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Learning the ABCs - The Pinchi way

‘Pinchi and the Alphabet’, is an imaginary concept of famous children's writer, Janaki Sooriyarachchi. “I recalled how I learnt the alphabet when I was a child. I gave each letter a name and they became my friends.

I imagined them in the sky among the clouds, among the trees and bushes in the garden, in the shadows fallen on the floor and on the beautiful wings of butterflies.

Some letters danced to a rhyme and some smiled. I imagined that some letters were brought from heaven by little fairies. All that was in my little fancy world as a child, was poured into Pinchi and the Alphabet - a DVD for children”, Janaki said at the launch of Pinchi & the Alphabet, an educational research movie at the BMICH on September 12.

Many children may have heard of Janaki because she has written manycolourful stories for children. These stories have enthralled young and old. Even young children who are yet to learn their ABCs yearn to look at her books as they understand the story by just looking at the colourful and beautifully sketched drawings that cover in some instances nearly three quarters of a page.

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Like no other
The Baobab tree (Adansonia digitata)

This tree amazingly found on the island of Delft stands isolated in its splendour. It is presumed to have been brought by seafaring Arab Traders to Sri Lanka.

It is aklso said that the Giant Baobab trees were brought by the Dutch to harvest the leaves to feed the horses, remain to be the other link to the lost days of horse breeding.

Adansonia is a genus of eight species of tree, six native to Madagascar, one native to mainland Africa and one to Australia. The mainland African species also occurs on Madagascar, but it is not a native of that island.

A typical common name is baobab. Other common names include boab, boaboa, bottle tree, upside-down tree, and monkey bread tree. The generic name honours Michel Adanson, the French naturalist and explorer who described A. digitata.Adansonias reach heights of 5 to 30 metres (16 to 98 ft) and have trunk diameters of 7 to 11 metres (23 to 36 ft). Glencoe Baobab – an African Baobab specimen in Limpopo Province, South Africa, often considered the largest example alive, up to recent times had a circumference of 47 metres (154 ft) and an average diameter of 15.9 metres (52 ft).

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