When Jessica met Jennie...

The yellow school bus came to a halt in front of the big, white house at four-fifteen in the afternoon. 5-year-old Jessica stepped out of the bus, with an orange school bag on her back and a tiny white water bottle in her hand. Her friends waved at her through the windows. ‘Bye-bye, Jessica.’ She turned round and waved back, smiling. The bus driver smiled at her, shifted the gear, and drove on.

Boo boo the Labrador was already waiting for her at the gate, sticking his tongue out and wagging his tail. The moment Jessica opened the gate Boo boo put his limbs on her tiny shoulders and started licking her face. Jessica giggled and patted his head. Both of them went inside, with Boo boo in the front, leading the way to the little princess.

‘Grandma!’

‘Hello, darling. How was school?’ said Jessica’s grandma, pinching her cheeks.

‘It was nice. You know our teacher made me the class monitor today,’ she said, placing her bag on a nearby table.

‘Really? How wonderful!’

‘And there is an elocution competition on Monday. I have to tell a story to the whole class.’

‘You’ll win of course. You know so many stories, don’t you?’

‘I do. But I have to say it with proper hand-gestures and voice modulation. I don’t know what voice modulation is,’ Jessica said everything in one breath.

‘Your mother will teach you that, don’t worry. She used to win a lot of prizes in school. So have you decided on any story?’

‘David and Goliath,’ said Jessica.

‘Fantastic,’ said her grandma.

***

Jessica was having her evening snack – cake and milk – when Jessica’s mother, Mrs Howard, returned from work. Jessica left the table and ran toward her mother.

‘Mom!’

‘Hello, sweetheart, how was school?’ Jessica’s mother asked.

‘I’m participating in elocution competition on Monday,’ said Jessica, looking up.

‘Wow! Which story do you want to tell your friends?’

‘David and Goliath. Will you teach me?’

‘Of course, my dear. It’s still Friday. We have plenty of time to learn.’

‘And I am the class monitor,’ said Jessica, jumping on the couch with a “blup.”

‘That’s fantastic,’ said her mother, sitting next to her and kissing her on the cheek.

***

‘Once upon a time the Philistine army had waged a war against the Israelites…’ began Jessica’s mother. ‘Standing for the Philistines, Goliath threatened the Israelites…’

Jessica listened to the story once again as if she was listening to it for the first time: she widened her eyes, covered her mouth with her tiny hands, ‘Wow!’ she cried from time to time. When the story was over Mrs Howard asked Jessica to tell the story – with hand-gestures and proper expressions and voice modulation. ‘Give proper pauses, lower your voice and stress the words whenever needed,’ her mother said. ‘Give a pause after “once upon a time,” stress the phrase “waged a war…”’

Jessica tried to emulate her mother, but to no avail. She frowned when she went wrong. ‘Oh, don’t worry. You’ll get it right. Now let’s try again…’ said her mother.

Jessica practiced till eight o’clock. ‘All right, my dear. Time to have supper,’ said her mother. They were just about to get up when they heard a voice: ‘What’s my darling doing?’

‘Dad!’ cried Jessica, jumping up from the floor, and ran toward her dad.

‘I am going to tell a story to the whole class on Monday. And I am the class monitor now,’ said Jessica.

‘Oooh, that’s marvelous!’ said her father and picked her up.

‘Mom is teaching me elocution. I am going to tell the story of David and Goliath.’

‘Excellent, excellent. May I hear it once?’

‘We are going to have supper first,’ said Jessica’s mother. ‘Story time is afterwards.’

Together the four of them sat for supper. ‘By the way, I have got something for you,’ said Jessica’s father.

‘Oh, come on now. Couldn’t you have said it after supper?’ said Jessica’s mother.

‘Really?’ said Jessica. ‘What is it?’

‘After supper, my dear. I promise,’ said her father.

It was always a challenge for Mrs Howard to make her daughter eat her food. Mr Howard, upon telling Jessica about the present, only made it worse. ‘That’s enough. I’m done with supper,’ said Jessica, every once in a while. Mrs Howard shot a glance at her husband. Mr Howard threw up his hands in the air as if saying he was sorry.

Finally when they had finished eating their supper, Jessica followed her dad everywhere. The good humored Mr Howard teased her by walking up and down the house without any reason. Mrs Howard couldn’t help smiling. ‘Oh, that’s enough. Show it to her already. It’s not funny to tease her like that.’

‘All right. Here it is,’ said Mr Howard, opening his bag.

