A Word From the Author- M.V.S.Murthy

 A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR

One evening, I took my grandchildren to a park near our house in Mysore, India, where there was a statue of a ‘Happy Man’, a traditional Chinese  ‘Laughing Man’. From that day I was ‘Happy-man Tata’ to my grandchildren! My E-mail correspondence with children has been happymantata@yahoo.in  and my pen-name ‘Happyman Tata’.

I am 83 now. I had no literary inclination or knowledge. When I had leisure and a computer to play with and an encouraging son, even at this late age I have attempted to bring out (1) a technical E-Book on maintenance of Dam gates (which is well received by Water Resources Engineers of several states), and (2) this collection of stories and hymns for children, both transmitted on E-mail.

I hail from Karnataka in India and belong to Hindu religion. I am a Mechanical Engineer by profession. I belong to pre-independence generation, from a cultured middle-class family. During my visit to USA, I found that, while my grand-children there were more knowledgeable than I was at their age, they were quite eager to know about our tradition and culture. Their knowledge of our mother-tongue was nil. Hence their knowledge of our culture and tradition was limited to a few English books available and dwindle soon.

This prompted me to transliterate a few Sanskrit shlokas and give a gist of their meaning and transmit them by e-mail. While we used to recite these hymns without bothering about their meaning, I thought that these young ones would rather know what they are reciting before learning to recite them. So I added a rough meaning as I had understood. Most of the hymns were those I had learnt as a kid and now rendered form memory. Since we were taught by word of mouth and so knew their pronunciation, while transliterating, I have tried to bring out correct pronunciation without adopting notations that may be difficult for children to follow.

I have adopted as far as possible a phonetic pronunciation. My literary knowledge being nil, I need the help of parents (a generation which had been exposed to native culture in their younger days), to correct any error and help their children in pronunciation of Sanskrit words.

What started as ‘Some Frequently Recited Shlokas’, went further to Kaalidaasa and other stories. I wrote some stories based on what I had heard or read, often from memory, mainly to hold interest of children and to bring out a message. This is a compilation of writings which I thought, may be interesting and informative to kids and youngsters and I do not claim any original authorship except where specifically mentioned. I am grateful to all sources, known and unknown from where I have borrowed. I hope the elders will adopt a “Hamsa-Ksheera Nyaaya” to take what is good and discard the trash. My son Prakash has helped proof and edit this collection, but I will be grateful for your active feed-back to correct any errors.  My E-Mail  is,<happymantata@yahoo.in>or  happymantata@gmail.com

    This booklet is a compilation of mails sent during 2010-2011. As there was a good response, though from my limited circle, I thought a wider circulation would serve the purpose better. Hence this effort. There is no ‘copyright’ and any part of the book could be copied and circulated to whom ever it may be of interest.

                                                                            HAPPYMAN TATA (June-2012)