The Cat, The Whale and The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Childrens Literature Spotlight and Remembering Eric Carle.

Mysterious, scary, exciting, nail biting, keeping us on the edge of our seats, No. Not the zombie horror movies that might be your guilty pleasure, I am referring to children's fairy tales as if happening in a different era, on a far away land, infused with magic, mystery and suspense.

As the fable enchants us and we are lost in the alter world. 'Once upon a time there was a.....'  

OK Calm down! Calm down and Come back from your trippy dream!

It can be cats and whales too why just Cinderellas and their slippers always, and beasts and beauties and castles and cavaliers and what not.. 

Cats and Whales. Really? I came across a fun language book for kids by Boris Zakhoder. His characters are so relatable, yet hilarious just like Oinky the Pig from 'How a piglet crashed a Christmas Party.' Do you know what did Oinky do on the Christmas Day? He disguised as a Boy and reached the party. Later, Garbed and spectacled, Oinky wasn't even detected until...

Oinky made a Pig out of himself! haha!

Have you heard about Kit and Kyt story? Kit in ukrainian is Cat and kyt is whale. What if we ask

“Hey what if Whales and Cats switched places for no reason? ”

Though in English it sounds nothing fancy but you can still shoot the questions.

 I often wonder, what if someone who grew up in Russia. Are they afraid of Cats, as Cats are hominem with Whales? Lol.

Even French children book have a similar concept around cats known as "My cat the stupidest in the world" and it's about all the stupid things the cat is capable of: make things fall, jump on people... Let me tell you, this "cat" isn't cat per se...

It's actually an Elephant!

How different the world could have been if we could change just one letter, as in can't and didn't. There would have been more apostrophes, because

"Hey! cool cats.. we are standing on a brink of cat-aclysmic cat-astrophe."

Imagine global trade would never have happened if there were enormous seafaring cats out there or the newspaper headlines today would read 'gigantic enormous oceanic cat are a new rage to sea surfers and sailors.' Haha!

Coming to creatures in oceans, I remember Bong Joon Ho's blockbuster (yeah, long before Parasite won Oscars. If you haven't yet watched just go, run, and watch it) .... The Host.

Good Lord! It scared me to death when I watched it first. The creature was definitely horrifying, looked surreal and wrecked havoc on the island and it's inhabitants but Government least affected by the lives lost was busy projecting their PR image and vote grabbing tactics. In between, if people die do they care at all? Naah! Blame it all on the foreign country!

Outsiders are alienated and shrugged off by the Government by demonising them, while not revisiting their own hypocrisy, instead citizens are left to fend for their lives and treated as fodder for the monster, to be eliminated once and for all.

The Host has shown, how...

Governments dictate not only politics but media, art, science, literature and every other aspect of our lives controlling, their own image in public and the first person narratives which are evidence that might be helpful in getting justice if they survive the death galore, whichever suits their best interests first.

Sounds too familiar. Right?

Burning pyres, Corona virus and the Indian government best at what they do, hiding the death numbers, while propagating their 'goodwill' on media channels which act as government mouth piece during elections but since last two terms it's forever an election campaign season going on since last seven years.

During WWII in Germany, Abstract and expressionist art were verboten. All art was forced to support a propaganda.. a regime's message, devoid of free minds, free hearts and thinking. 

Inspite of that, there were wonderful scholars and scientists working, keeping themselves low key and there were teachers who secretly showed their students,"the works of so-called degenerate artists." as recounted by Eric Carle, the very famous Children's Author.

When childhood is filled with light and hope, while walking through nature, holding their parents's hand, listening stories of forest fairies, of ugly toads, glowing fireflies, noisy cicadas and ever wandering grasshoppers.. and of green lions, pink rabbits, purple foxes and polka-dot donkeys, it's a piece of art that children carry throughout their lives, inherited through time.

Like a hungry caterpillar who had eclectic appetite and who pops from his egg and eats through rows of fruit and cake and ice cream, even pickles, Swiss cheese and salami until it find it's way to becoming a vibrant butterfly, caterpillar who had one apple but was hungry again, had two pears and still hungry, Children too learn to have a hunger for knowing things, for questioning, for growth, eventually becoming healthy individuals, ready to face the world with powerful yet inquisitive minds. 