Jessica stood in front of him as he took out an iPad.

‘But that’s yours,’ said Jessica, her eyes sad.

‘Yes. But what’s inside it is yours,’ he said as he ran an application: iStoryTree.

Jessica sat next to him and leaned towards the screen. ‘What is it?’

‘You shall see.’

And as the story of Crab and Crane started Jessica got transported into a different world altogether. She sat still, becoming numb to her surroundings. Her grandmother once asked her: ‘What is it, darling?’ Jessica neither heard it nor responded. Her expressions changed from time to time, depending upon the rhythm of the narration and the animations and the sounds.

It was only when the narration was over did Jessica take her eyes off the screen. She turned to look at her dad. ‘How is it?’ he asked.

Jessica could only laugh. Nicknamed as “Chatter Box” by everyone, Jessica didn’t have any words to say this time. Her dad taught her to explore other options in the application. She did; and she clapped and danced and laughed in delight.

Finally when Jessica came across the feature, “Avatar,” it was a different game entirely. Standing in the middle of her colorful bedroom, Avatar Jennie narrated the whole story, with apt expressions, hand-gestures and proper voice modulation. Jessica listened to 8-year-old Jennie a couple of times without uttering a word. ‘It’s time to bed, Jessica,’ said her mother thrice. Jessica didn’t hear it at all. Jessica’s father, who seemed to have been engrossed in Avatar Jennie’s narration, got a nudge from his wife.

 

‘Oh, right. Jessica, darling, it’s time to go to bed. You can listen to it tomorrow.’

Jessica gave the iPad back to her father unwillingly, and said, ‘Mom, is this how elocution is done?’

‘Exactly. That’s how it is done,’ said her mom.

‘Wow!’ said Jessica.

Mrs Howard understood the implication. She said to her husband when Jessica went to bed, ‘Did you have to bring it now? I was teaching her elocution skills myself. You bought that thing and spoiled my impression. You stole my thunder, you know.’

Mr Howard broke into a peal of laughter. Mrs Howard joined him a moment later.

***

The following day, as guessed by everyone, Jessica didn’t ask her mom to teach her storytelling at all. She got busy with iStoryTree’s Avatar Jennie. It was during lunch time, after having listened to Jennie over twenty times, that Jessica announced she was going to narrate the story of Crab and Crane instead of David and Goliath. Her parents were not surprised.  

For the next one and a half days Jessica listened to Jennie and practiced the art of storytelling. Her mom once suggested her to practice by standing in front of the mirror. Jessica did and found it very useful. Jennie, although a fictional character, seemed to be real to Jessica; such was the impact the Avatar had created on the little girl. As Jennie narrated the story, Jessica imitated the expressions and learned the story by heart.

***

On Monday morning the yellow school bus arrived at eight on the dot. With her orange school bag on the back, Jessica was ready. Her parents and her grandmother wished her luck for the elocution competition. They could see confidence in her smile. Boo boo nuzzled against Jessica, wagging his tail. She patted his head, hugged him once, and trotted off toward the school bus.

The competition began at ten in the morning. Little boys and girls had come prepared with colorful stories. Jessica eagerly waited for her turn. And when her turn came, she went up the stage with conviction and gave a performance that her teachers defined as “fine and delicious.”

After having witnessed a lot of good performances, Jessica was surprised when she won the first place. Her parents, however, were not. After all, they had seen how Jennie had trained her to perfection.

************

What people have to say about iStoryTree...

An excellent app for kids....develop their skills optimally....!

-       

            ~ Rajesh Chauhan, Businessman

I have downloaded many apps for my daughter...this is the only one so far which takes motion under consideration...even my 15-month-old daughter likes it when it changes color with motion.. 

Ashish Jain, Software Professional

Amazing application!
My daughter loves the voice and wants to listen the story again and again.....

-        ~ Swati, Software Professional

Just learnt about the iStoryTree app on iTunes and saw its functional preview on YouTube !! Comic-book style storytelling for folk tales and ancient Indian fables has been a long untapped & unaddressed market and iStoryTree makes a strong attempt to target that!! The graphics, aesthetics, voiceover and narrative are all top notch!! Character details, highlighted text reading and spell check make it extremely kid and 'reading parent' friendly ... Congratulations to the creative team for a great idea and best of wishes for exploring and expanding this platform even further!!

