Mira profiles Roshan Ranijiwala, a grandmother from Mumbai, who is creating videos of poems and stories, on YouTube, for her grandson and other children. An exclusive for Different Truths.

Since the Pandemic started, people worldwide are getting mentally affected in various ways as they are homebound and do not have much to do. On the other hand, there are those who are trying to sail through this difficult time by indulging in doing something that would keep them occupied. To talk of one such enthusiast is Roshan Ranijiwala – a grandmother from Mumbai, who is using her time to create videos of poems in Hindi for her grandchild.

Ranijiwala believes the kids understand and appreciate nursery rhymes \poems better when it is animated. She has made a couple of videos for her grandson, which is doing the rounds on YouTube.

Ranijiwala believes the kids understand and appreciate nursery rhymes \poems better when it is animated. She has made a couple of videos for her grandson, which is doing the rounds on YouTube. One interesting poem written by her is titled, Sabzi Mandi. The lyrics of this poem is “Aloo ki Bhaji, baingan ka bharta” and the tune adapted is from Hindi song, “Lakdi ki Kathi, Kathi ki Ghoda”. Another video is titled, Chatur Kawwa (Thirsty Crow), wherein she is singing and has used her puppetry skills.  Khargosh aur Kachua  (Tortoise and the Hare) has also been created using puppetry skill.  It’s really interesting to watch these videos.

Although the Thirsty Crow and Tortoise and the Hare videos have been already created in English, Ranijiwala is of the opinion that in order to help kids to develop a sound knowledge of Hindi language from a young age, it’s important that they listen to the conversation in Hindi also. These videos, therefore, could be useful.

Ranijiwala was an English Teacher with J.B.Petit school but when their Hindi Teacher left the school, the principal requested her to take over as a Hindi teacher. This is when she noticed that the kids disliked speaking in Hindi. So much so, they were hesitant to make friends with Hindi speaking students

She is an alumnus of St.Agnes High School, Mumbai.  Post-school, she did B.A from Sophia College, Mumbai and thereafter B.Ed from St.Xaviers, Mumbai. She taught at St.Agnes, St.Mary’s and J.B.Petit. Ranijiwala was an English Teacher with J.B.Petit school but when their Hindi Teacher left the school, the principal requested her to take over as a Hindi teacher. This is when she noticed that the kids disliked speaking in Hindi. So much so, they were hesitant to make friends with Hindi speaking students because of their incompetence in the language. Keeping this point in mind, when Ranijiwala retired, she decided to take up the task of making the videos in Hindi so kids would be in touch and not feel odd when spoken to in Hindi.

Ranijiwala’s grandson Nivaan is so enamoured by the videos she is making that he offered to act in one of them. This way, the grandmother and the grandchild are both indulged in doing something creative and the end result is something worthwhile. To talk about the video, Nivaan has acted in, it’s a story that narrates eating a banana and throwing the peel on the ground and accidentally slip and fall on it. This story carries a message. As moral science is no more part of academics, it’s nice to see these kinds of stories on videos, which teach the kids morals. It’s commendable on Ranijiwala’s part to have thought about this project. She asserts, “I will continue creating more such videos and I hope it is appreciated”.

Photos sourced by the author