Meera Masi For Curious Kids

Sonali Sahni Herrera, Sheetal Sahni Singhal (The Hindu)

“We all need a masi, the person you go to for fun,” says Sonali Herrera. “Someone who can spin tales for you and take you on adventures.” Herrera and her sister Sheetal Singhal founded Meera Masi, a publisher offering children stories on Indian language and culture. (“Sharing heritage with next generation, Immigrants from India write, market kids’ books in Hindi“)

While Singhal had the opportunity to attend boarding school in India and reads Hindi script, Herrera came to the U.S. at age four and does not read the script. Both can use Meera Masi books to read stories aloud to their children because the books include Hindi script, English transliteration of the Hindi script and an audio recording of the text to ensure correct pronunciation.

Watch the interview with the sisters on ABC’s View From The Bay, including “Itsy Bitsy Spider” in Hindi (“Chhote Mote Makade”) from their Khushē Manäo series. Meera Masi also offers a DVD featuring Laddoo the Elephant introducing children ages 6 to 30 months to Hindi, Tamil or Telugu.

Just Ghee Happy

Little Book of Hindu Deities

“Honestly, I can’t think of anything that was good about growing up Hindu in America. I found it really to be a burden, actually,” says Pixar animator Sanjay Patel.

But that hasn’t stopped Patel, 32, from creating The Little Book of Hindu Deities, his vivid ode to 50 divinities–each one introduced with an incredibly hip anime-esque illustration.

Patel, who is from California’s San Bernadino valley, has worked on Monsters Inc., The Incredibles and The Simpsons. He was a bit nervous about sharing The Little Book with his parents:

“I waited a very long time before showing it to my dad. I was worried about how he would react. But he loved it! He also encouraged me to do more Hindu things. He was like, ‘OK, now that you are writing this book why don’t you light a candle?’ ”

For more on Sanjay Patel, including samples of his designs, free funky screensavers, and merchandise, visit his website GheeHappy.Com.

Two Years Later

Lanterns over Andaman Sea in tribute to tsunami victims. REUTERS/Chaiwat Subprasom

Two years ago, one of the most powerful earthquakes recorded triggered giant waves that destroyed villages in several nations along the Indian Ocean shores and took the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. On Tuesday people in the affected areas marked the tsunami’s second anniversary with all manner of tributes, including tears, prayers, silence and jitters induced by powerful earthquakes in Taiwan that triggered a temporary tsunami alert.

Last year Nirali covered the stories of survivors and those who helped out with the recovery efforts following the destruction (“Wave of Destruction,” 2/05). Orlantha Ambrose, a Sri Lankan American whose work with children and music education took her from Los Angeles to Colombo, was one of those people in the path of the tsunami who did not survive. Look for more on Ambrose and Strings by the Sea, the non-profit she founded which continues her mission of bringing music to underprivileged kids, in an upcoming issue.

Related: Swing Batter-Batter, Becoming Family: A Tsunami Relief Documentary

Swing Batter-Batter

Babu/Reuters

You knew he could swing a racket, but a cricket bat?

Roger Federer spent yesterday 100 miles south of Chennai, playing a few rounds of cricket with the displaced children of the Pudupettai rehabilitation colony.

The children have been homeless since the tsunami hit on December 26, 2004.

The tsunami-death toll stands at just under 300,000 people (18,000 in India alone).

“In the beginning they threw the ball at me slowly, and then realized that I was not that bad after all,” said Federer of his fellow cricketers.

“In the end, they did get me out.”

The boys, of Tamil Nadu’s Cuddalore district, were said to be “delighted” with the visit. Roger Federer is a top-seeded tennis player and a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF.

For more on how you can help with tsunami recovery efforts, visit MercyCorps.Com or go to the UNDP’s relief site.

Governor’s Family Grows

Photo credit: Daniel Fuhr, Governor’s Office

Utah Governor Jon Huntsman is back from India, where he and wife Mary Kaye finalized their adoption of baby Asha.

Asha spent the first year of her life at the Matru Chhaya orphanage in Nadiad (near Ahmadabad in Gujarat) and now joins her six new siblings in Salt Lake City.

The Huntsmans, who donated $10,000 to the orphanage, promise to raise Asha as an “American” but make sure she will “also maintain some of the Hindu values that were part of her first year of life (because being Hindu and being American are mutually exclusive?).”

