I visited Sophia's 3rd glade class recently from 1:30-2:00 pm - 30 minutes exactly. All parents are welcome to volunteer and come to class any Friday they want to read. This is the 3rd time I've been to the class and previously, I read books or poetry of Sophia's choice.
 
I decided to do something different this time and focus on something related to India. I thought why not talk about Bollywood. I chose Bollywood because Bollywood is one of the core pillars of my Indian culture. As you all know, Indian Hindi music and movies are something we grew up with and something I love to death. Mom (Binita) and Dad (Harish) definitely created a culture/environment in which I grew to love old and new Indian movies and Indian music. And I do hope some of that translates to Sophia (8 years of age) and Julia (6 years of age) both of our girls. Couldn't be a better topic let for Sophia's class. (PS: I have done Diwali at their Montessori Schools before and they like it but this was something different).
 
Bowman Elementary School in Lexington is a perfect place to do this because as you can imagine, the percentage of Indians is pretty big. In Sophia's class of 22 kids alone, she has at least 5 or 6 other Indian classmates.
 
Julia, in 1st grade at Bowman, had recess at the same exact time and she joined us for this and loved it!
 
Dad  put together all the content and materials together for me for Sophia's class. It was perfect. To give everyone an idea of what I brought in - 2 music records, 2 CDs, 2 VCR videos, 2 DVDs. Sophia saw them this morning and didn't recognize them because they were all Amitabh and Rajesh Khanna etc...so she picked up 2 of the DVDs mom and dad gave her Kuch Kuch and Kal Ho Na Ho and put them in the bag. We also brought an outfit for her to wear in class. Dad printed off and highlighted some printouts he got from the internet on Bollywood. This is what I read and presented:
 
India is a poor country, compared to western more developed countries. For the average person in India, all they can afford is to go to movies and it is the best form of inexpensive entertainment.
 
India produces the maximum number of films in the world. It's quality and sound and photography and animation is equal if not better than more developed countries like the US due to the sophisticated hi-tech equipment made in India.
 
Amitabh and Raj Kapoor are some of the biggest and most famous and popular actors known around the world.
 
In 2005, The Apu Trilogy and Pyaasa were also featured in Time Magazine's all time 100 best movies list.
 
Indian cinema has more recently begun influencing Western films, and played a particularly instrumental role in the revival of the genre in the Western world. Moulin Rouge (2001) was directly inspired by Bollywood musicals. US Oscar winning Slumdog Millionaire (2008) was directly inspired by Indian films and is considered an homage to Hindi commercial cinema.
 
Three Indian films Mother India (1957), Salaam Bombay (1988) and Lagaan (2001) were nominated for the US Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
 
Music in Indian cinema is a substantial revenue generator with music rights accounting for 4-5% of net revenues generated by a film in India. A typical Indian film may have 5-6 choreographed songs spread throughout the film's length.
 
Playback singers such as Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar drew large crowds with national and international film music stage shows. Rafi is in the Guinness Book of Records for a maximum number of sung songs.
 
Then I did show and tell on the Hindi records, CDs, DVDs, and Videos.

Sophia's teacher played a song for everyone on YouTube. Naturally, Sophia picked a song from Kuch Kuch - the title song Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. Shah Rukh is Sophia and Julia's favorite actor.
 
We even explained to the class how Sophia got her middle name as Rani from Rani Mukherjee - me and my husband Sandeep's favorite Indian actress when Sophia was born in 2005. Julia is a bit depressed now that her middle name is Ava and isn't an Indian actresses name...we may have to change that:)
 
Thought I'd share with all of you - you may have some fun and laughs hearing about it.
 
My goal is to do something similar for Julia's 1st grade class before school year ends.
 

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