No Title
Lata Sangade and Shivani Taneja
MERA PANNA (SET OF CARDS) by Various children Eklavya, 2022, 8 pp., 500.00
November 2022, volume 46, No 11

As you all may be aware, Chakmak is a children’s monthly magazine published by Eklavya regularly since 1985. It has a column named ‘Mera Panna’ (My pages) that carries stories, poems, articles and drawings by children. We can see the myriad abilities of children in this column, and children too can find themselves in these pages. This set of 8 cards is a selection from this vast treasure, and have been presented as one special card each.

‘Aasmaan Mein Chidiya’ is a poem by Khushi studying in class 8 where we can see brevity of words that have been set to a rhythm. In another card ‘Mera Bus ka Number’ the child has used colloquial words like ‘gyara-pukara’, ‘jaati-karaati’ beautifully, and with elan! The rhyme ‘cycle’ has a good meter and also raises the serious issue of gender discrimination in the voice of a girl. Here, Pooja Verma of class 9 writes on social discrimination based on gender with sharpness and comments on how, often, girls are deprived from fulfilling their dreams and heartfelt desires. ‘Akhir Kyon’ is a very-short story written by Arti in 2010 which builds on the element of suspense and prods you to keep reading. The author has also written about an animal in her surroundings, which reflects her sensitiveness.

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