The Hindu Business Line : Hanging on every word

Vanakkam! I said, again. And again. From the general silence spluttered a few murmurs of ‘Welcome’. I continued to talk in Tamil, holding up a picture book, till a relaxed buzz started to fill the room full of Hindi-speaking children who had probably never heard Tamil before.

After that, when I asked, “Shall we read this book in Tamil?” the response was a resounding “Yes ma’am!” So we read together stories about paatis and naanis and grandmas and dosas in Hindi, English and Tamil!

I was at a primary school in Delhi’s Mayur Vihar Phase 3 as part of Bookaroo in the City, taking writers and illustrators of children’s books to municipal schools during the country’s first-ever children’s literature festival in November.

About seven others were at schools in places such as Shalimar Bagh, Karol Bagh, East Patel Nagar and East Lakshmi Market. Organised by Bookaroo, a registered charitable trust, the event was held in November in municipal schools, and at the Sanskriti Anandgram, an aesthetic and spacious venue just beyond Mehrauli, provided free of cost by its owner, O.P. Jain.

Celebration of books

The name ‘Bookaroo’, explains Anita Roy, a founder-trustee and commissioning editor of Young Zubaan, “seemed to embody fun and a ‘yahoo’ type shout of celebration — celebrating the world of children’s books. Some people have said that it sounds Australian rather than Indian, but with our little Bookaroo bandar logo (rather than a kangaroo) we felt that that wouldn’t be a problem.”

Well, the vaanar sena was everywhere, chattering excitedly, swinging from one venue to another, now wandering in panchatantra wonderland, now singing along, now seeing how friendship endures Partition, now walking the London jungle, now looking closely at insects, now looking equally closely at Gandhiji, now performing Dickens and Dahl. Or they listened to seriously silly stories, drew fabulous beasts or constructed interesting looking contraptions. Or they just sat under a widespreading banyan tree, reading, right beside the busy, busy Eureka bookstall. Some rested.

Those who have attempted to read aloud to large groups of children will know what a challenge that is, especially when there are so many exciting things happening all around them, not least what their friends are doing. But in the free and easy atmosphere at Sanskriti Anandgram, once the mostly young parents decided to let go, almost everybody began to have a good time.

“What is most encouraging is that though we did go the school route and through our bookstore to publicise the event, the fact that families came shows that it was more of an enjoyable day out rather than a mundane school chore,” says Bookaroo founder and owner of Eureka Swati Roy.

Teething troubles

There were some glitches. The AV tent, for instance, was far too bright. So some desperate measures had to be taken to move the action from there, resulting in a considerable period of not knowing what to do. Consequently, the first AV event, a potentially brilliant presentation, got undone. However, eventually things came under control at the new venue in the middle of ‘Picturoo’, a display of works by known and emerging children’s books illustrators.

Then again, not all authors/presenters were introduced properly, especially those not belonging to the Delhi circuit. Sometimes, children had to be turned away from events, leading to tearful faces. And the foodstall was a bit of a letdown. Perhaps a reading corner could have been accommodated, and the activity centre ended up just being a crowded drawing table making me wonder where all the other materials had disappeared to. Still, these are teething troubles, and which baby doesn’t experience them?

Started off with some seed money from founders and publishers, and personal contributions from well-wishers, Bookaroo also received support from Britannia, DK Books, the British Council, the Sir Ratan Tata Trust, Hachette, the German Book Office and SpiceJet.

Reaching out

“The festival exceeded all our expectations,” says Anita. “Over the two days at Sanskriti Anandgram, we had about 3,000 kids (and their parents), and over the two days of Bookaroo in the City we had eight special events in schools — reaching out to about 1,000 kids as well as book-related activities in over 700 schools, in collaboration with Pratham, at which point the numbers get a bit amazing (100 or so kids in each school... you do the math!)”

I did do some magic maths and learnt a trick or two at the Mathematwist workshop. It’s not often that I find myself in a room full of kids who love maths, and here they were crunching their teeth over number riddles.

However, it was troubling to see so many parents hovering anxiously about the venue. Before the workshop started, they had bombarded facilitator Sunita Baveja with all kinds of questions and instructions. Will my child be able to cope? What exactly will you do? My child can’t handle fractions. And even, I’d like my child to sit on a chair, not on the floor! Tells you that we have a major expectations problem with the next generation of young parents.

At the other end of this spectrum was a group from the Taktse International School in Sikkim. Children and teachers of the school had found so much delight in the books by many of the authors, illustrators and publishers represented at Bookaroo, that they decided to send a delegation at their own cost to Delhi.

Teacher Maria Lauenstein later wrote to Swati: “We walked around Bookaroo in a state of complete amazement and joy. We were expecting it to be interesting, but the events, the venue, and the authors/illustrators were even more engaging, welcoming, accessible and well organised than we’d dreamed. The kids especially loved the automata workshop and the workshop where the three authors discussed writing about traumatic events… Please let us know the dates for next year as soon as you decide on them. We want to bring more kids and more teachers! ” One parent did write that she was “unhappy only once, and that was at the Children of Conflict discussion. “It was perhaps my mistake that I asked my 9-year-old boy to attend what you had marked as 10-14 event”, and she went on to say why. Her feeling of distress is understandable. In an increasingly polarised world, it is important to engage with troubling questions in writing for children, but maybe also with a sense of hope and direction.

Team effort

For Swati, the most encouraging thing was how the industry came together. “We really are thankful,” she says, “for the efforts that most (publishers) made to have their individual presence in the event yet come across as a team, as an industry supporting the event.” Manisha Chaudhry, founder-trustee of Bookaroo and head of content development, Pratham Books, points out that there is great interest in taking Bookaroo forward, maybe even to other cities. She promises that future editions will try to be more inclusive, and also go beyond English language publishing.

When I left Mayur Vihar, I had a bag full of gifts – pictures and stories and poems and greeting cards made by the children, much of it created spontaneously in the space of 10-15 minutes. Then, as the bell rang for the next period, many of them darted up to me and entreated, “Aap zaroor vapas aana. Aap se milkar bahut achha laga.” (Please come back; we loved meeting you). I have to go back, not only because of the invitation, but because there were so many more children peeping through the doors and windows wishing they too were inside the hall.

(The author was an invitee at Bookaroo. She is a children’s writer and editor at Tulika Publishers, Chennai. Contact her at sandyrao99@rediffmail.com)

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