By Nupur Sachdev
“Let’s try to make the sound of rain with our hands”, began Arthi Anand as she shared a few stories from her books with all the eager children in the audience. She had kicked off her story-telling with a little running activity for them.
Her tales took the audience from Meghalaya to Arunachal Pradesh, and were interwoven with the geography, terrain and languages of the North East. She spoke about the Khasi tribe and their written script, likening it to the way that English is written.
The marketing professional included a good number of sounds to complement the imagery in her stories. She used the phrase ‘Tak-tak-sum’ to describe the process of weaving a bag at a loom in Mishmi. Arthi Anand’s book is said to be the first book about Mishmi in the country.
She ended the session with an appeal to the audience to travel to the North East of India. After describing how picturesque the region is, she also added with a smile: “I hope that when I see you next we won’t collectively call it the North East, but actually talk about all the places there in detail.”