When I was a kid there were no cartoon characters that looked like me on TV. Well, there may have been one that kind of did, but we won’t get into that.
An anonymous tipster directs our attention to Nickelodeon‘s site where a cute round-faced little Indian girl named Maya is on a mission to bring cultural awareness to today’s kids through short animated clips. There are two clips you can click on to enjoy: Happy Holi Maya and Maya the Indian Princess. The animator is Kavita Ramchandran, who I couldn’t seem to find a whole lot about on the web. I presume that these clips run on live television.
In what is surely a symptom of my need to find a woman, I thought the animated mom in the clips was kind of cute.
Yay! I love Kavita’s stuff!
Kavita’s website is http://www.wemakebelieve.com, though it looks like she’s still working on it. Her artwork can be seen in the next issue of Kahani, a new South Asian magazine for children. (Full disclosure: Kavita and I have hung out in NYC. I also review kids books for Kahani.)
Yeah, I think the Princess story was in the Kahani mag, a little while ago. Cute story.
Is it just me or does the narrator in Maya the Indian Princess sound just like Parminder Nagra? ::shrug::
Sounded like it was, so by the power of google, here you go link
Maya is so cute! that made my day. 🙂
At first, from the voices of the narrator and of the girl, I could have sworn I was hearing my new england neighbor Jayanthi from Singapore and her daughter Maya! Very cute video. Thank you sluggo for allaying my fears and pointing out it was Parmindar Nagra and Diya Bhallar doing the voiceovers.
Abhi, are you sure want to blatantly pine for MILF action in public? Then again, considering who was doing her voice…
I actually saw the “Happy Holi, Maya” short on television not too long ago while I was babysitting my cousins. I was so amazed at seeing a South Asian centered short, done beautifully and so well in terms of information. Maya is adorable and I think the rounded shapes in the short really hit home with my eight year old cousin. Honestly, for once, I love that there is a character of a normal little girl on TV (nothing against Hadji, but living up to that plethora of “Indian-Oriental Wisdom” figures left me winded and being called a “know-it-all” quite often throughout adolescence). The short reminded me of one of my favorite books while younger: “Mama Do You Love Me?” with the Inuit mother-daughter pair.
Even if I place herring in your mukluk? Ah, warm and fuzzy feelings.
Abhi, rest assured that I had an enormous crush on Aladdin of the Disney persuasion for a long time. Granted I was a child and didn’t realize that the sultan said “Allah forbid you have any daughters” to the tiger until much much later (George Dubya Bush saying “Allah” cued me in).
Jasmine from the extremely un-PC Disney version of Aladdin was a babe.
Later she was reportedly seen in erotic drawings by Disney artists leaked by insiders.
Or so I’m, uh, told 🙂
Ugh, Oeth, you just ruined this wholesome experience with your hentai allusions; I’m just glad no one has plastered J-List ads here à la theonion or newgrounds. I’m sure once Anna leaves Abhi and Manish are unleashing their pent prurience by installing salacious banner adverts 🙂
In the movie Alladin during the balcony scene you can clearly hear the phrase, “All good teenagers take off your clothes,” uttered at a whisper level by a narrator. This is NOT an urban legend. If you don’t believe me then try it yourself. I have listened dozens of times 🙂
Anna is LEAVING ??!!!!!!!!!
Man, SM’s gonna lose out big time on a particular demographic – Mallu guys awed by this fiery Chechi.
Don’t worry, ponnu, that’s just wishful thinking on Punbaji/thoreaulylazy’s part.
you’ve got SOME nerve, you handle-switching hater.
your pathetic negativity is just tired– and you’re not fooling anyone with your attempts to be cute. seriously, what IS your problem?
let me make this absolutely clear; abhi and manish are not like that, at all. prurient sell-outs? ho, please. ain’t NOBODY coming in MY house and dissing MY BOYS, not while i’m a part of this crew. ya heard?
:+:
p.s. though i know nothing would thrill you more, i’m not leaving. sorry to disappoint. 🙂 {— (b/c ending with an emoticon makes it allll better)
Cool! Reinforcing and positive stories for my little nieces!
If only holidays had been this fun at my house … all I remember is “Ohhh, mom, do I have to wake up this early on the weekend? Gaaaawwwsshh!”
Anna,
If you misunderstood, I’m sorry – I wasn’t implying you should leave, but that when/if you leave, then xyz. The xyz part was absurd enough that I’m sure it didn’t pass for fact. There isn’t an SM editor/member whom I have negative feelings towards, so relax. Remember, it was the theme of April 1st regarding folks leaving.. just trying to keep it tongue ‘n cheek.
(late reply, I know.. found your response via google just now)
hey i am diya bhallar and bhallar is not my real last name but i will not give it away. i was 5-6 when I did this and i am happy that you think i m cute!!! 😀