Story time

Katha,a Delhi-based NGO working in the field of education for the past 22 years,has initiated the ‘Write and Read’ programme to hone the story writing skills in young authors across the country and capture their dreamlands and adventures in a book. After an overwhelming response from schools in Kolkata,Pune,Chennai and Bangalore,it will host a creative story writing workshop in Mumbai for children aged 9-14 from October 20-22. The programme is being held in association with the Hewlett Packard’s Imaging and Printing Group (HP-IGP).

“We will make sure that these stories reach children across the country,” says Gowri Palachandran,director (events) at Katha that runs schools also trough mobile vans in Delhi. She says they will get distributors all over India so that the book reaches different parts of the country.

Lyricist Prasoon Joshi,who has been roped in for the story writing workshops,says the initiative aims at discovering young authors and essentially helps children think laterally and creatively while forging ideas together to write stories that are relevant for young minds. “This is also a one-of-its kind,and perhaps the only initiative in the world of books,that is truly a peer-to-peer experience,one where young children will create content for other young children.” Joshi adds,“It is a growing concern that the world is creating an entirely new generation of ‘mobile kids’ or ‘gadget kids’ who cannot feel the old goodness of paper,feel the story,read or write. “

Stories,an inseparable part of childhood,the organisers of Write and Read hope,will not be restricted to foreign cartoon characters dubbed in Indian languages,but will be conceived by children using their experiences and imagination.

Palachandran says it is essentially schools in various cities that Katha and HP have invited to the workshops. “Though there is no cap on the number of schools that can participate in the workshop,we’ve restricted the number of children to about 15-20 from each school. So far,three schools from Mumbai have signed up for the workshop.” She says after this pilot project in English,Katha hopes to conduct similar programmes in regional languages to give a voice to the creative expressions of children from less-privileged backgrounds.

About 1,500-2,000 children are expected to participate in the workshop. Their creations will be judged by Joshi and members of Katha and HP-IGP. Palachandran says the final print will be compiled by Katha and published by HP-IGP. They are also contemplating translating the stories to regional languages to make the initiative more and more inclusive. The proceeds from the sale of the book will be used to impart education to underprivileged children.

The workshop entails not only tips from renowned writers like Joshi and Katha founder Geeta Dharmarajan but also various stimuli for younger children to let their creative juices flow. “Nursery rhymes were converted into short stories – that was very interesting. One of the activities was to put pictures together and come up with a story. The younger children and some teenagers are shy to come up with their ideas. This workshop will provide a platform for all of them,” says Girja,principal of a school in Chennai that had participated in the workshop earlier.

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