Book Review: Badalon Ke Paar by Dr. Sangeeta Tomar

Badalon Ke Paar by Dr. Sangeeta Tomar is a beautifully written Hindi children’s novel. It’s a literary wonder for school going children. As it chronicles the tale of a school-going girl named Mini, also the novel is staged against two contrasting schools in the same city.

The novel is charming because of its time era, it is about 1980s and 90s, when childhood used to be filled with real friendship, happiness, and uncluttered worries that today’s advanced technology brings along with it. The world of Mini is simple and pure, however, it’s way far from luxury. Dr. Sangeeta Tomar draws a real and credible world of a student and schools and locality that sounds absolute surreal.

Mini’s parents are working people who cannot afford much time for her, thus, she goes to a school with a neighbor and spends ‘after-school-time’ with people and friend from her locality. She is happy, bright in studies, but something is missing from her life. She is a bold, sensitive, and a chirpy girl. She loves to hang around with the people around her.

Mini loves reading fairytale type of books. These books give wings to her imagination. She one day dreams about a world above the clouds where she is sitting cuddled with many of her favourite books. It was a special dream that didn’t leave her mind.

She begins receiving jolts and her confidence self-belief takes a backseat when she joins a new school, where her mother is a music teacher. The environment is totally different. She is amazed at everything there. Yet she treads with perseverance. She loses her footing in the studies. One teacher slaps her, another insults her for drawing a wrong diagram. And to add pain to her misery, she lags behind in maths. How to rise up again? The challenge is big but not insurmountable for Mini.

Are big and reputed schools not suitable for poor children? Why can’t she be a smart student like her friend Priya and others? It’s an inspiring story for students who wish to do well in the school. The novel shuttles between school and home life, it comes out that for a bright academic career, a student needs to have fine balance at both places. Mini was lucky to find an amicable friend like Priya, whose grandmother prepares her for maths and other subjects. Mini picks up fast and her all worries diminish as she fares well in the class.

You will love the insights of the school and its allied activities that keep abuzz there. By all means, the novel is strong, entertaining, with meaningful message for students and parents and teachers and school authorities.

Buy from Amazon/Kindle.

Comments

Book Review: The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond

Among all Ruskin Bond books, The Blue Umbrella has, so far, gathered immense applaud from readers and critics alike. This is a short novel, but the kind of moral lessons it teaches to us are simply overwhelming. This is a story of Binya, a poor little girl living with her mother and an elder brother, Bijju, in a small hilly village of Garhwal. One day while herding her two cows back home, she stumbles upon some city people enjoying the picnic in the valley. She is enthralled to see them well-groomed and rich. She craves to be one like them and among many other things of their, a blue frilly umbrella catches her attention. She begins craving for it. On the other hand, the city people get attracted by her innocent beauty and the pendant in her neck. The pendant consists of leopard’s claw – which is considered a mascot widely in the hills. Binya trades her pendant off with the blue umbrella. The blue umbrella is so much beautiful that soon it becomes a topic of conversatio...

Poem Summary: Where The Mind Is Without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore

Poem by Rabindranath Tagore: Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. Short Summary: This poem is written by Rabindranath Tagore during pre-independence days, when India was a colony of the British. The underlying theme of the poem is absolute freedom; the poet wants the citizens of his country to be living in a free state. According to the poem, we see that the poet is expressing his views there should be a country, like where people live without any sort of fear and with pure dignity…they should ...

Character Sketch of Binya from ‘The Blue Umbrella’ by Ruskin Bond

The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond is a popular children’s story. It features Binya as the main character, though there are other important characters as well, but the story revolves around Binya and her little beautiful umbrella. The story is widely popular among children, thus it has also been included in the schools’ syllabus all across the country. Since it is often taught in the school, thus the character sketch of Binya is often demanded by students from year to year. Character Sketch of Binya from The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond Binya is the main character of the novel ‘The Blue Umbrella’ by Ruskin Bond. Her full name is Binyadevi. As in the hills or anywhere in India it is a kind of trend to call children with their short nicknames. Binya’s elder brother’s name is Bijju, whereas his real name is Vijay. Binya aged eleven is a hilly girl. She lives with her small family in the hills of Garhwal. Her father died when she was two years of age. For sustenance, the...

Kevein Books and Reviews

Search This Blog