Children|Literature|Fun or C|L|F has in store plenty of activities for kids of all ages and parents are most welcome to join and watch!
At the 2018 edition of the Festival there will be two C|L|F venues on both days of the Festival. One for children (ages 5-10 | Malgudi) and one for young adults (ages 11-15 | Narnia) and an exclusive bookstore for children.
Note:
Please register for the C|L|F sessions using the form provided on this page.
Day 1 | Sat | 27 Oct
Malgudi (ages 5-10) | Narnia (ages 11-15) |
---|---|
10:30 am Four Greystroke and Poile Sengupta | 10:30 am I Need to Pee: Designing a Character Meenal Singh and Erik Egerup |
11:15 am Pitara: Storytelling Board Game | 11:15 am Into the Poetic World Santhini Govindan |
12 noon Happy Fox: Illustration Time Aušra Kiudulaitė and Evelina Daciūte | 12 noon Teen Blues Poile Sengupta |
12:30 pm Like A Girl: Changing the World Aparna Jain, Poorna Malavath and Sharda Ugra | |
1:00 pm Padma Goes to Space Swetha Ragunathan | |
1:30 pm Clowning with the Clowner Harish Bhuvan | 1:30 pm Alternative Storyline Debleena Majumdar |
2:00 pm Fun with the Clouds Santhini Govindan | 2:00 pm Creating Comic Strips Cilre |
2:30 pm Once upon a Rhyme Meghna Singhee | 2:30 pm Wassup Bangalore Mirchi RJ Jimmy |
3:00 pm Musical Notes Saskia Rao-de Haas | |
3:15 pm The Cloudfarers: How to Run Away from School Stephen Alter | |
3:30 pm Storygami Nithya J Rao | |
3:45 pm Know your Fantasy Janaki Murali | |
4:00 pm How BLF Made Me a Writer Arundhati Nithiyanandhan | |
4:30 pm Viewing the Other Shikhandin | 4:30 pm Busting Fake News: Developing a Scientific Temper CMCA |
5:00 pm A Very Naughty Bear: Mountain Adventures in Bhutan Paro Anand | |
5:15 pm Calling all Sherlocks: Detective Writing Anushka Ravishankar | |
5:30 pm How to Tell a Story Stones2Milestones | |
6:00 pm The Day the Crayons Quit Jugaad Theatre | Venue: Grand Ballroom | |
*All sessions will start and end on time. Schedule subject to change. Please check back periodically for updates. |
Four
Greystroke and Poile Sengupta
Greystroke

Bio
Greystroke is a self-taught artist who’s been drawing ever since he can remember. He’s been a writer, illustrator, art director, photographer and filmmaker, even publisher, for over 20 years now.
Poile Sengupta

Bio
Poile Sengupta is a novelist, poet, playwright and short fiction writer for both children and adults. As a writer for children, she has about a dozen books for various age groups and has been anthologized in some of the most prestigious anthologies for children in India. Her plays have been published by Seagull, Routledge and Puffin and include the award winning Mangalam, as also Keats Was a Tuber, and Samara’s Song which were shortlisted for BBC and The Hindu awards, respectively. She has recently concentrated on fiction for adults; her short story Ammulu was shortlisted for the 2012 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Her first novel for adults Inga was published in 2014 to critical acclaim. She has been on the Governing Body of the National School of Drama and several times on the jury of the Trinity College international play-writing competition for children. She has acted in several plays and in the award winning films The Outhouse and Shaitan.
I Need to Pee: Designing a Character
Meenal Singh and Erik Egerup
Meenal Singh & Erik Egerup

Bio coming soon.
Into the Poetic World
Santhini Govindan
Santhini Govindan

Bio
Santhini Govindan is a widely published, award-winning author of children’s literature in English. She has written more than fifty books for children of all ages, and her work includes poetry, picture books, and short stories. Santhini has been awarded two Fellowships in Literature from the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Culture, Government of India – (Junior Fellowship (August 1996-August 1998) and (Senior Fellowship February 2002- February 2004) for research projects connected to children’s literature in India.
In 2001, she was the first Indian writer to be invited to attend the annual Highlights Foundation Writers Workshop, held at Chautauqua, New York, in the United States. Santhini Govindan has authored and edited several English language readers that are widely used in schools across India. She is a Consultant Editor for a well-known national children’s magazine, and has taught Creative Writing at the under-graduate level at Mumbai University.
Pitara: Storytelling Board Game
Pitara

Bio
In an age where electronics are taking over the society, PITARA brings back the classic magic of imagination in a new and exciting storytelling game. This creative, non-competitive storytelling game is for anyone above the age of 7. Players draw random story elements (icon tiles) and twist their best tale using each piece, often collaboratively. The only limit here is your imagination!
The game pays more emphasis on storytelling than on gameplay, hence can also be seen as a playtool and not a regular board game. It enables people to think visually and create stories using visual cues instead of the written word. It uses balanced pictorial elements without fixed character constraints or specific plot elements, which leave narrative options reasonably open while still providing a source from which the storyteller can draw ideas.
Additionally, the use of pictorial elements, icons in this case, eliminate dependency on the reading skills of the players, making this a visual literacy and verbal skill development tool useful for both adults and kids.
Happy Fox: Illustration Time
Aušra Kiudulaitė and Evelina Daciūte
Aušra Kiudulaitė