It was Eric Carle's father who introduced him to the natural world. As a small child Carle's father would take him by the hand, out into the nature and would show him worms and bugs and bees and ants and explain their lives to him. His stories are tribute to his father who gifted him a world full of wildlife. The lives of animals then became transformational stories,  a love for nature that later infused his work.

His paintbrush had an extraordinary flare to write and make the world better. Enormous thing or the tiniest ones both are now within the grasp of each and every one of us.

 Take pain and become joy, take suffering and become learning, take rage and become the kind of love that makes children smile, in our own little ways, we all get to come home.and be the children we always were. 

Carle was born June 25, 1929, in Syracuse, New York. His parents were German immigrants, he was six when they returned to their native Stuttgart, where Carle grew up under Nazi regime, witnessing horrors of World War II, digging trenches at age 15. 

“During the war, there were no colors,” Everything was gray and brown.… Houses were camouflaged with grays and greens and brown. 

Thanks to his  high school teacher, Herr Kraus, who introduced him to Modern art, secretly showing Carle, works by German Expressionists, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Paul Klee, and other artists who were declined and deemed degenerate by Nazis.

Speaking of cats, One of his last books was 2015′s The Nonsense Show, which centered on a parade of flying fish, cat-taming mice and circus animals. 

When one of our great creators dies, we might comfort ourselves by saying, ‘At least we still have their books.’ In the case of Eric, we still have his museum—which exists because of Eric’s lifetime of generosity.”

Unfettered joy that he has brought to so many children he had shown that the art can be a perfect reflection, a way you see the world  Aware that other countries too had museums that honored children’s book artists, Eric decided to create such a museum in United States. He will be missed, but his spirit and his love for living creatures, big and small, will live on through his books, his art and his museum for generations to come. 

With his passing, the world has lost not only an artist but a beautiful human being, according to a delightful story shared by writer Lara B. Sharp, about how a stranger helped her over the phone and he kept searching for the cat and even listened to her, while she sobbed for her lost kittie, which was later found near an Italian restaurant. When the writer called up the stranger to thank for his support, he asked her to meet the lucky cat Shmoop, and he came over, to her home. 

After he met Shmoop, as he was leaving, he handed her an envelope... Inside was a beautiful book, called 'Have You Seen My Cat', signed by a familiar name, non other than, the famous author Eric Carle.

The revelation was shocking and embarrassing that she never phoned him again out of shyness. 

To be treated like a daughter, when She never had a father, by such a loving person, who cared about her and and searched endlessly for her kitty, whom she loved so dearly, meant everything to her and she struggled to express, what all she felt that time...

 Years later, when Shmoop passed away, the writer cremated Schmoop with an Eric Carle postcard of 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'. The story was so precious and deeply personal that she kept it to herself. 

But.. She shared it the day Eric passed away, because of love, admiration and respect she had for him, she would never ever forget him. The most cherished moments for her was those five whole days, when she had the world's greatest dad ever. 

Her mind knew well that Eric had gone but her heart and eyes still longed to see him again as she asked - 

'Have You Seen My Eric Carle?'

It was hard, not to shed a single tear to witness immense kindness of an individual with a heart, so tender that it aches seeing pain of a fellow being. It's a story that gives us a glimpse into humane character of a person, known to other as a well regarded children's author. What a lovely, moving and heart touching tribute it is.

 

What a life he lived and what a legacy he's leaving behind that will make him immortal in the hearts of millions of kids and their parents who've ever read him. Oh Eric...

In the moon lit sky, among the brightest stars, an illusionist of dreams and vivid imagination, travels across the horizon, leaving a trail of thousand little rainbows, like a forever hungry caterpillar. 

Women Protests, Emojis, #MeToo and the Witches.

