Heya earthkins!

So if you remember, for our super-duper, never-before-never-again Great Taranauts Contest No 4 last month, we asked you to do something we had NEVER asked you to before. (Don’t remember? You can refresh your memory by watching the contest video here. )

This time, we didn’t ask you to come up with a word. We didn’t ask you to come up with a name. We didn’t ask you to WRITE anything at all. We asked you, instead, to DRAWMAGINE something. What, you ask?  A. Very. Scary. Armed-And-Dangerous.Very-Murderous. Machine called a… yes! A KOLAVEROBOT!

SO many of you sent in SO many lovely entries from all over India (and a couple of you even sent in drawings from all the way in the USA!), that it was a really, really tough job for Priya Kuriyan, our illustrator, to pick the winning one. But in the end, after a LOT of wondering and contemplating and worrying and nail-biting, she did. She also picked 10 RUNNERS UP – you can see their names and Killer K-Bots here.

But the SUPER JACKPOT WINNER – the KOOLEST, KILLER-EST K-BOT of them all – is THE TRIOVEROBOT!

Congratulations to 9-year-old Gia Kapoor of Step by Step School, Amritsar, for creating this fabulous, spine-chilling K-Bot. In Book 6 – Taranauts: The Key to the Shimr Citrines, Priya will use Gia’s K-Bot as her inspiration – make sure to take a look when it hits the stores in July 2012!

Taranauts Zarpa, Zvala and Tufan

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Tufan: Yo, earthkins! It’s contest time again! Have you watched the contest video already? No? You should! You get to meet our author Roopa and our illustrator Priya on it – you can watch it here. Anyway, this one is TOTALLY my kind of contest! The kind where…

Zvala: HEAR YE, HEAR YE! The Great Taranauts Contest is here again!!

Tufan: Excuse me… I said that about two octons ago, you know.

Zvala (primly): I know, but the way you were carrying on, anyone would think it was YOUR contest and that YOU thought it all up all by yourself and the rest of US here had NOTHING to do with it. So I was just making sure the earthkins didn’t get the wrong impression.

Zarpa (pushing the two of them aside): So, earthkins, we have a VERY exciting contest this time. It is neither a writing contest, nor a naming contest, nor a drawing contest, nor an imagination contest. Nope, this is our first DRAWMAGINATION Contest – which means you draw something that you have imagined!

Tufan (pushing Zarpa aside): Yes, and what you have to drawmagine is a…

Zvala (shoving Tufan): … KOLAVEROBOT! There! It was me that had to deal with those guys in Shimr, not you, so it’s only fair that I get to say the word first!

Tufan (scowling darkly): Just wait until we get back to Zum Skar! I don’t want to upset the earthkins with too much violence …

Zarpa (hissing): I think you both should leave. Now. I will tell the earthkins the other details.

Zvala and Tufan exit, Zvala grinning and sticking her tongue out at Tufan as she goes.

Zarpa: Sorry about that, earthkins. So as they were saying, we want you to drawmagine a Kolaverobot. And what is a Kolaverobot? Here’s a sneak peek into Book 6 – Taranauts: The Key to the Shimr Citrines - the part where the Kolaverobots come into the story… The picture you see on the right is a picture of the cavern – WITHOUT the Kolaverobots – drawn by our illustrator Priya.

In front of Zvala was a high cavern, large enough to hold at least a hazillion Shimrkos. In its centre, around a pedestal that glowed a soft tawny gold, knelt a circle of sixteen identical ice-blue soldiers, armed to the teeth, shoulder to shoulder. Their heads and faces were veiled in identical shrouds. A scroll of papyrus rested on the pedestal – Riddle No 3.

Zvala stepped into the cavern. The next instant, with a grinding and squeaking that set her teeth on edge, a millstone rolled across the entrance.

‘Well, I’m here now,’ gulped Zvala, speaking aloud. The absolute silence was getting to her. ‘You must be the Kolaverobots – hello! I must say you don’t look half as scary as the Muggarosaur. What next? Ummm… how did the riddle go? Fell the odd one or prepare to rot… But how do I tell which one of you is the odd one out? Would you pull off your veils please?’

The K-bots did not answer.

‘What if I felled all of you instead? That would just make everything simpler, wouldn’t it?’

She raised her arm and let loose a blast of firepower at the soldier facing her. The moment the fire touched the soldier, the ring of K-bots rose as one, roaring with rage, and began to converge on every corner of the cavern, their stunsabres slashing murderously through the air!

‘Uh-oh, bad move! Sorry, guys!’ Zvala ducked and feinted, sending off blistering tongues of flame in every direction. But each time, the fire lasted only a moment before it sputtered and went out. ‘What’s with you, fingers?’ yelled Zvala, taking in a giant lungful of stale air and exhaling. A thin blue flame came out of her mouth and nostrils, struggled in vain to grow into a blaze, and died out.

Fear gripped Zvala as the truth hit her. Fire could not burn without oxdrogen! She was now powerless against the K-bots! Sooner or later, one of those swords would get her – she could not run forever.

