21 - Sparky’s ‘Wise & Otherwise’ World

 Hello, Sparky here.

Ø  What a couple of weeks we have been having and the dream run seems to be continuing. Weather-wise as well as activity-wise. We have been having rains on and off keeping all of us happy – neither too much for us to start complaining nor too less that the temperatures start to soar.

 

Ø  On the activity front, like I had written last week, after watching ‘Little Women’ on our island we had all been living like we were on a set, that feeling wore off in a few days but what hasn’t worn off as yet is the light of love that’s been lit in many of us. Love for literature to be precise. Samudra said a few days back when we were discussing this, ‘Love for literature is like an ache – if you forget to apply the balm of ‘reading’, it becomes a persistent ache which neither leaves you in peace nor leaves you at all. It might lessen over time, but it’s always there and intensifies at the smallest spark.’ 

 

Ø  We had all started reading books – specifically the classics – but we were still aching – aching for something more without exactly being able to pin point what it was that we were aching for.  It was then that Mudra, our resident otters’ cousin who was the one instrumental in having the drama performed on our island came back to visit us all. She seems to have fallen in love with the tranquility of the place and said, ‘It’s the kind of place that beckons one to pick up classics, it’s the kind of place that brings characters to life and makes the reader more than just a bystander.’ So, here she was one afternoon with ‘Middlemarch’ tucked under her arms.

 

Ø  As the day progressed and we gathered around the otters’ den so we could talk of ‘Little Women’ for the umpteenth time, Mudra said, ‘If there are many of us interested in reading, why not read together?’ That’s how our ‘Reading club’ came to be. As many of us are diurnal, once the Sun sets all we do is rest so it suits all of us wonderfully that we meet and read when the weather permits – it furthers camaraderie amongst us, keeps our hearts happy and brains sharp.

 

Ø  So, we have been meeting in the evenings and have been reading Jane Austen’s ‘Pride & Prejudice’. Since there is only one copy of the book with the otters, it suits us wonderfully that we take turn to read it aloud as the rest of us listen to it. The serious business of finding partners in 'P&P' is having many of us wide-eyed and the many flaws of quite a few of the characters is making many of us wonder if it’s a romantic novel or a comedy that we are reading. As the reading progresses we can’t help it but fall in love with the beautiful language and the way each character is developing.

 

Ø  For one of the meetings someone brought over a friend from another place to the reading. Without naming the guest let me tell you of the events that followed. Even before the reading started the guest met many of us and left quite an impression on a few of us with his ‘sophisticated’ ways. While the reading progressed, he expanded his ‘fan base’ by his diction and elocution. Most of us loved his reading and wanted to practice to read as well as him over time but probably one impressionable monkey teen wanted immediate result not as much to read better but to have the rest of us shower our appreciation on him as we did on the guest. A word with the guest and the monkey teen planned to meet the guest in his home across our Banyan Island for ‘lessons on reading’.  As the teen set off across the river he was caught up in the currents and almost drowned. He was saved by a lucky chance that Udra happened to be swimming back home around the same time and saw the monkey struggling in the water.

Ø  The monkey teen on recovering his senses did tell us later on of the turn of events that led him to make such a journey. The teen had appreciated the guest’s skill and expressed his interest to learn to read like him.  The guest had offered to teach him if he would come over to his home the next day and had convinced him that in a matter of days he would be able to read as well as him. He was swayed by the offer but nevertheless saw the practical difficulty of swimming across the river especially in the present rainy season when the flow of water is fast and violent. The guest then laughed at his predicament and said, ‘No learning comes of sitting safe at home. No pain, no gain.’ Hankering for success, the monkey teen set off the next day without telling anyone of his intentions. He is quite lucky that he is alive to tell this tale. His experience will also be a lesson to others that, ‘No learning comes of disposing off your common sense.’

 

Ø  Mr. Goldback has made it clear that the guest who goaded a youngster into risking his life will not be welcome on Banyan Island. In the words of Mr. Goldback, ‘If he ever sets foot on our island his fancy speech and suave ways will not save him from me.’

Here are a few activities for this week. Nothing like solving puzzles to keep the brain sharp and wise.

• · Solve the riddles below and you get a phrase which denotes our present emotion.

