The+Song+of+Kahunsha

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 * Novel Study** Rosa Telep __The Song of Kahunsha__ by Anosh Irani (Canadian novel)

The setting is India in 1993, in the midst of racial violence between Hindus and Muslims. The main character is a 10 year old boy named Chamdi who lives in an orphanage in Bombay. He dreams of finding his father who left him at the orphanage as a baby in a blood stained white cloth. Chamdi has idealistic and naive ideas about what is outside the orphanage walls, which is evident in his imagination of Bombay and what he calls Kahunsha: “the city of no sadness.”Chamdi decides to run away to search for his father, yet comes face to face with a journey of reality in the streets of Bombay. He meets up with two street children, Sumdi and his sister Guddi, who beg and steal for the notorious antagonist Anand Bhai. After involvement in a temple raid, Sumdi dies and Guddi is left severely injured, which forces Chamdi to take part in a Muslim attack organized by Anand Bhai. The story concludes with Chamdi and Guddi hoping for a better future, yet they arestill enveloped in the reality of street life and oppression of Anand Bhai.

A) I would recommend this novel for elementary Grade 8 or Grade 9 Academic or Applied. Grade 10’s may find the story too juvenile. However, a comparison with the movie __Slumdog Millionaire__ would add a Media Literacy component, which could raise the level of interest and academics for Grade tens.

B) The novel is a Bildungsroman and Hero’s journey for the main character of Chamdi. The text contains simple language and would introduce Indian culture and language to students. The text touches on issues of starvation, poverty, suicide, euthanasia, race, child prostitution, violence, and mutilation of body parts. All these issues are sometimes subtle and could be opened up for discussion amongst the students or not. __Social__- Chamdi is an orphan without family and the novel provides real circumstances of life on the streets for children in modern day India. One minor character, who has no legs or arms due to mutilation, commits suicide because he no longer can stand the pressure from Anand Bhai. The text easily presents itself to teach about social justice and religious tolerance. Finally, the novel displays a society within a society. That is, the social situation of destitute people of the streets under Gang Lords. __Culture__- The novel describes life and survival for street children in Bombay, India during the 1993 violent uprisings. Also, a variety of Indian cultural elements, such as, language and religious traditions are found in the novel. For example, Guddi sells hand-made miniature idols of Hindu gods for money. __Topics__- the topic of extreme poverty and destitution are contrasted to the status of the non-caring rich. This is seen in the selling of the orphanage by its wealthy owner and the use of the street children by the antagonist to stay wealthy. Therefore, the novel possibly could be useful in a sociology or history class.

C) Challenges may be the various controversial issues, such as euthanasia, for Grade nine students. A presentation connected the Indian to Canadian poverty, which brought issue closer to students lives.

Also, the ending of the novel does not end overly optimistic, which could present a problem with a lack of hope for students. To counteract this, I created an assignment to rewrite the ending of the novel, which would help students with to their own psychological thinking. I did this with my practicum students and it worked out well. To do this, I first presented a lesson on formal and narrative closer along with a Media example of the two endings of the movie, __I am Legend__, which shows how endings of movies are changed for various reasons. We also looked at novels, such as //Great Expectations// and why it has two endings. This laid the ground work for the students to rewrite the ending of the novel.

Additional Assignment- Students are put into pairs to do research on various cultural aspects of India and present them to the class in a creative way. “The use of Power point, posters, and oral communication would display Indian traits of music, food, religion, dress, etc. (This was done in my practicum with my Mt and was quite successful in teaching about the novel’s cultural background.)