Ananda\u2019s mother regales her with stories about how the river springs from a Himalayan glacier and is revered as a goddess. She tells her that the Ganga is \u201cthe greatest mother of all.\u201d When Mamma falls ill, Ananda and her aunt travel to bathe in the Ganga\u2019s healing waters and pray for her. As they enter the freezing river, light clay lamps, and chant Mamma\u2019s favorite prayer, the weight of Ananda\u2019s sadness is lifted away by a sense of hope. On a river boat ride, as she listens to devotional songs her mother often sang, she feels a connection with the ancient temples and ashrams. Walking along the sandy banks, Ananda asks the river goddess for permission to take a pebble\u2014\u201ca solid thing to hold on to.\u201d As she collects holy water for her mother, she\u2019s filled with a sense of calm. For this poignant tale, Moolani Mehra drew on her own experience of visiting the Ganga and of grappling with her mother\u2019s illness. With metaphors about mothers woven throughout the narrative, the book offers thought-provoking musings on nature. Le\u2019s fluid illustrations in blues, sunset pinks, and oranges mimic the flowing river, while the focus on Ananda\u2019s point of view carves out a space for reflection.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ananda\u2019s mother regales her with stories about how the river springs from a Himalayan glacier and is revered as a goddess. She tells her that the Ganga is \u201cthe greatest mother of all.\u201d When Mamma falls ill, Ananda and her aunt travel to bathe in the Ganga\u2019s healing waters and pray for her. As they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2021,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2020"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}