Bio
Aušra Kiudulaitė was born in 1978 in Vilnius, Lithuania. She has a master degree from Vilnius Academy of Arts (VAA) and is now working as a freelance illustrator and runs creative workshops for children as well as students and art professionals. Aušra actively participates in international exhibitions. festivals and book fairs.
In 2016 her first picture book Happiness is a Fox was published which became a national phenomenon and also gained international attention when it was published by Thames and Hudson in the UK. The book received many awards including The Best Book of the Year Award in 2017 in Lithuania, The Most Beautiful Book of the Year by LBBY in 2016.
Aušra has been selected for the LBBY Honour list in 2018 and 2023.
Evelina Daciūtė

Bio
Evelina Daciūte is an author of books for children, was born in Vilnius in 1975. She debuted in children’s literature in 2014 with the book Teddy Bear Adventures, Lupine Labyrinth which is now a series of titles. In 2015 “The Elephants Went Visiting was published and awarded as the Most Beautiful Book in the Book Art Competition. In 2016 the book received the Book of the Year Award for the Youngest Readers by IBBY Lithuania. The most recognized and awarded book by Evelina Dacie is Happiness is a Fox/ The Fox on the Swing, which was published in 2016 in Lithuania, in 2018 in the UK and USA.
Teen Blues
Poile Sengupta
Poile Sengupta

Bio
Poile Sengupta is a novelist, poet, playwright and short fiction writer for both children and adults. As a writer for children, she has about a dozen books for various age groups and has been anthologized in some of the most prestigious anthologies for children in India. Her plays have been published by Seagull, Routledge and Puffin and include the award winning Mangalam, as also Keats Was a Tuber, and Samara’s Song which were shortlisted for BBC and The Hindu awards, respectively. She has recently concentrated on fiction for adults; her short story Ammulu was shortlisted for the 2012 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Her first novel for adults Inga was published in 2014 to critical acclaim. She has been on the Governing Body of the National School of Drama and several times on the jury of the Trinity College international play-writing competition for children. She has acted in several plays and in the award winning films The Outhouse and Shaitan.
Like A Girl: Changing the World
Aparna Jain, Poorna Malavath and Sharda Ugra
Aparna Jain

Bio
Aparna Jain is the author of a previous book, Own It, which was shortlisted for the Tata Litlive Business Book of the Year prize in 2016. It also won her a Jury Appreciation Certificate at the First South Asia Laadli Media and Advertising Awards for Gender Sensitivity 2015-16. Aparna is a leadership coach and a vocal advocate of equal rights for women. She is also the author of The Sood Family Cookbook’. Her most recent book – Like A Girl: Real Stories For Tough Kids is about 56 inspirational women from India.
Malavath Poorna

Bio
Malavath Purna (also called Malavath Poorna, Purna Malavath, or Poorna Malavath; born 10 June 2000) is an Indian mountaineer from Nizamabad district, Telangana. On 25 May 2014, Poorna scaled the highest peak of Mount Everest and, aged 13 years and 11 months, became the youngest girl in the world to have reached the summit of Everest. The youngest boy to summit Mt. Everest is Jordan Romero, who reached the summit at age 13 years and 10 months. She was accompanied by Sandhanapalli Anand Kumar from Khammam. She scaled Mt. Elbrus, the highest peak in Russia and in Europe on 27th July, 2017 at around 10:00 hrs.(IST) . After reaching the summit of Elbrus, she unfurled a 50ft long Indian Tricolor singing the Indian National Anthem.
Sharda Ugra

Bio
Sharda Ugra has been a sports journalist for over three decades, reporting sport for tabloid MidDay, broadsheet The Hindu, newsmagazine India and the ESPNcricinfo/ ESPN India websites. In between, worked with India coach John Wright and cricketer Yuvraj Singh on their memoirs and on research projects focussing on ethnic minorities in cricket in the UK and Australia. She now lives in Bangalore and writes to suit herself.
Padma Goes to Space
Swetha Ragunathan
Clowning with the Clowner
Harish Bhuvan
Harish Bhuvan

Bio
Harish Bhuvan, Founder Compassionate Clowns NGO was a Business development and a research associate, Head – Karnataka Region for an Educational startup at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay is a sensational performer.
Harish was educated in Psychology, Sociology & Economics from Christ University and has advanced training in Hypnosis from Indian Society of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis (ISCEH) under the leadership of current President of ISCEH Mrs Radha. C. Mohan. He also is trained under NLP by NLP Master Practioner Ms Rachel Jayaseelan, Faculty of Christ University – Psychology Department and NFNLP Certified NLP Coach. He has also been trained in PREP and Cogent (Cognitive Enhancement) in helping the children with Dyslexia under the leadership of Dr JP Das, Emeritus Director, J.P Das Developmental Disabilities Centre, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
Harish Bhuvan is a trainer, facilitator, and medical clown. He left his job at IIT Bombay to follow his passion of contributing towards the well-being of children. Since then he has been attached with esteemed hospitals and hospices of India working with terminally ill children and their caregivers. His unique mélange of clowning elements and counselling techniques to release the disease induced trauma in children has been admired by media and public alike. He founded an organization Compassionate Clowns which is doing a remarkable task of spreading love and laughter in the lives of vulnerable children. Harish wears various hats, he is dedicated towards the development of cause by bringing in like-minded collaborators together. He is also a master trainer and facilitator. He educates children and young adults on the field to resist sexual abuse. Going forward Harish aspires to blend in his clowning elements with the therapeutic essentials required to release the ordeal of childhood sexual abuse faced by survivors and victims.
Alternative Storyline
Debleena Majumdar
Debleena Majumdar

