The Famous Five Series

During my childhood, I had been a happy -go-lucky one, who was ignorant about the things going around her. I lived in a world of my own and there had been never a boring moment. (Touchwood!)

One winter night, we, a family of four were having dinner, watching some golden oldie Hindi movie, eating roti for dinner. (For a South Indian family, we ate roti on a daily basis, more than idli sambar) My palette for food was selective in those days and the top billing was given to my preference of food and our daily food menu was based on my whim and fancy. Being the youngest has it’s perks!

Anyway, as we finished our dinner and sat down to watch the rest of the movie, during a brief silent moment in the movie, I heard “meow” and a definite scratch on our door to the verandah. I ignored it.

As the scratches became more frequent and the meowing became more apparent, I alerted my parents. My dad opened the door. I was half expecting a cat fight, turns out it was not! Two tiny kittens rushed inside the hall, through the open door, one was thin while the other looked well fed. (I suspect the fat one never let the thin kitty have his share of food!) Both the kittens were as white as snow.

The winter night air had been too cold for them and that is the reason they became our guests. My parents fed the kitties the left over roti and milk, which they had for their hearts content. For a brief period both of them used our teepoy as their bunk bed, after dinner, to rest. (Teepoy = coffee table!)

Using the teepoy as their bunk bed!

By a mutual agreement, I and my sister decided to adopt one kitten each, for ourselves, the thin and the more active one being mine! Once the kittens had their dinner, they started to play with us, till it was our time for bed.

By the time we woke up early in the morning, the kitty cats were already awake and about. One of them had lept onto my bed too. I was as excited about a pet as George from The Famous Five series by Enid Blyton!

Both me and my sister made our beds and got ready for our school. I didn’t want to leave my kitty home and but went to school with a heavy heart. My sister had named her kitty as snowy. (I am unable to recall what I named my kitten as! I don’t even remember their gender!)

I boasted about my new pet to my friends and eagerly waited for the clock to strike 4! (That’s when the last school bell rang, thanks to Thomas uncle who was always on time! We studied at Christian Missionary school, the best in those days.)

Anyway, as soon as I was home, I couldn’t find any trace of the mischievous kitties and I demanded an explanation from my parents. Turns out the twin kittens were the pets of our neighbour from another apartment. He came searching for them as soon I and my sister went to school. The said owner had left his door open and the naughty kittens ran out of the door, climbed the wall and walked all the way to our house!

The owner asked for his pets in the nearby apartments and found them with us and took them away immediately.

We were heart broken and that is how we became, pet parents for a day! (night, actually!)

P.S:

1. After many years, we had another pet, turns out we have very little luck when it comes to pet animals. That will be post for another day.

2. The chubbier kitten of the two looked like Snowy from Stuart Little, but without the grumpy face. This one looked almost dumb!

3. We always wanted bunk beds in our childhood but nope, we had separate beds and that was fun too!

4. I love how Kramer from Seinfeld comes up with the idea of a coffee table book which converts itself into a coffee table, genius!

5. As you must have guessed, I made the pic with what little editing I know. The kitty cat images and teepoy image is sourced from Google. I just edited them together.

Till the next post, ciao!

Although I am a self confessed book worm, I have read very little books by Indian authors. That being said, the only children’s books I have ever read were comics like Tin Tin, Aesop Fables, Hans Andersen’s stories, later progressing to Nancy Drew mysteries, Hardy Boys and my all time favourites the Famous Five series by Enid Blyton (which made my childhood worthwhile!). Then I jumped right into the world of murder mysteries and never looked back. (Its either mysteries or biographies for me. I know it is a weird combination!)

Years later, when I wanted to introduce GBee to some good books, I began my survey and came across Ruskin Bond. (GBee is still 5 year old, so getting him to sit at a place is something on its own, making him read will be a mountain of a challenge, for now).

I decided to pique his interest in books through puzzles and meanwhile, I stumbled upon books by Sudha Murty(who needs no introduction), during a recent car trip to the temple town of Yadagirigutta, a 2-hour drive from Hyderabad.

The title of the book forced me to buy it and I wanted to know her writing style.

Here goes the review, after an apparently lengthy intro.

Book : The Magic of the Lost Temple

Author : Sudha Murty

Published in :2015

QB Bought in : 2023

Genre : Children’s book

The story is about Nooni, (short for Anoushka), a city born only child to her Doctor father and bank officer mother. Her life is filled up with school, studies, summer camps , swimming classes and yearly trips to Coorg. (Did I say, she is from Bangalore?)

Anyway,this city born kiddo is sent to Somanahalli, for her summer, because of her mother’s training in Delhi. She lands in paternal grandparents house and this is the turning point of her life.

She gets to learn many things first hand, about almost everthing. I couldn’t help but draw parallels to my own childhood.

Sleeping under the stars and counting them, admiring the Moon (which generally plays hide and seek with us, from our city apartments), the types of plants and medicinal trees in Indian village houses, similar to the garden my ammamma (maternal grandmother) had in our village. Aaji giving hair massages to Nooni and washing it with home grown Shikakai with a bucket of hot water (so unlike the showers we take in cities) reminded me of my mamma(paternal grandmother) doing the same for me, in Laxmi Nagaram.

Nooni never knew sweets were made at home during festivals and marriages. She only knows buying the sweets over the counter at Haldirams!

As the story progresses, Aaji tells the story of Somanahalli step-well, which mesmerizes Nooni. The step-well might have been a fiction, but Nooni discovers the said step-well! (here the story reminded me of Famous Five series by Enid Blyton, because of the adventure involved).

A Step well looks like this

What I liked:

The values. It reminds of the good old days, where the families helped each other during any function. They were there, whether it is a celebration or a death, to give us a helping hand. (Today we find very little of that)

The rules. The elders before us, often made rules for a reason. If they say, don’t open a temple during an Amavasya, it had a valid reason. There is a reason the elders dictated that one should enter a temple only after cleaning themselves. That was proved beyond a doubt during the time of COVID pandemic. We began to understand how important cleanliness is.

The style of writing is as simple as that of Ruskin Bond. Let me tell you a little secret. It is very difficult to write in simple prose. So if you find a writer who specializes in simple prose, BINGO, it means the writer is a gem!

P.S:

I loved the back story behind the idea for the story. Goes to show a small incident is enough to create beautiful stories, if you are a creative person.
Hans Andersen is the Dutch writer, who wrote the most famous stories of The Mermaid, The Emperor’s new clothes, Thumbelina, The Ugly Duckling and more. He is a legend as far as children’s books are concerned. If you have not read any of those, go ahead and read them. If you have forgotten them, read them to refresh your memory. I just wonder what must it have been like to be a famous author during those times!

Tag: The Famous Five Series

Pet Parent for a day!

The Magic of the Lost Temple

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