Friday, September 21, 2012

Jack and Jill - The true story.

and..reasons to permanently ban English nursery rhymes from schools.


Sourced from google images. Excuse for not providing direct link, please.


Because it teaches plagiarism and lacks originality.

Whoever wrote a bunch of sad words certainly had his winds blown on me.He was probably the six-songs-all-sound-same music director's ancestor ; cause A..B..C..D alphabet song, Baa Baa Black Sheep and Twinkle Twinkle have exactly the same tune. We rather sing the original Kolaveri and dance with themoon(u). Or, just pick one of the million versions of it.

Because violence is not for three year olds.

If not A-rated, I certainly think most rhymes require parental guidance. A whole bridge collapses – and obviously,millions of people died. So, no one is worried about it and all they talk about is how to use iron and steel to build it back. Then, two poor egg shaped men fell off the wall and broke their head. Now, imagine bleeding heads, preferably the brain hanging out. Do that and immediately make those two men run around as the kings men are chasing them.

I think three year old's are enough bratty and violent already. (yes, i stamped on a laid out -lego trap)

Because it defies logic and common sense.

Why would you call something a star and immediately wonder what it is? Why would you go around a mulberry bush when it is snowing? And finally, why did you even go up the hill for a bucket (I refuse to say, pail) of water?

All the craziness apart, in reality -

Jack and Jill referred to are said to be King Louis XVI - Jack -who was beheaded (lost his crown) followed by his Queen Marie Antoinette - Jill - (who came tumbling after). Link here. You can also watch the video on it here.

This brings me to think..

Are there no Indian nursery rhymes in English? True, we did not write rhymes on beheading but did we not on anything else?

I would be interested to learn more. Do share your thoughts.

This post has been selected by Blog Adda as a Tangy Tuesday Pick!


Thank you BlogAdda!

36 comments:

  1. good and an overall interesting interpretation of old rhymes.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's high time the nursery rhymes got a serious thought and are re-written.
    Another rhyme that annoys me is the "Goozi goozi gander..."
    I am with you on removing violence from the things being taught to kids :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry I meant the "Peter peter pumpkin eater" nursery rhyme and not the Goozi gander

      Delete
    2. Yes yes. There are so many. Are these still taught in schools?

      Delete
  3. I guess, we have cute rhymes in regional languages and I find them better than English ones!! And the post!!! Too good! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. :) I know some tamil ones too but they are not as popular as these.

      Delete
  4. Sometimes, I think - "Thank goodness aren't taken seriously - at least by the kids". Imagine little girls taking 'Chubby cheeks, dimple chin..' seriously and growing up thinking 'curly hair, very fair, blue eyes & being teacher's pet' is the standard to measure against!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. CG, The one on chubby cheeks is another story altogether. I remember pouting against it at a fancy dress competition.

      Delete
  5. oh yes, they are taught in schools and with action. I agree so much with you on this and the other thing is the cartoon where there is so much of violence like in tom and jerry, power rangers etc.,

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ahem..I am biased towards T&J :P big time. How ever came up with the hitting and ruining the world is fun bit?!

      Delete
  6. WAIT!! You haven't heard the worst one yet:
    "Piggy on a railway line picking up stones,
    Down came the engine broke his bone.
    "Aah!" Said the piggy, "that's not fair."
    "Oh!" Said the Engine driver, "I don't care."
    The day my niece sang it to me, I had a mini-heart attack. Unfortunately, My son looovees that rhyme. Dr.Seuss's rhymes are creative, but very difficult to remember.

    My M-i-L sings some tamil ones which are very interesting, like "mamu pottu, paruppu pottu, ...", "krishna raama govinda..", "jimmukku jimaalam..." etc.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That seems like a faint memory. Isn't it scary? Why are they still taught in schools?!

      I know the mamu pottu, parupu pottu game. Thatha used to do it. Not heard the others :) Jimmuku Jimmalam :P

      Delete
  7. he he very well said !! about jack and jill going up the hill for the pail of water.. which crazy man had the idea of diggng a well atop the hill, first of all? ;)
    anyway reminds me of one my husband's pals who sings, "jack and jill went up the hill without a pill and 3 came tumbling after" (makes more sense, right?) ;)

    Again, "Hush a bye baby on the tree top" why on earth do u need to hang the baby cradle on the top f a tree?( american origin rhyme... native americans had the habit of hanging cradles on branches...okay history!)
    now...the wind blows, the cradle rocks..okay until then!
    .."but when the bough breaks the cradle will fall down will come baby cradle and all" !!!!

    Baby Out a ?? ( I asked my nursery teacher when I was 5 and she snapped me, archana :( ;'( )

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LOL at the 3 came tumbling after. OMG, clenching stomach laughing loud*

      Oh ya. I now figure out all of them are messed up. There will be some Henry or Louis story for this baby cradle thing also. Shabba, mudiyala!

