Keeping with the tradition of planting the seeds of creativity at a tender age, BLF held a Magic and Mystery Storywriting Workshop with authors Pavitra Sankaran and Asha Nehemiah. Pavithra Sankaran, the author of Something Fishy, is an avid reader who reads anything and everything. Asha Nehemiah is the author of a number of children’s books for the age of 3-12 years including Trouble With Magic. Her writing revolves around her wonderfully funny characters getting into crazy adventures.
The session began with Pavitra and Asha dividing the kids into four different groups. The groups were each given an object and instructed to allot a magical property to their object. One of the groups gave their object (a spoon) a few wacky magical properties, making it a talking spoon that can speedily solve Math problems. Another group’s object (a lock) can save you from dying and can even make you stronger. The kids were then given a mystery to solve using the magical object they were given.
The session ended with the groups narrating the story they had created, followed by authors Pavitra and Asha giving them useful writing tips. It was an interactive session where both the authors were very encouraging and enthusiastic. This session also had 7 participants between the age group of 8-10 years, from a Government school in KR Puram, Bangalore brought by the ‘Teach For India’ Fellows. This session received an overwhelming response of over 50 participants.
By Tanzila Merchant