Bio
Debleena is a Bangalore based entrepreneur, writer and storyteller. Weekdays find her investing in Education companies at Gray Matters Capital or writing articles for Economic Times Prime. She runs her own storytelling company, Kahaniyah where she turns data into stories. History and music fascinate her and she finds her stories sound best, when she shares them with children.
Fun with the Clouds
Santhini Govindan
Santhini Govindan

Bio
Santhini Govindan is a widely published, award-winning author of children’s literature in English. She has written more than fifty books for children of all ages, and her work includes poetry, picture books, and short stories. Santhini has been awarded two Fellowships in Literature from the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Culture, Government of India – (Junior Fellowship (August 1996-August 1998) and (Senior Fellowship February 2002- February 2004) for research projects connected to children’s literature in India.
In 2001, she was the first Indian writer to be invited to attend the annual Highlights Foundation Writers Workshop, held at Chautauqua, New York, in the United States. Santhini Govindan has authored and edited several English language readers that are widely used in schools across India. She is a Consultant Editor for a well-known national children’s magazine, and has taught Creative Writing at the under-graduate level at Mumbai University.
Creating Comic Strips
Cilre
Team Cilre

Bio
Like Einstein said, “Learning is an experience, Everything else is just information”
Cilre focuses on empowering children to learn through these experiences. An introductory workshop helps instigating these traits. Like any habit, they need to be practiced regularly to make it last. Cilre offers these experiences on a regular basis across Bangalore. In the last 5+ years and working with over 10000 children, we have carved a niche in providing differentiated learning experiences, in a wide variety of disciplines. Our experiences are aimed at empowering children, in a collaborative and fun way.
Wassup Bangalore
Mirchi RJ Jimmy
Jimmy Xavier

Bio
Jimmy has been in the radio business for close to 17 years now. He started off as a freelancer with All India Radio Bangalore in 2001 after a somewhat failed attempt at doing a software job. He then got entagled in the web of private radio. He went to Chennai and was part of the launch them of Radio Mirchi there in 2002. He worked as a show producer there before being given the responsibility of launching the Bangalore Radio Mirchi station in 2006. He hired, trained and launched the Radio Station here. Through all of this his passion has been to be on air. He then joined another Radio Station in Bangalore to host the morning show. He has played multiple roles of programming head of a single station to the zonal programming head of the south. He has also been the head of Client Solutions, South creating campaigns for clients that leveraged the strength of radio.
For the last 2 years he has gone back to his passion. Hosting a show on air. He currently hosts the morning show on Mirchi 95 FM. You can hear him on air starting everyday at 7am
Once upon a Rhyme
Meghna Singhee
Meghna Singhee

Bio
Meghna Singhee, author of P. I. POJO cares about words. ‘No shit, sherlock’, you might say. But no, really, she cares about words.. Like other people care about tigers and dams, flyovers and rights (all of which need words to fight for them), Meghna cares about saving words. She has an NGO called Grunt, dedicated to fighting emoticons. In other news, she likes technicolor ideas, scallywags, cold wind and armchairs in vanishing corners.
Musical Notes
Saskia Rao-de Haas
Saskia Rao-de Haas

Bio
World-renowned cellist, composer, arts educator and writer Saskia Rao de Haas is a pioneer in the world of music. She is the creator of the Indian cello which is described as ‘string instrument that has a beauty unlike any other'(Edinburgh Festivals). Pt Hariprasad Chaurasia said about Saskia that ‘she has been taught by God and everyone should listen to her music.’ As the co-creator (together with Pt Shubhendra Rao) of the Sangeet4All music curriculum, India’s first music curriculum for children from 2 years old onwards, Saskia has written 8 books for children about music and is passionate about bringing classical music to children. She loves telling the stories of her books in ‘Sangeet Aur Katha’ while playing her unique cello.
The Cloudfarers: How to Run Away from School
Stephen Alter
Stephen Alter

Bio
Stephen Alter is the author of twenty books of fiction, non-fiction and children’s literature. His most recent novel, In the Jungles of the Night: A Novel about Jim Corbett was shortlisted for the 2017 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. His most recent non-fiction book, Becoming a Mountain: Himalayan Journeys in Search of the Sacred and the Sublime received the 2015 Kekoo Naoroji Award for Himalayan Literature. From 1995-2004 he was writer-in-residence at MIT and from 1988- 1994 he was director of the writing program at the American University in Cairo. From 2006-2016, he founded and directed the Mussoorie Mountain Festival. Among the honours he has received are a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fulbright Senior Research Grant and fellowships from the East-West Centre in Hawaii and the Banff Centre for Mountain Culture. He lives and writes in Landour.
Storygami
Nithya J Rao
Nithya J Rao

Bio
Nithya J Rao, a rehabilitation psychologist and actor, has been working in the space of creating authentic living spaces inside and outside of oneself.
Co-founder at Lahe Lahe, Katharsis productions, and Founder at Heart It Out, her work has been at crossroads of performance art, design, sustainability and wellbeing.
Know your Fantasy
Janaki Murali
Janaki Murali