Zarpa: Get the picture? So your job now is to drawmagine one of these scary guys. Our illustrator Priya Kuriyan has already drawmagined the cavern and Zvala in it. Priya also knows where she would like one of the K-Bots to be (inside the red rectangle), but even she is finding it difficult to drawmagine a K-Bot. Your drawings will really help!

And if she decides that your K-Bot is HER K-Bot, your name – and your drawing! – will be published in Book 6! PLUS the top three drawings will win exciting Taranauts ZapWrap 2GB pendrives – to store all your favourite music… and photos… or a whole movie! A dozen runners-up get THEIR names into Book 6 too – and will win book hampers from Hachette India. Mastastic, huh?

All you have to do is this:

• Send your original drawings by snail mail to: The Great Taranauts Contest No 4, Hachette Book Publishing India Pvt Ltd, 4th and 5th Floors, Corporate Centre, Plot No 94, Sector 44, Gurgaon 122003, India
• Or scan your drawing and send it by email to: taranauts@gmail.com
• Make sure your entry includes the following: your full name, age, contact number (preferably a cellphone no), mailing address, and email address.
• Oh, and do make sure that your entry reaches us on or before MONDAY, APRIL 23, 2012!!!!

So, earthkins, get drawmagining!! We’re absolutely DYING to see your K-Bots!

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The Wonderful Mr Bond – we are sure all you earthkins know of him, and have read at least a couple of his stories – was the chief speaker at the Wipro Earthian Awards in January 2012, and our author Roopa Pai, who has always been a BIG fan of his work, was given the privilege of interviewing him! She had a great time, and, erm, we must admit, behaved like a little earthkin at times – she was just SO EXCITED about it all.  It was a lovely session overall, but the most MASTASTIC thing was what he said about THE TARANAUTS BOOKS! You can hear it all in his own words here – watch especially carefully when he talks about the Taranauts, 7 minutes and 30 seconds into the film.

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Mithya to Earth! Mithya to Earth! Come in, earthkins!

Ah, there you are! Yes, yes, I know – we haven’t posted anything here for a long time, but we have a Very Good Excuse – we were away battling Shaap Azur and his goons on our sixth mission, in the world of Shimr! What’s that? Did we rescue the Citrines? Like I’d tell you! He he! You guys will just have to wait until Book 6 comes out to find out.

But listen, I don’t have much time. For once, for ONCE, I have the transceiver to myself – Zvala isn’t here to shriek and hog everyone’s attention like she always does, and Zarpa has gone off with Ms Twon d’Ung somewhere,  so I have the transceiver all to myself! Woohooo! So let me quickly tell you about something really exciting that happened while we were away – our author, Roopa Pai, travelled to the historic city of Hyderabad! What was she doing there? Well, in Hyderabad, tucked away in Jubilee Hills, is a lovely earthkin library called Treasure House, and Shubha and Padma, the earthkis that run it, had invited Roopa over. Apparently, several earthkins who are members of their library were reading and enjoying our adventures and wanted to meet the person who wrote all our stories down! Is that mastastic or what!?

Roopa had a great time at Treasure House. She says it was the biggest earthkin library she had ever seen in India! Three floors of large rooms – some full of books, some full of toys, some full of all kinds of lovely art materials, and some completely empty, just for earthkins to dance, sing, read, and mess around in. Then there were other spaces – a front yard, balconies, terraces – all for earthkins to have fun in. And there was even a place for a bonfire outside! Oh, and just to show you that I can be pretty responsible about these things, I’m putting down what Roopa told me to say – ‘You can see more pictures of Roopa’s visit to Treasure House here.

But the nicest, coziest room of all, apparently, was the one on the top floor (they usually use it for screening movies!), where Roopa met a big bunch of bright, fun kids who knew everything about us and our adventures! She said she really, really missed having us – I mean, ME! – there that day (I’m Roopa’s favourite, or didn’t you know that?). Won’t miss it next time for sure!

Oh, and Treasure House wasn’t the only place Roopa went to in Hyderabad – Padma and Shubha had also organised for her to visit a school there called Glendale Academy, but more about that in the next post. Until then, shower, shampoo, and spritz away!

Cheers!

Taranaut Tufan

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Hey earthkins!

Eeeeeeeeeee! A new earth octon is here! Another opportunity to make lots of resolutions (and break them!), another 12 months to grow taller and stronger (and hopefully smarter!), another year full of celebrations and laughter and friends and fun (and exams! Yuckthoo!).

But hey, it is also another octon full of Taranauts contests and prizes and at least two new Taranauts adventures – woohoooo!

Have a mastastic 2012, everyone!

Taranauts Zarpa, Zvala and Tufan

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Hey earthkins!

Our fifth adventure – Taranauts – The Mystery of the Syntilla Silvers – is here! If you want to get your hands on a copy IMMEDIATELY, just send us a mail at taranauts@gmail.com! Not only will you get a special discount on the book – you pay Rs 160 instead of Rs 195 – but your book will also be personally autographed by the author, AND you will receive a little surprise gift as well.  You can also order it off the web here.

