On a literary trail
NIMI KURIAN
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Bookaroo, the first ever children’s Literary festival, held in Delhi recently, saw kids having a wonderful time with books and meeting their favourite authors.
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Bookaroo was all about creating a buzz around reading.
Photo: Rajiv Bhatt
Padmini Mongia: Reading from her book “Pchak! Pchak!”
Books open up a world of adventure, fun, magic and enchantment. How would it be to meet the people who created this world? That is what happened at Bookaroo, the Children’s Literary Festival, held recently in Delhi. For the first time ever, there was a festival to celebrate children’s books.
Most of them came to have a good time, and a good time they did have. It is not often that one gets to meet the minds behind the books you have read and ask them the reason for writing these stories or what inspired them. Stories set in times and places you have not been to and in journeys you have never been.
The Sanskriti Anand Gram where the festival was held is a large, beautifully landscaped place. And the organisers made full use of the place. With various venues and activities through the day, the two-day festival was packed with undreamt of pleasures.
The festival was declared open by a young, avid reader. The kids cheered and there was great expectation all around.
There were fun activities for younger kids – like colouring, art, craft, sing along sessions and more. The festival was not so much about selling books but providing an atmosphere of creativity and imagination.
Photos: Rajiv Bhatt
All ears : Listening to stories…
The festival was organised by Swati Roy, co-owner, Eureka Children’s Bookstore, New Delhi, publisher of Heek, a magazine for children, her partner and Lounge’s Under 15 columnist M. Venkatesh, along with Anita Roy, commissioning editor, Young Zubaan; Jo Williams; Anushka Ravishankar, author and editor with Scholastic India; Manisha Chaudhry, commissioning editor, Pratham Books; and author Subhadra Sen Gupta.
Travel and discovery
Jo Williams : Reading from “Going on a Bear Hunt”.
Sampurna Chatterji (Three Brothers And The Flower Of Gold), followed by Kalpana Swaminathan and Ishrat Iyer (Nyagrodha) both of whom are surgeons, recreated the setting of the Panchatantra to modern times that young readers of today can identify with. With select readings from their book they spoke about how they came about writing about the wonders of the Panchatantra for today’s generation.
The Caravan to Tibet was a more studied session with Deepa Agarwal giving a pictorial presentation of travelling to Tibet, the travails of travellers past and the joy of discovery. Kids came along with the book, following closely as she spoke about the journey, questioning, learning and understanding.
Ranjit Lal, author of several books for children and a keen nature lover, conducted a walk that took kids into the very heart of the Sanskriti Anand Gram. As he showed them butterflies and termite nest and the spider’s web he spoke about insects and wondered whether we were like insects. His contention is that every time we (the human race) see the marvels of nature we immediately begin to think ‘How can we use this for ourselves?’
Jo Williams kept the little crowd around her busy with her wonderful book Going on a Bear Hunt. With large pictures and big lettering, the book was an instant hit. Padmini Mongia’s new book Pchak! Pchak! and Tabish Khair’s The Glum Peacock had the young readers wondering what could ever be the problem with the crocodile and the peacock.
Simply stories
How would you like to live in a city of stories? A city where everyone is either telling a story or is listening to one? Well, it sure does sound like fun. But Rukmini Banerji’s story City of Stories gives a new angle to the whole thing. For she describes in avid detail what happens when everyone is just telling stories – no work gets done and then the city grinds to a halt! Disastrous isn’t it?
Anupa Lal is a great story teller, and her stories, with her animated gestures and her voice modulation were fun to listen to. In one story she talks about a man who is hungry and then through a series of events finds himself wearing a magic hat that helps him fly into the kings kitchen. She described the goodies in the king’s kitchen – pulau, and biriyani, dhal and rotis, chicken curry and fish and then she turned to her audience and asked ‘What else was there in the royal kitchen?’ Up piped a voice to say, ‘Pizza’, while another said ‘Maggie noodles’ and yet another said ‘chips’! When she described what was laid out for the king to drink – ‘lassi and sherbet’ the kids said ‘Coke’ and ‘lemonade’!
Dealing with disaster
On a more serious note, Ranjit Lal, Sandhya Rao and Paro Anand spoke about their books that dealt with children caught in the middle of disaster. Lal sets his book The Battle for No. 19 during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. The then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had just been shot dead. Not knowing this, a group of school girls are out on a field trip and they are caught in the riots. Rao’s book, My Friend, the Sea talks about the tsunami and how the kids survived this calamity. Paro Anand’s No Guns At My Son’s Funeral and Weed are set in Kashmir. She addresses the turmoil in the minds of the children of Kashmir, their coming to terms with death, their losses and their great longing for peace.
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