The story of the STORY STORE HOUSE

Aatreyee aka Momo had started writing in her "Storywriting" Book when she was all of six years and a bit more. She still writes, often on her own, often prodded by us to jot down some memorable event / incident of her  7 year old life.

As I flipped through the pages of the little author's storywriting book, I could see the lead pencil writings fading into oblivion... I was saddened. I wanted to keep alive the little girl's little scribbles and doodles and writings for posterity....for her to relive the memories, to laugh out aloud at the first glimpses of her creativity put into words. But I didnt want to edit and correct the mistakes....hence I just typed them out as they were, with or without mistakes, punctuations, incorrect tenses etc...for us and her to reminisce the little nuances of her childhood during her grown up years!

I left the naming of the e-version of her story book to her....she gave me three options : The FlipFlap ; The Story Store House; The Cottage Book. I chose the Story Store House.

As she grows older and if she wishes to continue "writing" in this little space of her own, she is free to name it as she wishes...

For now it is THE STORY STORE HOUSE

Trip to Pondicherry

From Hyderabad we started on 9th May. My mother wanted to give me a suprise. So she told me we are going to Kolkata by train. But when we reached, it was Chennai !

In Chennai we had our breakfast in Hyatt, the best hotel of Chennai. In Chennai Airport my grandparents and aunt were waiting for us. I was thrilled to see them and loved this surprise. We picked them and went to Pondicherry by an online booked car (inova).

There we stayed in Wind*Flower. Wind*Flower is a beautiful resort. There was a giant chess board in the middle of the lawn. Geese were playing all around. They looked pretty. On the first day we went on a boat ride. it was scary and exciting. And we went for swimming.

On the second day we went to Aurobindo Ashram. We went to a ganesh temple and saw lakshmi the elephant. I was scared but I enjoyed it too. For lunch, we went to a French restraunt and in the evening we went to the beach.

On the third day I took bath in the open shower of our room and we checked out from WF.

Our next destination was Auroville. On the way we had delicious lunch at Roma's Kitchen. For one day we stayed in Japanese Cottage of Afsana Guest House.

The next morning it was drizzling. It was lush green and lotus has bloomed in tiny ponds. We had our breakfast in the afsana guest house restraunt. We went to seen the Golden Globe (Matri Mandir). Then we had our lunch in a good restaurant. Our next stop was Mahabali Puram which had beautiful ancient rock carvings.

From there we went to the Chennai airport.

I loved and enjoyed the trip.

Written by Aatreyee after her Pondicherry visit during Summer Vacation with the family, Grandparents & Mashi.

This was written over a period of 2 weeks during May 2013 after combined coaxing and prodding by her Dadu and father.

Toy made of Cream

Abonindranath Tagore's "Kheerer Putul" translated by Aatreyee

Once upon a time there was a king who had two queens. The small queen was very happy. She had a cupboard full of jewellery. She had 7 palaces and 7 maid servants to please her. She was the King's heart.

The big queen was very sad. The king gave her a small and broken house to live in.

After a while he thought of going out to another kingdom, His servants prepared the ships for 7 months and there were 7 ships.

Before going to another kingdom he asked his small queen what she wants. She said : I want bangles like red blood, white necklace with a big diamond in the middle, pail ('payel' as in পাযেল)  with white beads and sari like the blue sky and like the blue water. Then he went to his big queen. And asked  what she wants. She said : I want a black faced monkey. The king brought everything the queens of his had asked. As the small queen was the king's heart, he went to her first. But things which were bought by the king were no use because they were small or large for  her. So she threw them in front of the king. Then the king went to the big queen and gave her the  monkey. She was very happy to see the monkey. The monkey grew in the care of the big queen.

Once the monkey asked : Mother why do you look at the palace and cry? 
The queen said-I cry because I was the queen and the wicked queen took my palace. 
Monkey -Mother don't cry, just wait for 10 months. Then you will have a baby.

Then he went to the king and gave the news to him. Then the king made a palace for her. After a while the small queen sent her servant (a which witch) and poisened her. The monkey asked : what did you do to my mother. I should save mother.  He saved his mother. And took the news to the king. The monkey said : That small queen poisened her. Her white face has become so black we cant recognize her.Then the king put the small queen in prison.

After few days,the monkey took the news to the king- she has a son.
King-Come let me see it.
Monkey-No my lord , if you see him now you will become blind. After 10 years, in his marriage, you see him.
King then he asked about the big queen's health .
After the queen became fine she made a doll using cream. The next day when he was on the marriage cart, Shosti Thakur ate it. Then the monkey caught hold of her and said :give me my cream doll. She said I dont have more cream. That's why go look in that basket. See my babies are playing. Take one of them. He took one of them and gave marriage. And they lived happily ever after. 

 

Translated by Aatreyee after watching the Bengali animation film "Kheerer Putul" based on Abanindranath's Children's folk story of the same name