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Newasa - Encountering an unique form of Vishnu, and Sant Jnaneshwar

The year was 1290 . A crowd had gathered around a clearing, where broken down pillars marked the presence of an ancient temple, now long gone. A young boy, just 14 years old, leaned against one of those pillars, deep in thought. Then, he began speaking, and the crowd fell silent, listening to his every word. He spoke without any notes, translating the Bhagavat Gita, from Sanskrit, which only the pundits knew, to the language everyone in the village knew and spoke – a variety of Prakrit which developed into the Marathi language. Even as he spoke, one of the men in the audience realized how momentous this event was, and how important this composition would be. He began writing down the words the young boy spoke, and this composition was named by its author and composer, the Bhavartha Deepika – the enlightening meaning (of the Bhagavat Gita). Now, the ancient, holy text, was no longer restricted to the pundits, but accessible to all, understood easily by them, composed as it was, in their...

A Little Land

As a single child, and the only grandson in both my and Shankar's side of the family, Samhith gets all sorts of toys to play with. Being the finicky kind of mom I am, I keep searching for 'something different'. The only toys both Samhith and I have agreed to like are his Thomas the Tank Engine train track sets and all the building blocks we have collected over the years... Of course, for Samhith, his favourites remain the 200 odd plastic animals we have been accumulating since he was born!

My search for toys has, however, not stopped yet, and I was thrilled to see this interesting set developed by a budding toy designer, Nalisha. She is a Visual Communication student and is part of an interactive toy design Lab at Srishti school of design, Bangalore. She writes a blog named 'Little Land' at http://averylittleland.blogspot.com/

Her blog is named after the set of toys designed by her - 'Little Land', and it offers ample scope for kids to showcase their creativity....

Here is what the toy looks like....

This is the base....


and here are the pieces which fit on it.... There are all sorts of shapes based on the set...


These pieces themselves offer a lot of scope for play... you can dress them up like this....


you can choose a set like this.....


or like this....



Here is the base in the form of a box... which you can use to store the pieces...


And here is the creator with the set as part of an exhibition....


Interesting, wouldn't you say? Now, I wish this set would come in the market soon, so that I could get hold of one for Samhith!

Comments

  1. interesting..as a kid and even now, my favourite toys are the little rubber and plastic animals we used to get with binaca..what great branding it used to be..shd do a post on it sometimes

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  2. If I gave this to Chhavi she will promptly start chewing at the pieces.

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  3. If I gave this to Chhavi she will promptly start chewing at the pieces.

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  4. @Lakshmi: there's nothing to compare with those small things we get free... and the fun is in not knowing what exactly we will get!

    @Mridula: i guess she will, but just for a while.... once she gets over it, I am sure she will come up with interesting things... Samhith did the same...

    @Aarti: i thought u would like it, being a designer yourself!

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  5. The set looks interesting..Liked the box underneath to store them too. Very neat idea.

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  6. @Chitra: yes, it is... which is why i decided to post this...

    @Jayasree: absolutely!!!

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  7. My children have outgrown these, but never the less a great posy and a great link given. Love the shots.

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  8. Very creative, I can see lots of European kids playing with little land too! Many thanks for posting. All the Best from Rome, Italy.

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  9. Wow that was a very interesting toy, You are so creative. 


    ---------------------------
    Lets Enjoy Philippines | Enjoy Philippines

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  10. Thanks! Hope the creator reads this too!

    ReplyDelete

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