“You walk outside the orphanage and you see the sheer poverty,” says Mary Kaye Huntsman. “You also see a lot of people smiling. Despite their circumstances, they find happiness. Maybe that’s something all of us can take to heart.”

Asha is one of 1,000 Indian orphans adopted each year by non-Indian families (300 of those families are American).

Source: DeseretNews.Com
For more information on how to reach India’s orphanages, go here

Where My Girls At?

Associated Press

A report, released today by UNICEF, says an astounding 7,000 girls go unborn in India each day.

The abortion of female fetuses is being blamed for what is a clear gender-ratio imbalance: today roughly 800 girls are born for every 1,000 boys.

According to the Associated Press, “The spread of ultrasound technology allowing parents to find out the gender of their unborn children has resulted in the large-scale ‘disappearance’ of girls here. One study released earlier this year estimated that 10 million fewer girls were born here than expected in the past 20 years.”

The UNICEF report considers the social implications of these figures, suggesting young girls might be forced to drop out of school and marry earlier.

Women Weigh In On Diwali Barbie

Did Mattel get the Diwali Barbie right? Earlier this month, PRI’s The World interviewed Sepia Mutiny’s Anna John, fellow sagehen (chirp!) and blogger Nina Jacinto, novelist/poet Chitra Divakaruni and Professor Inderpal Grewal about one of Mattel’s newest additions to its Barbie line.

You can still listen to the report online at The World’s web site.

I agree with John’s assessment of the doll’s outfit—it looks like a lehnga outfit more than a sari. I also thought Divakaruni summarized the significance of the doll well as “a small step in the right direction” but “not a giant leap for mankind or dollkind or womankind.”

What do you think?

Bulay Bulay: Do It For The Kids

Click here for more details.

Voted one of the top five nights for dancehall, dub and worldly beats by the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Non Stop Bhangra is a collective of DJs, dancers and dhol players who produce local events bringing bhangra to the Bay area.

Project Ahimsa is a non-profit bringing music teachers and instruments to children around the world. (Visit the web site to learn more about the organization and listen to some great tracks playing in the background.)

Together, they present a Bulay Bulay benefit for kids on Thursday, December 7, at the Roe Lounge in San Francisco. All funds raised will benefit Project Ahimsa’s grantees—NGOs/non-profits providing youth music education programs in Nicaragua (Building New Hope), Guatemala (Escuela Oficial Urbana Mixta), Argentina (Tantanakuy Assosiation) and the Bay Area (Bay Area Video Coalition, art in action).

Update: Another musical fundraiser for Project Ahimsa.

Mumbai New Malibu?

She has reinvented herself more times than Madonna.

Over the past 40 years we’ve seen her become a doctor, a Malibu beach babe–even a Unicef ambassador.

But it’s her latest incarnation that has really got our attention.

We’re talking about Barbie, of course—Mattell’s plastic sensation that earns the company an astounding three billion dollars in sales each year.

Part of the new “Dolls of the World” line, Diwali Barbie joins her pals (Japanese Maiko Barbie and Native American Windrider Barbie), decked out in her “traditional teal sari with golden detailing and a lovely pink shawl wrap.”

Author Naomi Klein has called the Barbie doll an “archetypal space invader, a cultural imperialist in pink” and even though we tend to agree, we can’t help but get a little excited about this latest desi addition to her family.

Diwali Barbie is available for purchase online and in select stores; too late for Diwali perhaps, but just in time for Christmas.

**Diwali Barbie’s bindi included, Ambassador car sold separately

Child Labor in India and Anita’s Story

According to India’s labour ministry, “there are 12.6 million children aged between 5 and 14 working in the country — the largest number of child labourers in the world.”

The real number could be higher, given the unknown size of the child domestic work force. “‘It’s difficult to say how many children do domestic work as it’s such a secretive thing and you simply can’t go around poking into people’s houses,’ said Manab Ray, manager of Save the Children’s Child Domestic Workers Project.” (“India’s child maids resigned to life of servitude,” Reuters, 11/19/06.)

Urbanguru.net provides a personal account of a young couple in Bangalore who noticed an abused nine-year-old child servant, Anita, working for their downstairs neighbors. They took action by contacting local NGOs and the police, and continuing to follow her progress through the child welfare system. Anita shares her story in Hindi (“translation to come”) on video: 1, 2, 3.

More information: Child Workers in Asia, Concerned for Working Children

Update: A follow-up on Anita’s progress—Anita goes home.