If you just can’t wait until your book arrives to get a sneak peek into your new adventure, watch and listen to our author Roopa Pai herself tell you all about it here.

Once you’ve read the book, don’ forget to write in and tell us what you thought of it – we’ll make sure your review appears on this website pronto.

What are you hanging around for, then? Go send that email! We can’t wait to meet you again!

Interview with Roopa Pai

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Eeeeeeeee! Our first adventure – ‘Taranauts 1: The Quest for the Shyn Emeralds’ is now a prescribed ‘reader’ for the earthkins of Grade IV of Inventure Academy, Bangalore.The school tells us that this means that while earthkins have to read the book, they don’t have to take exams (uggghhhh!) about our adventure. What they will do is more fun things, like discussing it, writing little book reviews of it and even maybe writing short stories using the three of us as characters!  

When our author Roopa Pai went to visit, the kids told her they had really, really enjoyed the book. How mastastic is that! A lot of them even lined up to buy the books of our second, third and fourth adventures, and wanted Roopa to sign the books for them. They have been writing in to us since then, telling us what they think of the other books.

Thanks, Inventure Academy!

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Zarpa: Remember the Great Taranauts Contest No 3? If you’ve forgotten it, here’s where you can go to refresh your memory http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-g_yiZU0WTU.

Zvala: Now, you do know who won it, don’t you? An-other BOY earthkin! Aaaaarghhhhhh!

Tufan: Yeeaaaahhhhh! It was 13-year-old Ankur Chattopadhyay of Jamshedpur, who came up with the winning name for the deadly meenmaach of Syntilla – ‘BIJLIMAACH!’ What does Ankur do besides thinking up mastastic names for scary creatures? Let’s find out, on MY page! Just click on the ‘Tufan’ tab at the top of this page to go there.

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Zvala, Zarpa and Tufan: It’s done, it’s duh-uhne, one earthkin has wuh-uhn!

Earthkins(eagerly): Hurrayyyyy! So who is it?

Zvala, Zarpa and Tufan (rapping): It was so / tough to choose, we hated to / see anyone lose, oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah-ay-ay, oh yeah…

Earthkins: That’s all very well, now can you tell us who won?

Zvala, Zarpa and Tufan (not paying any attention): Know this, earthkins / who didn’t win a place, you’re super cool / A-ny-ways!

Earthkins: Aaaaaarrrrghhhhh! We KNOW all that! Our teachers are telling us that until they’re blue in the face! Now can you PLEASE tell us who won?????

Zarpa (grinning): Okay, okayyyyy, earthkins. Just go the Contests page (click on the ‘Contests’ tab on top of this page) to see the results.

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Zvala: Eeeeeeeeee! We’re so glad you are here – BOTH of you – the ones that took the long and winding fun route through http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-g_yiZU0WTU and the ones who couldn’t wait to come here pronto!  Now let’s get straight to the details of The Great Taranauts Contest – No 3!

Zarpa: This time, you have to dream up a name for the scary meenmaach you see on the right!

Tufan (shuddering): I don’t even want to look. I had a LOAD of trouble with that one at Syntilla, I can tell you.

Zvala: Yeah, it was scary! We were in the middle of Lake Shawksar Ovar, which was all frozen and all, and then an Ograzur appeared with a club, and….

Zarpa and Tufan: Zvaalaaaa! You’re not supposed to give the story away until the book comes out!

Zvala (reddening): Oh… sorry!

Zarpa: Anyway, back to the contest. A little bit about this meenmaach – that glowing antenna-type thing on top of its head can be quite ’shocking’ – so it’s better to stay away from it. The vicious little creatures hunt in packs, and once they’ve touched you with their antennae five or six times, you lose consciousness…

Zvala: …and THAT’s when they begin to eat you with those razor-sharp teeth – from the toes up!!!!

Zarpa: Calm down, Zvala. Earthkins, your name for the meenmaach should be short (not more than 12 letters, say), and should created from a combination of words from two Indian languages, or from an Indian language and English.

Tufan: And it should describe the meenmaach, and send shivers down your spine when you hear it!

Zvala:  The name we like best is what we will name this ugly thing in our next book – The Mystery of the Syntilla Silvers – which will be out at the end of August. And if we choose YOUR entry, then YOUR name will go into Book 5 as the earth’s Most Mastastic Meenmaach Namer! Ten other entries we love will also feature in the book, along with the names of those who thought them up.

Zarpa: That’s not all! You get to win loads of prizes too! We even have a little prize for each and every participant.

Tufan: But remember, we can only send you your prize if we know where to send it, so make sure you put down your NAME, AGE, SCHOOL, FULL POSTAL ADDRESS, and a CONTACT NUMBER along with your entry.

Zvala: Send your Meenmaach name and all your other details to us here – taranauts@gmail.com.  Hurry! Contest closes July 30, 2011!

Zarpa: And we will announce the results right here, a week later – on the 7th of August. Get those Meenmaach Name-inators going – we’re waiting to hear from you!

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