Indian Daddy's Blog

Children’s literature has an important place in nurturing young minds, sparking curiosity, and building empathy. Niyatee Sharma, a celebrated children’s author with seven books to her credit, is making her mark by creating captivating tales for young readers across India. Published by renowned names such as Tulika Books, Penguin Random House, and Tota Books, Sharma’s works blend vibrant narratives with visual storytelling, a fusion that’s engaging and enjoyable for children. In this article, we explore the creative journey of Niyatee Sharma, her impact on children’s literature, and some of her most popular books that have left a lasting impression on young readers. From Interior Design to Storytelling: An Unusual Path to Children's Literature Niyatee Sharma’s journey to becoming a beloved children’s author is both unique and inspiring. A graduate from the Centre of Planning and Technology (CEPT) as an interior designer, Sharma initially pursued a career in design. Her background in...

We often expect immediate results from our actions in today's materialistic world. There are times, however, when we continue with our actions without expecting any tangible results. Since my son was a toddler, I've been telling him bedtime stories. Over the past six years, he has requested a story about life and love every night. In order to satisfy his curiosity, I devote a great deal of time to gathering knowledge from various sources, including children's books, TV shows, the internet, YouTube, and Facebook. Sometimes he loves the stories, and other times he falls asleep before they end, so I repeat them the next night. I told him a story about Lord Buddha one night: Lord Buddha was speaking to a group of people in the forest where he lived one day. It was usual for people to come from far and wide to listen to his wise words. A furious businessman was among the crowd that morning. The man was angry because his family spent hours listening to Buddha, whom he thou...

Yes. Children should learn Politics. Children should learn about politics because it is essential for society. As descendants of today's society, as citizens of the future, and as future leaders of our country, it is imperative that all present children to gain a better understanding of politics. Usually, we feel that politics is place for bad human being. That normally discourages us from dreaming of being a leader in future. We also need encouragement to vote when we attain voting age. Learning politics would also help to select suitable candidate to lead our country / Let’s   hope that our children are the best leaders in the world. Authored , Dhurba Neel Dutta (10 years )

  Seeing much, suffering much, and studying much, are the three pillars of learning,  and pursuit of learning is the beauty of life. If someone ceases learning he seems to be equal to death.  Life is precious so every moment should be enjoyed with learning new thoughts and knowledge.  According to Earl Nightingale, "Learn to enjoy every minute of your life. Be happy now. Don't wait for something outside of yourself to make you happy in the future. Think how really precious is the time you have to spend, whether its at work or with your family. every minute should be enjoyed and savored. Life in the conservation field is not monotonous . Once I was in Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary, Assam to assess field situations day tonight. During the course of my work, I interviewed a few forest guards who are well-educated and spent inside the forest camps to protect the Greater one-horned rhinoceros and other wildlife. Then one forest guard replied that they never felt bored deep ...

  Announcement: This post is written by my better half Puspanjalee who is an award-winning blogger and author. I have finally convinced her to write regularly for this blog on her ideas on parenting and raising a reader.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Living in India naturally makes you trilingual. You learn your mother tongue, Hindi as a lingua franca, and English as the second language. But the learning curve for the mother tongue when you go to an English Medium school can be really steep. It depends on you how you make your child read and write your mother tongue. So, we thought of incentives for our son to learn how to read and write Assamese fluently. We told him that he gets to read a whole lot of books when he learns to read Assamese. And that trick worked like magic! Being a reader, the possibility of reading books in his own language was a huge boost. Being bookworms, it re...

This is the last part of autumn. Nature has welcomed the winter here and this is indeed a very pleasant time. Many festivals happened during this year in India. Among them the Durga Puja, Diwali, Raas,  and many more. People are also in festive mode but due to the COVID19 situation restrictions prevail everywhere.  On the eve of this festive season, we went to visit a natural site near our residence. We spent a night and rekindled our love for nature after several months. Neel was excited to visit the location. He felt the first touch of winter, fog, campfire, etc. In this post,  I would like to share how we enjoyed touching cool river water. Neel and me wake up early in the morning and went away to wander on the lone village roads. We went to the bank of a river called Kasimdaha. It is a small river coming out from Manas national park. This is a perennial river as there are many rivers in this place are seasonal or rain fed.  The name  Kasimdaha  might get...

  The story I am going to share is from ten years ago. I was a full-time researcher then, doing my research on translocated rhinos at Manas National Park, Assam.  I and my team is commonly known in the nearby area as the IRV2020 team (Indian Rhino Vision 2020), a program designed by the Government of Assam for long time survival of the rhinos in the 7 protected areas of Assam.  I was fortunate enough to be part of it.  Every day, we used to venture out for the rhinos in the early morning and return during the late afternoon or evening from the jungle. There was no place for leisure or to hang out with my friends and families.  So, I often visited the evening market with my colleagues. It was a great pleasure to have piping hot milk tea with pakora and samosa. We did not have the refrigerator to preserve the vegetables so we had to buy them every day from the local market. One day, I brought some vegetables from a teenage boy. The boy easily persuaded us to buy h...

As parents, we are always busy with different levels of work. Official, household chores, social communications, and many more. We have limited time to warm up our bonding. Despite my busy schedule, I managed time for Neel's (my son) bedtime.  Neel's bedtime started at 8:30-9:30pm. Before fall asleep both of us interact about numerous topics. First 10-15 minutes we discuss an imaginary world that is Hot wheel cars, Airplanes, SMART house, Space station, Dinosaurs, Dragon, Solar systems, and many more. Thereafter I started to tell some short stories that give him morale to his inquisitive mind for about 5-8 minutes. Finally, I sing lullabies cuddle over a hand. Normally I sing only one lullaby but sometimes more than two songs. Simultaneously I also massage his foot, head, and hand. I often massage the back and whole body for his ultimate relaxation. This is the precious moment of both of us or Ourtime . This may be reciprocal and I also feel ultimate relaxation....

As the whole world is under the Corona Pandemic, this has been a desperate time for us. Corona is slowly breaking our economy and the future seems blank as of now. It has threatened the evolutionary traits of social relationships and keeping us inside our home. In India, 21 days lockdown has put all of us inside the four walls of the house. From morning to night our family members are spending time together.  Although we are accustomed to the gadgets, I and my son are trying to use this bleak time to bond with nature and finding time for creative works.  We are also exercising, running and utilizing time as much as possible. The following are five activities you can try with your kids during the lockdown. I hope it will help you engage your kids and they will enjoy it as much as our kid does. I will share more such activities over time with you.  1. Painting and drawing  Every day, Neel and I spend a couple of hours with pen and pencils...

     I would like to teach the Assamese language (Neel's mother tongue) as much as possible in-home. Same things I have tried to promote for interested other people to learn the Assamese language through the youtube channel. I feel happy if you look and encourage my effort. 

I have a dream to be the best daddy. I want to teach my son about my own culture and language. I, therefore, started a new feature with my son ' Deta and Deha https://youtu.be/W8FXIa1aPOc'.  In this video, I would like to feature how to recite the Assamese poem. I shall be happy if my readers would like my effort.