Bio
Journalist, storyteller, knitter, author mom. Filter coffee. Cats. Photography. Write Opinion for online news portal Firstpost.com; write short stories and tech articles for Deccan Herald’s School Edition; edit books; and tell stories in schools.
Was a newspaper journalist (Economic Times, The Hindu Business Line, Deccan Herald, Deccan Chronicle, Indian Express) Covered riots, led campaigns on child rights, wrote editorials, opinion, popular columns and interviewed world leaders.
At Infosys – created the sustainability Policy and led a worldwide CSR program.
Wrote 150 stories for children for ISKCON; wrote 13 articles on the Rights of the Child for UNICEF.
Published Books: The Colour of Dawn; Following the Light Home – Lakshmi’s Story; Mica in Someplace Else and Gulu Naami and The Power of the Triad; Tender Tales, children’s stories serialised in Deccan Chronicle; Gulu Naami and the Power of the Triad and Gulu Naami and the Destiny Keepers serialised in Deccan Herald’s children’s newspaper; and several short stories published in magazines.
How BLF Made Me a Writer
Arundhati Nithiyanandhan
Arundhati Nithiyanandhan

Bio
Arundhati (Aru) is seven years old and lives in Bangalore, India. She got inspired to tell stories aſter drawing her first storybook in a storytelling workshop conducted by #blrlitfest 2017. She loves telling new stories to her father while they both go for a walk in the evening. Aru and her father have taken this journey further and have successfully published 3 children storybooks which have captured the imagination of 7 years old and the professionalism of an adult. Aru creates her stories from her day to day incidents and most of them are treasured part of her childhood. She loves to play in the sand, color sketches and all her color sketches are available on her facebook page and website www.doodlesandtales.com
Busting Fake News: Developing a Scientific Temper
CMCA
CMCA

Bio
Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness (CMCA) is a non profit nurturing active citizenship and democratic values in children and youth.
Viewing the Other
Shikhandin
Shikhandin

Bio
Shikhandin is an Indian writer who writes for children as well as grownups. She was a winner in The Children First Contest curated by Duckbill in association with Parag and initiative of Tata Trust India, and the prize-winning book “Vibhuti Cat” was published by Duckbill Books. Prior to that, Speaking Tiger published a collection of stories by her – “Immoderate Men.” She has won some prizes for her fiction and poetry in India and abroad. And her poems and stories have been widely published across the globe. She has grown up children. But no pets at present, which makes her sad. So she keeps making up stories about animals and birds among other things. She would love to meet a real live ghost one day, and also wizards, witches and unicorns. She believes multi-tasking would be easier if humans had long prehensile tails.
A Very Naughty Bear: Mountain Adventures in Bhutan
Paro Anand
Paro Anand

Bio
Paro Anand is a Bal Sahitya Puraskar winner. She has written books for children, young adults and adults. She also works with children in schools and NGOs, through her program Literature in Action and holds a world record for helping over three thousand children make the world’s longest newspaper. She has been awarded for her contribution to children’s literature by The Russian Centre for Science and Culture. No Guns at my Son’s Funeral, opened to rave reviews, was on the International Board on Books for Young People Honour List, has been translated into German and French, and is being adapted for cinema. The Little Bird who held the Sky up with his Feet was on the 1001 Books to Read before You Grow Up, an international gold standard of the world’s best books ever. Wingless has been performed nationally and internationally. She has authored Like Smoke, The Other, Nomad’s Land and co-authored Two with Orjan Persson.
Calling all Sherlocks: Detective Writing
Anushka Ravishankar
Anushka Ravishankar

Bio
Anushka Ravishankar used to write computer programs before she switched to writing absurd verse for children. She has written over thirty books for children, including picture books in verse, chapter books, retellings of folk tales and non-fiction. Several of them have been published internationally and have won awards. Some of her books are: Catch That Crocodile, Moin and the Monster, To Market To Market and Tiger on a Tree. She has worked in an editorial capacity at Tara Books and Scholastic India. In 2012, she co-founded Duckbill Books, which publishes funny, edgy and exciting Indian books for children and young adults.
How to Tell a Story
Stones2Milestones
Stones2Milestones

Bio
Stones2Milestones is on a mission to ‘Create a Nation of Readers’, gifting children the will and skill to read in English.
Children going to English medium schools are expected to learn, read and speak in English, a language that is aspirational yet alien to them and their surroundings. In India itself, an estimated 9 out of 10 children read below grade levels.
Stones2Milestones solves the problem by providing diagnostic, affordable, research-based and intuitive reading & literacy solutions for schools, teachers & parents.
They are systematic, culturally relevant and age-appropriate. They currently impact more than 200,000 children across 25 cities in India.
The Day the Crayons Quit
Jugaad Theatre | Venue: Grand Ballroom
Jugaad Company