-          Ankur Gupta, Advocate

     My kids are having a blast! iStoryTree is an education app where you get to learn new words, make your own pictures, paint them and then share it with your friends. Graphics are stunning, music is great and the important thing is it really works. Tech tree knows how to provide great information and a great user experience at an awesome value. This is a must have app for all kids and my family's favorite educational app. I have played with many education apps and I will say this is the King of all apps a must download for every kids and school.

-          Ravi Belwal, Businesman

This app is good for education and learning English with fun. My boys like it so much. They learn new vocabulary, reading and speaking. Coloring and games are also stunning. Go get it!

-          Wasan, Professor

Sonia's Fishing Adventure

There was a reason Sonia eagerly waited for the weekend. Fishing! ‘You won’t break your promise, will you?’ she asked her dad every morning at breakfast. ‘Of course not, darling,’ her father said every time. ‘We’ll definitely catch some fish this Sunday.’ And every time Sonia heard it a delicious smile flitted across her face.

When her dad returned home from office on Wednesday, he slumped on the couch, placing his briefcase by his feet. ‘I’m going to Mumbai this weekend to meet a client.’

‘Oh, but you said you were scheduled to go next week?’ his wife asked.

‘Yes. Seems like they changed their plans and coming over this weekend itself.’

Sonia, who was busy decorating her doll in her room, heard it and came rushing into the drawing hall, crying, ‘But you promised.’

‘And I won’t break it, my dear. I’m leaving Friday night and will return by Saturday night.’

Sonia held his arm with both hands, ‘No, I won’t let you go.’

Her parents looked at each other and laughed. ‘Yes, yes, don’t let him go, Sonia,’ her mom said.

‘Et tu, Brute?’ said her dad.

Sonia’s mom shook her head, smiling, and went back in the kitchen. ‘Do you want noodles?’ she called from the kitchen.

If Sonia heard it, she didn’t bother to answer. She held on to her dad’s arm. ‘You can’t go. You promised.’

Ruffling his daughter’s hair, he said: ‘And I promise you again, sweetheart. We will go fishing on Sunday morning.’

***

By Saturday evening Sonia had her fishing equipments ready: Fishing rod, pole, reel, line, guide and the rest. ‘What should I have for bait?’ she asked her mom.

‘Earthworms, grasshoppers, crickets.’

‘Where do I get them?’

‘Ah, don’t you worry about that. Your father will get those.’

‘He is going to come tonight, right?’

‘Of course he will.’

‘OK.’

‘Now come on, be a good girl and have your supper.’

Sonia had finished her supper when the phone rang. Her mom picked it up. ‘Hello?’

A minute later she kept the receiver back in the cradle and turned to Sonia. ‘Time to bed.’

‘Who was it?’

‘Your dad. He is on his way.’

Sonia kept mum for a while and then cried: ‘You are lying. He is not coming, is he?’

‘Oh, he is coming all right. It’s just that he is running a little late, that’s all,’ said her mom.

Sonia shook her head as tears welled up in her eyes. Her mom hugged her and kissed her on the cheek. ‘Shhh. Don’t cry, darling. He is on his way. You’ll definitely fish tomorrow.’

Sonia didn’t utter a word. Tears rolled down her cheek. ‘Oh, come on,’ her mom said. ‘OK, here’s the deal. Just in case he doesn’t come on time, we’ll go fishing. What do you say?’

‘No, I want to go with dad. He promised.’

It was around ten-thirty in the night when Sonia went to sleep. Needless to say it was a herculean task for her mom to console her and put her to sleep.

***

The morning was cool and wet and without any bright sunlight. The September breeze blew mildly through the windows. Sonia woke up at seven o’clock. Rubbing her face with her hands, she opened her eyes to a surprise. A gift-wrapped box lay on the table beside the cot. Her eyes widened with a glint. She took the box in her hands. ‘Good morning, princess,’ was written on the golden wrapping paper. She knew instantly. ‘Dad,’ she cried in delight as she got off the cot and ran outside.

Her dad was sitting on the couch, sipping his coffee. ‘Here’s my princess,’ he said, placing the coffee mug on the table in front of him.

‘When did you return?’ Sonia asked as she sat on his lap.

He held her tightly in his arms. ‘Early morning.’

‘So did you open your gift?’ he asked.

‘No, but I know what it is,’ said Sonia.

‘Really? Tell me then.’

‘Chocolates, of course,’ said Sonia, giggling.

‘Oh, you know everything, don’t you?’

‘So fishing?’ she asked.

‘You bet. Now go have your bath and breakfast.’