      Delete
  8. That was hilarious and yet you made such a valid point! Very well interpreted! A I agree with you, these rhymes should be taken off the school syllabus!

    ReplyDelete
  9. ha! Good one!! I too used to wonder why they had the same tune for all the songs!!
    I had a question about the Blogadda button. I was selected for the Spicy Saturday picks but don't remember seeing the button. Could you let me know which link you got it from so I can also put it on my post!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Roshini, the picture was attached along with the notification mail. I will email you the jpg. Thanks for dropping by here. I love your blog!

      Delete
    2. Sorry, I mistyped. Roshni, it is :)

      Delete
    3. Ha! Didn't get the notification. Corinne sent me a facebook message! I probably hadn't provided an email at Blogadda! Thanks so much for sending the jpg to me! That would be great!
      Don't worry about the name misspelling...happens all the time, so I'm used to it! Thanks for visiting my blog too!! :))

      Delete
  10. I have a different view! Rhymes are meant to roll your tongue and get the language right in pronunciation.

    Hardly any kid understands the meaning of the rhymes! Mostly the meanings start dawning only after reaching teens or even later. So the rhyming is more important than the words.

    @Archana chari : there are quite a few nasty ones in tamil too.. (remember otta pallu sundhari?)


    But I liked your blog. reading yours for the first time and it was good :) triggered a lot of thoughts :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey, thanks for dropping by! I believe early learnings stay long. As CG pointed out, reading and reciting chubby cheeks, dimple chins and singing on my fair lady is not just intimidating but very disturbing for a growing child, IMO. I bet there are easier, nicer meanings that can be conveyed with nursery rhymes :) Also, reading on the Louis beheading kind of scared me up :)

      Welcome, Sruthi!

      Delete
  11. Wow! Whatta awesome blog you have, Archana. :) Glad I landed up here through Blogadda. And same pinch, for that tangy tuesday pick and all. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Great points all of them. Informative and funny. Every point packs a punch! Cheers! :-)
    My world, my thoughts, my musings...

    ReplyDelete
  13. Great points all of them. Informative and funny. Every point packs a punch! Cheers! :-)
    My world, my thoughts, my musings...

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hi Archana,

    I am working for a startup called as www.gyaanexchange.com. We have launched a Pan India book collection drive- Gift of Gyaan. I was just wondering if we can post about this initiative on your blog which will urge your readers to give books. Could you please share your email id so that i can mail across the details to you. We will be giving the collected books to Goonj. Goonj is our NGO partner.

    Thanks,
    Regards,
    Dev Dave.
    9322502252

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for your comment, Dev. I would love to support this cause. Please email me to archana.kc@gmail.com. Thank you!

      Delete
  15. Most interesting was the last part, I didn't know that it was about Louis XVI!

    Thanks for the gyan :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Even I have wondered about the amount of violence portrayed in these rhymes . A farmer's wife cutting off the tails of three little mice that are already blind is so cruel rt ? Twas a good read .

    ReplyDelete
  17. Funny that I started thinking and googling for the real meanings of these rhymes when I had my daughter. Its two years now and I stay away from 'Jack and Jill', 'London Bridge is falling down','three blind mice','humpty dumpty'.. :D

    But most of the rhymes were made in the times of the wars and gloom was disguised as fun for the kids of that era. They are catchy and they are
    helpful for learning and sadly a part of the curriculum .

    We parents might send the kids equipped with 'itsy bitsy' and 'hey diddle diddle; but they comes back singing 'Jack and Jill'.. And someday I hope my kid
    also learns about King Louis XVI .. its great to know some history.

    vevisia.blogspot.in

    ReplyDelete
  18. Fun and funny interpretations. One more poem that's weird...
    “Peter Peter pumpkin eater,
    Had a wife and couldn't keep her!
    He put her in a pumpkin shell,
    And there he kept her very well! :|

    Congrats for the Blogadda Pick! :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Hey Arch, very interesting perspective! I was going mad with some of these rhymes seeing what my four year old daughter was going through in such a tender age. Believe me, she didn't want to come to London with us because she was scared of the London bridge that falls every now and then. It was so damn difficult for us to convince her to join us. Finally, we told her that we were going to Singapore and ended up landing in London. Even while the flight landed, she was acting like mad - refusing to get down. :)

    I wrote about this in detail in my blog but haven't posted it yet. I have talked about it briefly on my Tamil blog though. Subhrasis had written something similar sometime back. I really loved it, too. I am planning to write one, a longer one (not necessarily a nicer one), in future too.

    ReplyDelete

I love your comments. Say it out, don't be shy!