	Used to make comparisons between two, as in a Simile, As when comparing, say, Lotus and Lily.
	Means ‘one’ not many. Denotes a specific ‘noun’, not just any.
	Man’s best friend and amie. Loyalty and Love are synonymous with me.
	‘Accompanied by’ or ‘Having’ The word’s a preposition, useful in sentence framing.
	If 3 is a crowd then what’s company?
	A human smiles and his friend wags. One is curved lips and the other is what?

 

• ·  Below are words that start with the term ‘biblio’ which means ‘relating to books’. It’s derived from ‘biblion’, a Greek word meaning ‘book’. Could you match the word with its meaning:

 

Bibliography	Extreme preoccupation with acquisition and ownership of books.
Bibliotherapy	-       bibliography. -       the study of the doctrines of Bible.
Bibliophile	A dealer in rare books.
Bibliomania	-       a library or -       a catalog of books
Bibliopole	A form of supportive psychotherapy in which carefully selected reading materials are used to assist a subject in solving personal problems or for other therapeutic purposes.
Bibliotics	A book-lover or a collector of books
Bibliology	-       A list of the works of a specific author or publisher or pertaining to a particular subject. -       A list of writings used by an author in preparing a particular work.
Bibliotheca	Examination of written documents to determine  authenticity.

 

• A Crossword puzzle. All the words rhyme with the word ‘dear’, mind you not all the words end with the letters, ‘ear’, many end with ‘ere’.

• A math puzzle – had almost forgotten about mathematical puzzles, so after a long gap here are a few simple math puzzles.

‘Little readers’ Section’

· Here’s a photo of a lake with an island in the middle. Waterbodies like these support a variety of animal and plant life. You also see photos of many creatures which live in and around the lake. Could you guide each of them to their home in the ‘lake photo’.

 

See you all next week with more news, activities and answers to this week’s puzzles.

In the meanwhile, if you would like to write to me, email me at Sparkyatbanyan@gmail.com

Answers to last week’s puzzles:

•  Below are some famous quotes/extracts from popular books (I have sneaked in a couple of poems too). Either recognise the book/poem from the quote or else look them up and the name of the book/poem will form a word which describes our feeling this week:

Charlie & the Chocolate factory - Roald Dahl	“So please, oh please, we beg, we pray, Go throw your TV set away, And in its place you can install A lovely bookshelf on the wall. Then fill the shelves with lots of books.”
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - J.K. Rowling	“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.”
If – Rudyard Kipling	“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same”
Romeo and Juliet – William Shakespeare	“These violent delights have violent ends And in their triumph die, like fire and powder Which, as they kiss, consume”
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen	“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
Yarrow visited – William Wordsworth	Delicious is the Lay that sings The haunts of happy lovers, The path that leads them to the grove, The leafy grove that covers: And pity sanctifies the verse That paints, by strength of sorrow, The unconquerable strength of love; Bear witness, rueful Yarrow!
	The final riddle – first letter of the answers above will also solve this riddle below:
CHIRPY	Means cheerful & lively, The word’s derived from calls of birdy.

  

• Recollecting the other 19^th century gems, match the authors to their books.
  

  Charles Dickens	Pickwick Papers
  Jane Austen	Emma
  George Eliot	Middlemarch
  Emily Bronte	Wuthering Heights
  Anne Bronte	The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
  William Thackeray	Vanity Fair
  Elizabeth Gaskell	North & South
  Thomas Hardy	The Mayor of Casterbridge
  Lewis Carroll	Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
  Jules Verne	Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea
  Mark Twain	Adventures of Tom Sawyer
  Robert Louis Stevenson	Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
  Bram Stoker	Dracula
  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle	The Boscombe Valley Mystery

‘Little readers’ Section’

·         Trees and plants all around us, be it in our garden, in the park or on the roadside are all constantly growing and helping us keep the environment green and clean. They not only give us delicious fruits and beautiful flowers but give us the precious oxygen that we breathe. Here are a few popular trees and plants, see if you can identify them.

1	Cannonball tree		5	Litchi tree
2	Bougainvillea plant		6	Baobab tree
3	Banyan tree		7	Lotus plant
4	Chikoo tree		8	Grape vines