Bookaroo in the City (Day 1) – Storytelling in Gujarati
14 years ago
Have you ever fallen into the pages of a book and fallen off your chair laughing? Have you ever smelled the earth as you see the picture of rain falling on parched mud? Pratham Books brings you such magic in your world with books! Pratham Books is proud to present “Bookaroo in the City” across 22 schools in Delhi. And guess who all are coming? Anthony Horowitz, Cindy Jefferies, Paro Anand, Lian Tanner ….and many other exciting names from the world of books.
On 16th November, as part of the “Bookaroo in the City” program, Pratham Books was spreading the joy of reading in four schools. Well, it was supposed to be just three schools, but the fourth one happened by accident and a happy accident it was! Indira Ganesh shares her experience at the Gujarati Samaj Senior Secondary School.
It was a balmy morning when some 300 enthusiastic nine and ten year olds gathered in the auditorium of their school at the Gujarati Samaj Senior Secondary School in Civil lines, Delhi. There was a perceptible anticipation in the air. They had been told by their teachers that today, there would be a story telling session in Gujarati for them. This story telling session was part of the event ‘Bookaroo In the City’ which is being conducted by Pratham Books in over 25 schools all over the NCR. This particular session was special on two accounts. First and foremost it was being done by none other than Shanta T. Patel who is a name to reckon with in the field of Gujarati translation of popular children’s books. Shantaji is a Septuagenarian who has dedicated her life to the field of education. She brought the warmth of a grandmother spinning a tale in the mother tongue for the eager grandchildren. The session was also special as it was being conducted in Gujarati, a compulsory language for every child in the primary classes in the Gujarati Samaj school. The children were familiar with Pratham Books as their school library has a lot of books published by them and the books were quite popular among the children. The children were curious to find out as to which stories would be chosen by the story teller. Shanta Ben chose two books to read from. One was- Mithani Chatpati Varta- ‘A Pinch of Salt’ and the second one was ‘Varta nu Shahar- City of Stories’. Before anyone knew it, one hour was over and Shanta Ben summarized the stories in Hindi for the non Gujarati students. The teachers and students felicitated Shanta Ben and gave her a warm farewell. Good stories are rare and good story tellers are rarer. The story telling session in Gujarati during ‘Bookaroo in the City’ held its ground in this age of technology aided stimulation for the young minds.
Indira Ganesh and Himashu Giri share pictures from this event (View more pictures here):
