Toy Treasures Arvind Gupta（玩具珍宝Arvind古普塔）.pdf

Toy Treasures Written by Arvind Gupta (Email arvindguptatoys@) Illustrations by Avinash Deshpande Publisher: EKLAVYA, E7-453 (HIG) Arera Colony, Bhopal 462016 (MP) India. (Rupees Twenty) SIMPLE TOYS Children love toys. They love them all the more if they have shaped them and made them with their own hands. It is also a lot easier for them to make toys from materials around them. Take for instance the daily newspaper. After being read it is simply “junked” and sold off by weight. However, the newspapers life need not end so abruptly. “Even a cat” they say, “has nine lives”. Certainly, a newspaper deserves better treatment. It can be reused to give it a new lease of life. Children can fold newspapers to make a dozen or so, delightful caps. Newspapers can be folded into nice, useful boxes and made into gift packs. Small pieces of newspaper could be reborn into flapping birds, talking crows, flying fishes, helicopters, stunt planes and scores of other dynamic paper toys. Many people have forgotten it, but we must not forget that each scrap of paper was once a living branch or a tree trunk. That each ball pen refill, broken pen and all other plastic comes from crude oil. The earths resources are limited and we must use them sparingly with love and care. Todays throwaway culture offers new challenges for reuse, whether it is Frooti packets, batteries, bottles or ball pens. So, dont waste, dont abuse; instead recycle, reuse. This is the only way of making simple and environmentally sustainable toys. This book is a collation of several ideas and activities. The names of individual contributors have been acknowledged. This book is dedicated to the memory of my dear friend Siddhartha Vohra.