Do random emojis scare you? Yes, the same emoji that float in your chats and messaging apps. From ripe Sunlit bananas to apples of the north, from luscious peaches to glistening brinjals, now emojis are enough to get you accused of fueling "anti-feminism" 

Reason? Infantile headlines in news blaming women, who were protesting for their rights, of causing insecurities in Korean men. Looks like these ladies have mastered the art of choosing best ways for warning the perpetrators loud and clear, emojis that puncture right at the heart of misogyny. 

To retaliate that women are body-shaming, men are giving outrageous retaliation to age old revolutionary retaliation of women against gender violence. Men ultimately provide the evidence of their existing sexism and revealing a pointless vicious cycle. 

Since the past, societies loved blaming women for mens political views or controversial populist achiever acts gone wrong moments, even for the wealthy male ie. celebrity cum politicians cum pretending-to-be-wife lovers, for every Trump there is a Millenia, for every Tharoor there was a Sunanda(she's no more now) and for all the maverick charlatan like Boris there is a Carrie-Antoinette, I'm as sure as first lady's sustainability rented wedding dress (who unapologetically subscribes to expensive furnishings, while loving to take long-haul air travel vital for Caribbean sun.)

So, is it the silly emoji who did it or it's the scapegoat culture sustained due to pervasive patriarchy? Men can go to any length for solidifying their position in higher cohorts even if they look like a buffoon. Boris and Carrie 'carried' their toddler for G7 meet but they're facing alligations for reduced the son to a 'prop' or a 'distraction' for the world leaders at the summit in Cornwall, an act of 'Diaper Diplomacy' So if it goes well, kudos for Boris and if it goes sour with public, blame it on the Carries, not on emojis! By the way, the dress which she worn for the first meeting was an identifiable piece from society favourite, the 'Vampire’s Wife' Coincidently, she was seen in pink Luella 'Ghost' dress as Johnson made his first speech as PM in July, 2019. Creative names indeed, I'll rather believe the first one!

As far as body shaming is concerned, in the wake of G7 meet, It’s been 13 years since Angela Merkel wore a low-cut dress, causing a furore and since then, she’s never again shown even a hint of cleavage in public, to avoid history repeating itself in tabloids and men taking a dig at her with the “weapons of mass distraction” headlines of 2008 while men hyperventilating over a teenie weenie emoji in 2021. Scaling new heights! 

It's hilarious how males are in, what it seems to be a Shakespearen melancholy, over a small yet powerful gesture, still I am not hearing these men coming up with potential solutions or advice to tackle gender inequity, discrimination and harassment in the workforce there? Strange ehh? 

Men are afraid, how a woman dares to laugh at them. Oh! How can she? Why does she need to? Don't she remember how he slapped her hard? Has she forgotten how her mother was treated by her father. How dare she laugh even when her soul is crushed under the weight of her dead ambitions? Shh! Shh! Little girl, how dare you laugh?? 

Men rant about being objectified by a mere emoji - a symbol that hit right at the pettiness in their mentalities and fragile egoes. Since, centuries women were threatened at gunpoints, gagged and raped, subjugated to violence in homes and relationships but the pervasive silence of the bystanders and audacity of the perpetrators was never questioned. Why? 

They can't see a woman standing for herself, standing for other women was straight out of question. Then what turned the wheel? Women standing for fellow women, singing, protesting, holding hands in hands, with eyes brimming with pain of ages and hearts worn on their sleeves they stood! Women stood up after years of being frightened, that the same men who can be someone's son or brother too, but will rape us, kill us and leaves us stranded on an empty street. 

Disparity much? When women were being illegally filmed by hidden webcams for revenge porn,where were the woke men? While in India, Delhi got rebranded from Rape Capitol to Death Capitol due to burning pyres in mass burials due to Covid, Japan still failed to apologise for the innocent women who lost lives and suffered during the World War as Comfort women, South Korean men continue to be one of the major source of demand for child sex tourism in Southeast Asia/Pacific Islands and child sex abuse/pornography websites. 

Moreover, did they ever question hosting club culture in cities that hold night parties and force teenage girls to serve adults? Did they question the hyper sexualization of young girls in kpop which serves the fantasies of middle aged perverts. In Asian countries, it's often found that women and young girls, especially school going children are treated as subjects for sexual perversion. They are repeatedly molested, cat called, followed and dragged for sexual favours. On the other hand, these 'nice men' invented "family loyalty" trope, a dog whistle to subjugate women and keep them as cheap labour. 