Bio
We are a Theater collective called Jugaad Company. Started by Jimmy and Anna. Jugaad Co. has a collective theatre experience of close to 25 years with close to 900 stage shows behind them.
Jugaad Co. was set up in 2012 and have performed award winning plays in the short theatre format. Their repertory has several short plays as well as plays in the long format and they have won awards for best acting, production and direction across multiple cities in India.
Both Jimmy and Anna are full-time working professionals in addition to what they do with Jugaad. They are also parents to a 5-year old. Jimmy is an RJ with Radio Mirchi and is a popular figure in Radio and Theater in Bangalore for many years now. Anna is an Analytics professional and partner in an Analytics company called Amplify.
Jugaad Co. has always attempted to tell stories that are urban and relevant to Indian audiences.
Their current offering is a children’s play called “The Day the Crayons Quit”. Realizing the gap of good entertaining theatre for kids in Bangalore, they adapted this play from the book of the same name. It is a very cute story about crayons having issues with the way they are being used and deciding to quit their owner. This adapted version has music dance and a lot of interaction with the kids.
The shows have run to packed houses and have been lapped up by both parents and kids equally.
Day 2 | Sun | 28 Oct
Malgudi (ages 5-10) | Narnia (ages 11-15) |
---|---|
10:00 am A Goddess for Today Amar Chitra Katha | |
10:30 am Rhyme Time: Poetry for the Young Anushka Ravishankar | |
10:45 am The Other: 'Otherization' of Young People Paro Anand | |
11:00 am Happy Fox: Illustration Time Aušra Kiudulaitė and Evelina Daciūte | |
11:30 am Ma, I Want to be a Journalist Barkha Dutt, Mukund Padmanabhan, R. Sukumar with Shruthi Mohan | |
12 noon The Bard, The Baker and their Chemistry Trupti Kalamdani | |
12:15 pm Green in My Dream Nagesh Hegde | |
12:30 pm A Story and A Song Amar Chitra Katha | |
12:45 pm Let's Plot - Tips on Writing Mystery Stories Asha Nehemiah | |
1:15 pm Tales the Traditional Way Lavanya Prasad | |
1:30 pm Moral of the Story: Epics for Children Swetha Ragunathan | |
1:45 pm Moonlight in the Sea Kartik Shanker | |
2:00 pm Curtains Up: Theatre Writing for Teens Anuja Ghosalkar | |
2:30 pm Oink Oink: How The Pig Became Dirty Rahul Kansal | |
2:45 pm Illustrating Children's Books Gujjarappa | |
3:00 pm Scribbling a Portrait Murali Krishna | |
3:30 pm Ha Ha Hour: Life of a Standup Comedian Karthik Kumar | |
3:45 pm The Sunshower Song Vinayak Varma | |
4:15 pm Looking for Stories? Poile Sengupta | 4:15 pm The Number Game: Vedic Maths Dr. Jini Gopinath |
4:45 pm Meet Petu Pumpkin and the Awesome Foursome Arundhati Venkatesh | 4:45 pm Design for Change Workshop For Young Minds! Aparna Raman |
5:30 pm The Hunger Game Be The Miracle | 5:30 pm Tom Riddle's Digital Diary Aashna Dasgupta |
6:00 pm Abracadabra: Time for Some Jadoo K.S Ramesh | |
*All sessions will start and end on time. Schedule subject to change. Please check back periodically for updates. |
A Goddess for Today
Amar Chitra Katha
Amar Chitra Katha

Bio
Amar Chitra Katha is a famed household name. Founded in 1967 by Anant Pai, lovingly called Uncle Pai, the purpose of the comic series was to spread knowledge and create a better awareness about Indian mythology.
The comic series focuses on different genres, including epics and mythology, fables and humor and visionaries, among others. Tales of bravehearts succeeding at war and boxed collections, Amar Chitra Katha has it all.
With more than 400 comics in 20+ languages that have sold more than 100+ million copies to date, Amar Chitra Katha is a cultural phenomenon. With a national distribution across all major book retailers, hundreds of small bookstores and thousands of vendors, the titles remain immensely popular in the classic illustrated format.
Rhyme Time: Poetry for the Young
Anushka Ravishankar
Anushka Ravishankar

Bio
Anushka Ravishankar used to write computer programs before she switched to writing absurd verse for children. She has written over thirty books for children, including picture books in verse, chapter books, retellings of folk tales and non-fiction. Several of them have been published internationally and have won awards. Some of her books are: Catch That Crocodile, Moin and the Monster, To Market To Market and Tiger on a Tree. She has worked in an editorial capacity at Tara Books and Scholastic India. In 2012, she co-founded Duckbill Books, which publishes funny, edgy and exciting Indian books for children and young adults.
The Other: ‘Otherization’ of Young People
Paro Anand
Paro Anand

Bio
Paro Anand is a Bal Sahitya Puraskar winner. She has written books for children, young adults and adults. She also works with children in schools and NGOs, through her program Literature in Action and holds a world record for helping over three thousand children make the world’s longest newspaper. She has been awarded for her contribution to children’s literature by The Russian Centre for Science and Culture. No Guns at my Son’s Funeral, opened to rave reviews, was on the International Board on Books for Young People Honour List, has been translated into German and French, and is being adapted for cinema. The Little Bird who held the Sky up with his Feet was on the 1001 Books to Read before You Grow Up, an international gold standard of the world’s best books ever. Wingless has been performed nationally and internationally. She has authored Like Smoke, The Other, Nomad’s Land and co-authored Two with Orjan Persson.
Happy Fox: Illustration Time
Aušra Kiudulaitė and Evelina Daciūte
Aušra Kiudulaitė

Bio
Aušra Kiudulaitė was born in 1978 in Vilnius, Lithuania. She has a master degree from Vilnius Academy of Arts (VAA) and is now working as a freelance illustrator and runs creative workshops for children as well as students and art professionals. Aušra actively participates in international exhibitions. festivals and book fairs.
In 2016 her first picture book Happiness is a Fox was published which became a national phenomenon and also gained international attention when it was published by Thames and Hudson in the UK. The book received many awards including The Best Book of the Year Award in 2017 in Lithuania, The Most Beautiful Book of the Year by LBBY in 2016.
Aušra has been selected for the LBBY Honour list in 2018 and 2023.
Evelina Daciūtė