Sonia jumped off his lap and made a dash towards the bathroom. By eight o’clock she was all dolled up in a pair of light blue capris and a white t-shirt.

When Sonia saw her dad still sitting in front of the television, reading newspaper, she tapped her forehead and said, ‘Dad, you are so lazy. Get ready soon.’

‘OK, OK, I’m going. I’ll be ready by the time you finish your breakfast,’ said her father.

Sonia’s mother called her into the kitchen. ‘Have your breakfast.’

After eating a bowl of noodles and drinking a glass of hot chocolate, Sonia ran into her room to get her fishing equipments. She brought them to the drawing hall, arranged them all neatly in a big bag, wore her brown hat and white shoes, and sat on the couch – only to get up a moment later and bounce up and down the hall restively.

Father and daughter were just about to leave home when it started to rain. Sonia’s father had kept his promise, but the nature hadn’t. Sonia looked at her dad. ‘I’m so sorry, my dear,’ he said. Without a word, Sonia dropped her bag and went inside her room.

***

A while later Sonia’s parents entered her room. She was lying the bed, face down. Her mom sat on the cot, patting her back. ‘See what dad’s got you.’

‘I don’t want chocolates,’ said Sonia.

‘It’s not chocolates… Well, what if I said we could fish in the house itself?’ said Sonia’s dad.

‘Where? In the bathtub?’ asked Sonia, not getting up.

Her parents chuckled. ‘No, no. Just get up a while, won’t you?’ said Sonia’s dad.

Sonia didn’t. ‘All right,’ he said and launched an application on his iPad. The more Sonia tried to ignore the more the melodious song attracted her. She slowly turned around and sat up on the bed. Her cheeks had ballooned up with anger. ‘What is it?’ she finally asked.

‘It’s iStoryTree. It tells beautiful stories,’ said her dad.

‘I don’t want to hear any stories,’ she said.

‘Well, let’s see,’ her dad said and played the story. Within a few moments Sonia got immersed in the story of Crab and Crane. The animations, the sound effects, the way the objects came alive upon touching – all fascinated her to no end. She began to enjoy more and more with each passing minute. And when storytelling time was over, her dad asked her: ‘Now, do you want to fish?’

Sonia didn’t know what to say, so she didn’t. She didn’t take her eyes off the iPad either. Without waiting further, her dad tapped on “Games.”  Two options popped up: Catch Them All and Fill Me Up. He chose the first one.

‘Now,’ he said, ‘here’s the thing, Sonia. The fish will come up above the water. You have to catch them before they dive back in. Let’s see how many you can catch in a minute.’

Sonia took the iPad from her dad and looked at him, as if asking, ‘How to do it?’

‘It’s simple,’ he said, hearing her thoughts. ‘All you have to do is tap on them with your finger when they are above water.’

Sonia gave a faint smile and started the game. In the beginning the colorful fish, when flew above the water, only enchanted her. She forgot all about catching them and just looked at the smiling fish. And when the background voice said, ‘You can’t catch us,’ she clapped her hands and laughed.

‘It’s not how you do it,’ said her father.

‘Oh, let her do whatever she wants,’ said her mom, nudging his elbow.

Sonia didn’t hear any of this. She let the fish live for a while. And then she decided to catch them. She got ready with her forefinger, pointing at the screen. As the fish began to fly over the water she started to tap on them. When she missed, she didn’t get disheartened. She kept on as long as the game went on. Her first score was twenty. Once she was done with it, without asking for her father’s help she figured out as to how to restart the game. Nevertheless, her parents were impressed.

She went about the game for the next couple of hours, catching fish and counting them, beating her own score, laughing, giggling, frowning, clapping, talking to herself, talking to fish …

It was noon when she finally decided to rest her fingers. ‘I caught thirty-five fish once, you know,’ she said to her parents.

‘Really? I’m so proud of you,’ said her mom.

‘Enjoyed?’ asked her dad, pinching her cheek.

‘Yes, dad. Very much,’ she said, jumping up and down.

‘All right, now come and eat something,’ called her mom.

‘Later, mom,’ Sonia said and sat on the couch, holding the iPad.

The rain had stopped. ‘Do you want to fish for real now?’ asked Sonia’s dad.

‘Shall we go next week, dad?’ asked Sonia, without looking up. Another game had already begun.

‘Sure, sweetums. Anytime you say,’ said her dad, glad he didn’t have to go out after a tiresome week.

*********