India in the festival of Dushera. The people built an enormous model of the demon Ravana stuffed with straw and firecrackers then an actor dressed as Prince Rama shot burning arrows at the model of the demon. The model exploded into flames and everybody cheered as the people paraded and danced in the streets.