A prelude to the book "Totto-Chan"

Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window 

This book is an assortment of fond reminiscences of the author, Tetsuko Kuroyanagi (student herself) of the model school named Tomoe-Gakuen that existed between 1937 and 1945 in Japan. When the whole world was gripped in one way or the other with the World War II, children of this school peacefully enjoyed their real childhood under the soothing care, love and knowledge of their headmaster, Mr. Sosaku Kobayashi. It is astounding to witness an educator to build a world for the children devoid of influence of war.

The author Totto-Chan - as she was called during her early days - was a famous personality when she presented this commendable piece of work to the world in 1982. Incidentally, Totto-Chan was expelled from a conventional school for having been an irrepressible kid for teachers before she was put in Tomoe (after a considerable amount of research by her mother).

The whole experience of reading this book takes one to Tomoe itself and presents vividly the pictures of physical structures, nature, teachers and supporting staff. As one enters deep into the book, the thought of longing for such a school environment grasps everyone. The Headmaster of the school drew inspiration from another educator named Haruji Nakanura where Kobayashi worked as music instructor. The latter travelled across Europe to study schools and the systems before he set up his dream school in 1937 that was burnt down during the war in 1945; thereby crushing vision of this great man and his beloved children.

A must read book for all those who 💗 children

...to be continued (on my favorite sections of this book)

Postcards

It is more than six years now since India bid farewell to the Telegram service! 👋

When the service was in place, it was used mainly to communicate condolences! 😟 And here and there, it was used to share important news, events 💓and to congratulate! 👍 As soon as it was announced that the service would be stopped, people started thronging to post offices to send telegram to their loved ones and sometimes to their own addresses as the 160 year service would cease to exist shortly then! 

It even made to news as to who sent the last few telegrams in India and messages did they carry 😍 Though people used the service only a little resulting in closure, mere thought that it would no longer exist was hard to digest and to bid farewell was heavy for us, the sentimental Indians😊

History might repeat!

As we wanted to buy few postcards a fortnight ago, we found that it was as difficult as finding a public telephone booth in the town we live in! 😞 We ended up finding none rather we were informed that it has been months since postcards reached those post offices. Officials even doubt if those cards are printed anymore! 😨

We ended up buying inland letters!😊

Not that we did not like these. But there is always a matter of convenience while using postcard than the inland letters for its easy reading 😜 Especially when it is sent to tiny tots, it is easy for them to look on their own as an elder's help is required to tear open the inland letter 💁Also postcard communicates  the message instantly without giving a suspense unlike inland letter.😝 And yeah, inland letters can  hold that suspense for a while which is actually cool in a way😇

Not surprisingly, these were also not available many in number. As the charge of an inland letter is Rs.2.50, one has to purchase only in even numbers to not have an issue with demanding 50 paise😜. However, we managed to buy few tens as we were worried if we would get one after a point in time! 😨

Agreed that postal department runs in loss after the efficient courier service came into existence. Still, there is nothing that could replace the pleasure of sending and receiving letters by post!

We wish and pray that this does not come to a halt!!!!🙏