After the stupendous success of ' I Love Reading India Katha' -CBSE Initiative, 2013, Katha launched a second chapter of the programme in August, 2014 at 14000 CBSE schools across India and abroad. Encouraged by the successful performance of the students of our School last year, our enthusiastic young writers submitted a large number of entries this year as well! Of 8000 entries submitted from the schools in India and abroad, 800 students were selected for the two-day Regional Writers Workshop.

On the 3rd and 4th of November, 2014, Yajat Mukhija of class 6 and Varun Sharma of class 11, the selected semi-finalists from our School, attended the workshop organised by Katha at G.D. Salwan Public School.

After a warm welcome and inauguration ceremony, the participants were introduced to their mentors and allotted groups. While Varun opted for poetry, Yajat selected fiction as his genre.

Varun reflected on his experience at the workshop and commented, Mentor, Ms.Vandana Bist, writer and illustrator, helped me discover myself and improve my poetry-writing skills. She told us about various poetic devices and how to put our ideas into words. Yajats mentor, noted storyteller, Anjali Nayar, gave him the freedom to express himself through the science fiction he chose to write, titled The Fantasy Mystery. In a session full of imagination and fun, Yajat says he learned the fundamental principles of story-writing.

Honing their skills over two days, the participants submitted their written pieces to their mentors. These writings assembled at two regional centres, Delhi and Chennai, would be shortlisted for the final round, ie, the Katha national level workshop to be held in Delhi from 26 to 28 December, 2014. The workshop ended with a valedictory function where participants were awarded certificates of participation. Some of the participating schools included The Indian School, Muscat; Sanskriti School, Delhi; DPS , R.K Puram; Apeejay, Kolkata; Essar International, Surat; Lotus Valley International School, Noida .

As the students wait for the results they acknowledged that the workshop was one of the best attended by them so far! They discovered worlds within words and words within worlds which enjoyed the power of their inherent creativities.

Kathas search for excellence is an attempt to nurture robust and vibrant creative minds and the workshop was a step forward in that direction.

Reported by Varun Sharma, class-XI.