Bio
Evelina Daciūte is an author of books for children, was born in Vilnius in 1975. She debuted in children’s literature in 2014 with the book Teddy Bear Adventures, Lupine Labyrinth which is now a series of titles. In 2015 “The Elephants Went Visiting was published and awarded as the Most Beautiful Book in the Book Art Competition. In 2016 the book received the Book of the Year Award for the Youngest Readers by IBBY Lithuania. The most recognized and awarded book by Evelina Dacie is Happiness is a Fox/ The Fox on the Swing, which was published in 2016 in Lithuania, in 2018 in the UK and USA.
Ma, I Want to be a Journalist
Barkha Dutt, Mukund Padmanabhan with Shruthi Mohan
Barkha Dutt

Bio
Barkha Dutt is an award-winning TV journalist and anchor with more than two decades of reporting experience. She is the author of “This Unquiet Land: Stories from India’s Fault Lines.” Dutt is based in New Delhi.
Mukund Padmanabhan

Bio
Mukund Padmanabhan took over as Editor of The Hindu in March 2016. He was Editor of The Hindu BusinessLine from August 2013, before which he worked for The Hindu since 1997. An M-Phil in Philosophy, he studied in Chennai, Delhi and The London School of Economics. He worked briefly as a lecturer in University of Delhi before switching to journalism. In his career as a journalist, he has reported from various countries including Sri Lanka, Britain, Australia, Malaysia, and other countries in Europe. He worked for the magazine Sunday in Kolkata and the Indian Express before joining The Hindu in 1997 where he wrote editorials and oversaw many of the newspaper’s supplements including the Sunday Magazine, Literary Review and MetroPlus. He is interested in and has written about politics, legal affairs, and literature. He is an adjunct faculty of the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines, where he teaches law and advanced writing to post-graduate students. He also curates two festivals of theatre and music on behalf of The Hindu Group of Publications – The Hindu Theatre Fest and The Hindu November Fest.
Shruthi Mohan

Bio
An engineer turned Journalist, Shruthi is your every other 25-year-old. Big dreams of creating a dent in the field of Journalism, she is testing waters in Startups, Social Enterprises and Impact Investment. Chosen by UNICEF to be an Instagram Influencers for one of the Sustainable Developmental Goals, she recently walked away with the ‘Digital Media Professional of the year’ award from the PR Council of India.
The Bard, The Baker and their Chemistry
Trupti Kalamdani
Trupti Kalamdani

Bio
Trupti Kalamdani is a mechanical engineer turned poet whose work has been published in the poetry anthology “Solitude and other Obsessions”.
She is also a self taught baker who has recently launched her home baking business whose mission is to spread the importance of homemade bakes!
Green in My Dream
Nagesh Hegde
Nagesh Hegde

Bio
Graduate from IIT and JNU. Was teaching MSc students on Environment at Nainital University. Joined Prajavani and Sudha (Deccan Herald Group) as Feature Writer. He has been writing a fortnightly column for Prajavani for the past 35 years. His writings in Kannada have become textbook lessons from Primary School to various Universities in Karnataka. He has received highest awards in Journalism and Literature in Karnataka. He is also a recipient of Rajyotsava award. Post retirement he has been teaching PG Diploma journalism students on topics like Environment, Health, Development and allied subjects. He has been producing magazines, wall papers, posters, books, songs and pamphlets on ecology and environment for children. Plays and stories written by him have been staged in many schools. His scripts are used in production of two feature films in Kannada.
A Story and A Song
Amar Chitra Katha
Amar Chitra Katha

Bio
Amar Chitra Katha is a famed household name. Founded in 1967 by Anant Pai, lovingly called Uncle Pai, the purpose of the comic series was to spread knowledge and create a better awareness about Indian mythology.
The comic series focuses on different genres, including epics and mythology, fables and humor and visionaries, among others. Tales of bravehearts succeeding at war and boxed collections, Amar Chitra Katha has it all.
With more than 400 comics in 20+ languages that have sold more than 100+ million copies to date, Amar Chitra Katha is a cultural phenomenon. With a national distribution across all major book retailers, hundreds of small bookstores and thousands of vendors, the titles remain immensely popular in the classic illustrated format.
Let’s Plot – Tips on Writing Mystery Stories
Asha Nehemiah
Asha Nehemiah

Bio
Asha Nehemiah writes books with the idea of helping children fall in love with books and reading. Her books feature characters who make you smile getting into hilarious and wacky adventures. She has written for children ages 3 years to 12 years and her published work spans picture books, early literacy books, books for emerging readers. chapter books, middle-grade fiction and short stories.
Her books are well loved by children, parents and educators for their exciting plots and zany humour. Her fiction also incorporates issues such as the need for inclusion, diversity and gender parity.
For more on this author visit www.ashanehemiah.com
Tales the Traditional Way
Lavanya Prasad
Lavanya Prasad

