Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Creative Resource Centre for the Visually Impaired


The Karadi Cultural Alliance Trust, in partnership with Hippocampus Children’s Library, invites you to the launch of the Creative Resource Centre for visually impaired children aged four to fourteen years. This initiative is supported by the Sir Ratan Tata Trust Fund. Dr. I. Arivanandam, Regional Director of the National Institute for the Visually Handicapped, will preside over the function.

Date: 3 August 2012
Time: 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Venue: Hippocampus Children’s Library Third Avenue Indiranagar Adyar Chennai
Phone: +914424433544


The Creative Resource Centre is a library especially aimed at children with visual impairments. This is an initiative by the Karadi Cultural Alliance Trust in association with the Sir Ratan Tata Trust Fund. The library is housed within the Hippocampus Children’s Library in Chennai. The CRC houses a variety of non-academic Braille books, audio books, tactile books, and tactile toys.

The Karadi Cultural Alliance Trust (KCAT) is a not-for-profit organisation that was started in 2003. The organisation has 5 founder-trustees: Ms. Shobha Viswanath (writer, educational consultant), Ms. Anooradha Sriram (musician), Ms. Nandita Das (actress), Ms. P. R. Rajalakshmi (honorary administrative manager), and Mr. C. P. Viswanath (musician). 

KCAT’s vision is to contribute to the alleviation of educational and cultural deprivation of children in disadvantaged groups through creative materials and methods. Other KCAT projects include the Dreaming Fingers initiative to provide tactile picture books to the visually impaired, which was an initiative supported by the Ford Foundation, and the Karadi Path initiative to help children in 30 Panchayat union primary schools around Chennai along the path of language learning, which was an initiative supported by the Government of Tamil Nadu. Following the tsunami of 2004, KCAT also distributed books to displaced communities in an initiative supported by the UNICEF.

Friday, July 27, 2012

A Quiet Courage


Charkha Audiobooks invites you to the launch of A Quiet Courage, the first title in the series, “Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives”. 
Date: Tuesday 7 August 2012
Time: 06:00 PM Onwards
Venue: C. P. Ramaswamy Hall 1 Eldams Road Chennai


Please join us for an audio-visual presentation, excerpts from the audiobook, a piano recital by Anil Srinivasan, composer, and a few words from the author. We invite you to partake in high tea before the book launch. Here is the event as registered on Facebook


A Quiet Courage is an audiobook based on the true story of Mahema and Manohar Devadoss. Manohar and Mahema Devadoss thought their cup of joy was overflowing when tragedy struck. Mahema was rendered quadriplegic by a cruel accident, and Manohar was robbed of his eyesight. The obstacles seemed insurmountable. But with courage and dignity, they decided to take charge of their lives once again. Charkha presents this poignant story as a musical audiobook, accompanied by 10 postcard prints of Manohar Devadoss’s evocative paintings.

Text and Artwork: Manohar Devadoss
Music and Arrangements: Anil Srinivasan
Narration: Nosherwan Jehangir with Sharanya Manivannan and Kaushik Viswanath

Mixing, Assistant Composer: Vedanth Bharadwaj
Vocals: Vedanth Bharadwaj, Subhiksha Rangarajan, Lakshmi Rangarajan
Instruments: Akkarai Subbulakshmi, Murad Ali, Navin Iyer, Vedanth Bharadwaj, Anil Srinivasan

Monday, July 9, 2012

Fellowship Press Release

Here's the press release from the Frankfurt Book Fair on the Fellowship Programme for International Publishers 2012!

But what are the plans and expectations of the Fellows coming to Germany? “I am extremely focused on bringing the very best of children’s books from India to an international audience, as well as introducing Indian children to picture books of the world,” says Manasi Subramaniam, Editor at the Karadi Tales Company in India. “The Indian book market is young and fast-growing, and at every book fair I find that I have much to learn from the people I meet. Through the course of the fellowship and the Frankfurt Book Fair, I look forward to meeting and collaborating with diverse international publishers, and exchanging ideas and approaches.”