The Lion who wanted to Sing.

I am not a voracious reader but that faint habit of reading some stuff other than school textbooks was instilled in me since my primary school days. While in the community school, one of our teachers use to tell us many interesting stories by reading the library and I was an ardent listener. Later I too started reading those stories from the library books and my favorites were those of Panchatantra stories. But latter when I reached in high schools, my interest in reading declined drastically and I read hardly a single novel in a year, though I like reading magazines and short articles.

The long faded interest in reading, though I could not revive when I tried during my early college days, but gradually I picked up the pace after reading few interesting and inspiring books, which I purchased from the market. When it talks of money, it seems that the things retain a better value.

Now days, blogging made me a better reader. Through the network of blogs, I got to read many things written by different thoughts. I hardly miss the updated blogs that I see on my blogger dashboard. The contents are varied ranging from humours and doses of funs to love and relationship, of creative writings like poetic hymns filled with sweet rhymes and creative non-fictions based on one’s life and experiences. There are bloggers who share their thoughts and opinions on social issues and express their concerns; I get to learn about the life as a father or mother, of posts regarding the culture and way of living of the peoples from across the country, and the list goes on.

Most importantly, if we explore international blogsphere, there are many professional writers who shares with the world, various tips and techniques to write better. One such writer, who is known to many Bhutanese blogger, is Rachna Chhabria Madam, who blogs at Rachna's Scriptorium. She shares everything about writing skills and tips that she possesses with the world and regularly shares the link of her updates on the Blogyul Group on facebook. But of late, in the event of trying to forget the odds of life, I forgot my facebook password, and still I could not recover it so I miss the Blogyul group very much. I follow her updates regularly and it’s really inspiring for us to persevere in the art of writing. We get lots of writing tips, but I am not able to inculcate the habit in me. As advised by madam herself long before on a facebook, I tried to write few short stories, but I could not complete a single, though she stressed, “try to complete writing it”. Yes, one of the fellow blogger pointed out that all writers and not bloggers but all bloggers are writer and so I am a writer. I am a writer who writes nonsensical stuffs to satisfy myself.

Since Rachna Madam is a writer, I always wanted to read a book written by her, so I once asked her about the name of books written by her. To that, she shared with me the link of her books. I tried searching the books in the bookshops nearby by but could not get one. So finally, I purchased one of her books from FLIPKART an online distributor and could grab a copy of “The Lion who wanted to Sing” recently. Written for the benefit of young and developing brains at large, the book is written in simple English filled with picturesque expressions. There are three stories, all of which are spoken from the natural home in the forest, where animals are all too human.  

There is a story about Leo, the king lion who became vegetarian for a purpose; there is a story about Waggle the worm, who keeps his promise to incept the virtue of kindness and compassion in the soul of greedy birds; and there is the story of Kiara, the elephant who cannot bear to look into the mirror. Such lively stories, which in a simple manner teaches the great values of determination, perseverance, integrity, friendship, kindness, sacrifice, etc.., if introduced to our children, it will not only make them a good reader but also a good human. The book will now serve me as an awesome gift to my little niece, once I go back home for vacation.