Bio
Stories had always been an integral part of Lavanya’s childhood.She has been telling stories professionally since 2012,through her organization Tale’scope.Her stories are always intertwined with music and movement.She believes that using one’s body fully gives a greater and a fuller experience in storytelling.Her work has also taken her to various storytelling and literary festivals in India where she has performed and given workshops for children and adults.She has also performed for the Masai Mara school in Kenya and in the Victoria storytelling guild (Australia).She works extensively with senior citizens, with her “Roots project”helping them recall and document their life stories and also revisit to their roots using the folktales from their land.She loves telling tales incorporating the “Hari Kathe” format of India.Mythology,folktales and personal stories interest her immensely.She is presently collecting songs that were a part of Indian household that told stories about the way of life.
Moral of the Story: Epics for Children
Swetha Ragunathan
Swetha Ragunathan

Bio coming soon.
Moonlight in the Sea
Kartik Shanker
Kartik Shanker

Bio
Kartik Shanker was inspired to a career in ecology by an ancient reptile, a sea turtle that crawled ashore late one night in Madras. As faculty at the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, he indulges his fascination for ecology and evolution, working with students on frogs, reptiles, birds, plants and marine fauna. He also has long term research programmes on olive ridley, green and leatherback turtles.
Shanker is a founding trustee of Dakshin Foundation, which works with coastal communities on natural resource conservation and management. He is a founding editor of the magazine, Current Conservation and author of the book From Soup to Superstar, a historical account of sea turtle conservation in India. In his spare time, he seeks to distract young minds from more serious pursuits with books such as Turtle Story, The Adventures of Philautus Frog, Moonlight in the Sea, and Lori’s Magical Mystery.
Curtains Up: Theatre Writing for Teens
Anuja Ghosalkar
Anuja Ghosalkar

Bio
Anuja Ghosalkar is the founder of Drama Queen in Bangalore. Through Drama Queen, she is evolving a unique form of Documentary theatre in India. The focus of her theatre practice is undocumented narratives, archival absences and gender. Research, oral history and iterations around form and process are critical to her performance and pedagogical work.
Recently, for Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology she conceived a site specific, performance at Cubbon Park Metro Station called Dream Walkers. She regularly conducts workshops at Rangashankara, Jagriti, Lightroom bookstore, Mount Carmel College, and more recently at the Kerala Museum, on Documentary theatre for children and young adults. She is a speech and drama coach for Trinity College, London since 2013 and works extensively with children from the ages of eight to 16.
Drama Queen’s debut show Lady Anandi has traveled across India and was written while she was an artist-in-residence at Art Lab Gnesta, Sweden. Her newest performance, The Reading Room blurs the boundary between audience and performer, where 10 strangers read personal letters alongside public ones.
In the past, as an actor, Anuja has worked with Atul Kumar, Abhishek Majumdar, Kirtana Kumar and Arundhati Raja.
She was a programming officer at India Foundation for the Arts (2008-13) and is an Art Think South Asia Fellow (2017-18)
She is currently working on a series of all-India workshops called Starting Realities, to build awareness and pedagogy around the form of Documentary Theatre and is curating Asia’s first festival of Documentary theatre in early 2020.
Oink Oink: How The Pig Became Dirty
Rahul Kansal
Rahul Kansal

Bio
Rahul Kansal, a 61-year-old corporate executive, is an unlikely person to be writing these cock-and-bull animal tales for children.
Rahul has spent the bulk of his career with The Times of India where he led such weighty brand initiatives as Lead India, Teach India and Aman Ki Asha. Not the typical road map for someone choosing to write some wacky tales for 7 year olds! It was his two daughters (now in their twenties) who urged him to pen these tales that he once concocted for them at bedtime.
Illustrating Children’s Books
Gujjarappa
B.G. Gujjarappa

Bio
B.G. Gujjarappa popularly known as Gujjar, (born on 3rd june 1955) has been working with different media firms for over 37 years now and is currently working at his own studio in Bangalore, India. Gujjar started as a lecturer in history. He was among the initial team that started Lankesh Patrike as a cartoonist who soon found a place among the discerning Kannada readers for his unique style of cartooning and illustrations. He continued to work for Deccan Herald and Prajavani, two of the flagship media brands in Karnataka, for nearly 15 years trying his hand at illustrations, political cartoons and caricatures. He also pursued his favourite hobby of writing and illustrating for children. To his credit are numerous national and international awards. In the late nineties he entered the world of interactive graphics and Multimedia. After three decades of experimenting with numerous styles of drawing, Gujjar came out of corporate life to dedicate his time extensively to painting for the last 10 years. His paintings are in the collection of Prime ministers, chief ministers, governors and noble prize winning scientists. His paintings are in the collections of many private collectors all over the world. He has also written and illustrated five books for children. He has also illustrated 25 comic Books. He has also illustrated over 1300 books. Recently he has illustrated 6 children book for ‘Kanaka Adhyayana Kendra’.
Scribbling a Portrait
Murali Krishna
Murali Krishna

Bio
Artist, design consultant and teacher, Murali Krishna is self-taught artist with a unique style of painting using vibrant colors and bold strokes.
His paintings have been featured in publications, online museums, and exhibitions.
After discovering his passion for teaching his craft, Murali has conducted numerous online classes & offline workshops. Murali has been painting for the last 18 years and teaching for the last 4 years, he has conducted over 40 workshops and trained over 300 people across India.
Ha Ha Hour: Life of a Standup Comedian
Karthik Kumar
Karthik Kumar