Men AFRAID of the WORD feminism seem to be inherent bigots. All they've attempted is to keep women in control and condition them to be a slave to their desires while lecturing them on how her needs shouldn't exceed her duties - to him, his family, his friends, his relatives, his workplace. half of the human population, the women were kept to do their bidding free of charges and be their scapegoats whenever they are out of expiry like a commodity. 

You might be aware of these cultured men who tout, womens' risen voices as Radical feminism gone out of control. Firstly, what's radical about it? Secondly, if the use of protest symbols, in this case a small emoji, constitutes feminism being "out of control", then it's clear as water, why there's a movement happening at all.

If you ever wish to know who abused the power all these years, just stress your nerve cells, a little hard and look, against whom you are barred to speak, against whom you can't point out a finger and it's who, that thinks they are some sort of divine unquestionable entity. In fact they are nothing but a piece of trash!! 

Last time when we heard of a global trash, it was Charles, who used a woman, Camilla to target no other than his own wife Diana, and that alone, got her chased and murdered, while she gasped for last bits of her life. That was a global tragedy but no different than what women kept on facing on a daily basis, just that it is much worst for a common woman. 

And, here we are, seeing men claiming that they've never insulted women's bodies! Touche! Misogyny, took a horrifying turn in Asia and that too, quite long back. I once heard a man among relatives, advising my cousin to loose her weight, specially 'near her waist' else????  "No man will ever look at you" those were his exact words. 

 It's hard.. really hard.. for being a women.. an asian woman.. in a society where exploitation was normalised in every forms and women were told. "Accept it! It is for your own benefit. Just don't ask too many questions." 

Now! Women stood up, smashing the inhumane patriarchal setup and those who benefitted the most, are getting the taste of their own medicine!

Thanks to all the women and also those men who've supported women, even asking random men on social media,  'Are Men So Fragile?' If yes, then the 'Size Does Matter After All.' Size.. of their egoes.. not of their chests boasting their bigotry. The patriarchy has been mocking women's bodies and their shapes of breasts and hips, forever, whether women have or not, what we smell like or what we feel like. So spare me all the faux male outrage now.

I spent my entire teen life being told to be too thin or doubting if I am too fat or am I too short, am I in the right clothes, If my skin is not too revealed, If my clothes are not too tight on the body parts, If I am garnering too much attention (of uncles in the neighbourhood) due my fitted clothes, If I look pretty or not or should I smile little more to look prettier enough, irrespective of the fact that I was one of the office bearer at my school, I danced, I sang, I wrote speeches, I won debates, I as editor of University Literary magazine, I as an Executive Council member at a National University but being myself was never enough.

Our bodies and existence are never 'enough'.

But they can't take it? They just cannot stop their hate. Framing the entire women's movement as an act of "anti-feminism" or "anti-equality" seems just as misogynistic. Buckle Up all you Buttercups! Women have had it enough! 

People with 'little' self worth always seem to have the 'biggest' mouth! You can't always drown the truth and women's narratives with your loud and empty threats. At least this is what you'll have to learn and accept and lawfully abide that, Women's Rights Are Human Rights. 

Honestly, the women led Korean movement is just killing me softly with songs of revolution. I sincerely hope these women succeed in there mission. Considering the ages old system oppression, I'm glad that the ladies are rightfully questioning the men for their failures and the women must keep the vigil high until the disparities are completely addressed. Even if you are called names or branded witchy, do not back down and hang in there, sisters. 

On a happy note, I'll leave you all with last year's Portland Oregon's Standup Paddleboard Witch Paddling event! Can you spot Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax in Full traditional Welsh attire? Look like a typical Saturday night where folks hangout with their homies. I heard someone saying you have to break egg shells "so witches can't use them for boats". Anyways, Witches and Warlocks really had a great time with their coven and now I'm reminded of the rushed or unsatisfactory ending of Chilling adventures of Sabrina but that's the story for another day.