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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, April 21: Let’s talk story! But how many children know about the various colourful tales that our very own folklore and regional literature have to give to us? It was with purpose of initiating Delhi school children into the lesser known world of Indian literature that Katha — a non-government organisation working in the areas of literacy, literature and education — today began its three-day workshop at the India Habitat Centre.
Called Bhasha Tamasha, this is a fun introduction to the rich world of Indian language literature and Indian English literature through translation in English and Hindi with a Read Aloud competition, Fancy Dress competition (based on the characters from the bhasha literature), quiz on Indian literature, theatre workshop and an exhibition of the works of various Indian authors in 12 different regional languages as well as Indian English literature. “The idea is to teach our children to take pride in our own literature. Because that is from where creativity develops. And considering that we are increasingly becoming monolingual by the day, what better way to initiate regional literature than through translation in English?” asks Geeta Dharmarajan, the executive director of Katha.
“And here children can explore what various bhashas have to offer to them, including their very own. Something that they never get a chance to discover by themselves,” she adds. There is a book exhibition that showcases the translation of the works of various Indian regional writers from 12 different languages. These 12 different regional languages being Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Tamil, Telegu, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Bengali, Assamese, Gujrati and Marathi. But, before you think a child may just get lost, there are language volunteers who make the literary world come alive by introducing the writers and answering queries.
Says Sugato Ghosh, a consultant with Katha: “Not that any foreign literature is bad, but most of our children are introduced only to the works of foreign authors. And that at an age where a child visualises whatever he reads. Therefore, considering that our child is reading only foreign literature, he dreams of only Ford cars and cannot relate to the Ambassadors and Marutis that run on our roads. Moreover, we have some very rich literature in Indian English as well, which is also being show-cased here in the exhibition.” What is even more interesting is the creative corner, where children are invited to create their own stories, poems or illustrations.
`We’ll provide you the material, and you provide us with the idea’ reads the invitation at this corner which has special prize for the winners. The best out of these entries would later be published in a special book called In a Day at Katha. Adds Ghosh: “In addition to seeing their stories get published, the children will also get to participate in the process. They will be invited to do the editing. See how the editing is done and the books printed”.
According to Ghosh as many as 60 Delhi schools are participating in this workshop. The theatre workshop of Katha is being conducted by Lucien Dubey and NSD and aims to involve the student, the teacher and the parent. As for promoting the bhashas only in translation, Ghosh says that the idea to move from literacy to literature. According to him, it is important to get the child to read the literature first. “Reading is a habit, which grows with time. A child must be initiated to read first, involvement with literature will automatically follow,” he says.