Bio
Co-founder – evam entertainment & Training Sideways. Evam is India’s 15 year old award winning Performing Arts Entrepreneurship. Some of its accolades include “The Director’s fellowship programme”, Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, Washington DC, The Young Performing Arts Entrepreneurship (YPAE) award from the British Council and one of the finalists of the TATA-NEN Hottest Start-up Awards in 2008.
Training Sideways is India’s No.1 art based soft skills behaviorial training company offering behavioral training solutions for corporates and colleges using art based experiential methodologies (theatre, music, visual arts, team building games, etc.).
Standup Comedian – Karthik Kumar has written 3 standup solo specials (#PokeMe ,Second decoction & Blood Chutney) and performed over 500 shows across India and international markets such as USA UK Australia New Zealand Singapore HongKong etc. He is also one of the founders of South India’s largest standup movement – evam standup tamasha that produces shows regularly and manages a repertory of artists pan india. His third special “Blood Chutney”is available on amazon prime.
Actor – 15 years body of work spanning Drama, Indian Cinema and Television. He is recognised for his performances in “Veppam” , “Poi Solla Porum”, “Kolla Kollaya Mundhrika” etc.
Director – Artistic director of stage productions such as ‘Chasing my Mamet Duck’, ‘Ali J’ (India’s entry into the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2013), ‘A Long Way Home’, and Producer of multiple META award winning play ‘The 39 Steps’
The Sunshower Song
Vinayak Varma
Vinayak Varma

Bio
Vinayak Varma is a writer and designer based in Bangalore. He is the author and illustrator of The Sunshower Song, Jadav and the Tree-Place, Angry Akku, and Up Down, and was the founding editor of Brainwave magazine. He has been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and is a recipient of the Publishing Next Digital Book of the Year Award. His short stories have appeared in Out of Print Magazine, Muse India and The Deccan Herald, among other publications. When he isn’t making picture books, teaching art or consulting for craft beer brands, Vinayak sings and plays blues harmonica. Follow him on Instagram @ mixtape.in and on Twitter @eyefry.
Looking for Stories?
Poile Sengupta
Poile Sengupta

Bio
Poile Sengupta is a novelist, poet, playwright and short fiction writer for both children and adults. As a writer for children, she has about a dozen books for various age groups and has been anthologized in some of the most prestigious anthologies for children in India. Her plays have been published by Seagull, Routledge and Puffin and include the award winning Mangalam, as also Keats Was a Tuber, and Samara’s Song which were shortlisted for BBC and The Hindu awards, respectively. She has recently concentrated on fiction for adults; her short story Ammulu was shortlisted for the 2012 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Her first novel for adults Inga was published in 2014 to critical acclaim. She has been on the Governing Body of the National School of Drama and several times on the jury of the Trinity College international play-writing competition for children. She has acted in several plays and in the award winning films The Outhouse and Shaitan.
The Number Game: Vedic Maths
Dr. Jini Gopinath
Jini Gopinath

Bio
Jini K Gopinath is a Clinical Psychologist and a Clinical Hypnotherapist who completed his training in Clinical Psychology from Kasturba Medical College, Manipal. He worked in various capacities as a Professor of Psychology at Christ University, Mahatma Gandhi University and the Indian Institute of Psychology and Research.He was a consultant for the IPL team, Mumbai Indians and currently heads Mind Matters Clinic, Bangalore. His PhD is in the area of Vedic Mathematics during which he designed a training programme for specific learning difficulty in mathematics.
Meet Petu Pumpkin and the Awesome Foursome
Arundhati Venkatesh
Arundhati Venkatesh

Bio
Arundhati Venkatesh is the author of the bestselling Bookasura and the Petu Pumpkin series for ages 6-9. Her books have won several awards, including the Comic Con India Best Publication for Children Award and the SCBWI Crystal Kite Award for India, Middle East and Asia. Her latest (and funnest!) releases are I Want a Pet for 5+ and Ramanujan: from Zero to Infinity for 10+
Design for Change Workshop For Young Minds!
Aparna Raman
Aparna Raman

Bio
Aparna Raman is the founder of Timbuktoo Books, a mentorship and writing platform for young authors.
She has published over 300 authors across Abu Dhabi, Colombo, Dubai, Hawaii, India, London, Singapore and the USA.
Working with Memory, Aparna has been documenting family narratives to encourage intergenerational conversations.
Precious and The Inheritance of Memory are two of her publications in the area of Memory.
When she isn’t running initiatives such as the Neighbourhood Project and Look out of the Window, Aparna can be found at the Srishti Institute of Art, Design & Technology as a faculty member.
The Hunger Game
Be The Miracle
Be The Miracle

Bio
Be The Miracle believes every child is unique and has immense potential to be explored, given the right environment. We educate and inspire students to enjoy the process of learning and understand that each child is unique through our interactive training programs, workshops, and seminars. Over the last 2 years our Internationally Certified Trainers have impacted over 2500+ students across South India.
Tom Riddle’s Digital Diary
Aashna Dasgupta
Aashna Dasgupta

Bio
Aashna Dasgupta is a research associate at Synergia Foundations, a policy think tank that specialises in cyber security and intelligence. At the Foundation, she does extensive research on digital threats that go beyond networks and is part of the team that works on building intervention strategies for next generation threats. She has previously worked with organisations like LeadIconTech that build AI and Cyber Security systems.
Abracadabra: Time for Some Jadoo
K.S Ramesh | Venue: Grand Ballroom
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