The final round of the Katha Utsav 2016 was held on 27th, 28th and 29th December at the Sanskriti School. An earlier session titled the Katha Regional Writers Workshop for the northern segment, was hosted by our School in October. Similar workshops were also organised in southern Hyderabad), western(Vadodara) and eastern (Jorhat) zones of the country. These workshops, after identifying students with a flair for writing arranged for them to interact with eminent persons, from the world of story writers, poets, journalists, publishers, etc and through this attempted to ignite interest in creative writing.
This was the final round of the exercise and students from across the country were invited to participate. 7 students of our School, namely, Raghuvendra Singh Gulia (VIII C), Sharanya Mushran (VII E), Bhuvi Kashyap (VI E), Gayatri Munjal (VI E), Uday Soni (V B), Khushi Bammi (V E) and Hrdya Jain (V D) were selected to attend this event on 27 December, 2017.
At the start of the 3 day event, after a brief
registration, the group was handed the brochure that listed their schedule for the next programme. The activities showed an interesting range of talks that were going to be conducted by experts who, through a child-friendly approach, would ignite the necessary spark to motivate the participants to think out of the box.
The event started with a brief inauguration, where the chief guest was Mr. Pramod Kumar, Deputy Director of Education who welcomed the children and told them to use this opportunity to emerge as promising writers. Padmashree Ms. Geeta Dharmarajan, founder of Katha also spoke on the occasion on Indias rich lineage of writers and how we need to follow their example and continue the trend they have already set.
Finally, the time came for the students to begin their session. They were divided into small teams and sent off to interact with their mentors. Each session was stimulating and provided them with a host of wonderful ideas to get started on the writing process.
Some interesting experiences from our students who engaged in these sessions: Khushi Bammi attended a workshop by Vikram Sridhar, a performance storyteller. He provided a multitude of scenarios to the children and got them to build a story from each of them thus, teaching to create stories from any situation given. According to him, stories are unfolding continuously and everywhere. What one needs to learn is how to tell that story to the world!
Sharanya Mushran and Uday Soni attended the workshop by Deepa Kiran, founder of Story Arts India. A renowned storyteller, she uses storytelling as a pedagogical intervention to stimulate learners in the classroom. Her skill of narration was truly remarkable. She gave the children tips on how to weave wonderlands to set their stories in. She also taught them to question why things exist the way they do, so that they are prompted to look beyond the surface.
Raghuvendra Singh Gulia attended the workshop by Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty, a Delhi based journalist who was associated with The Hindu for several years. She gave the children insight into the life of a newspaper reporter and taught them how to sustain as a writer in the deadline intensive 247 newspaper environment.
Another popular workshop was led by Dr. Vidur Jyoti, a surgeon who dabbles in poetry in his free time. He taught the children an interesting form of poetry called Haiku. Haiku, a Japanese invention, uses precisely 17 syllables to convey thoughts on a topic. The children, based on the guidelines he laid out, experimented with different themes and created some rather interesting Haiku poems.
Think-a-Thon, a session organised by Tulsi Dharmarajan, was another adventurous session. Tulsi started off by getting the children to name an animal. They were then to give qualities to the animal and turn it into a character. Next, they were asked to form teams of four. The animal characters of the team were then brought together to be a part of a story or poem the children had to weave together. The children were also given cardboard boxes on which they had to illustrate their stories or poems. Needless to say, the process managed to stir the childrens creative energy and they came out with some wonderful, imaginative work.
Later, a Literary and Heritage Quiz was organised by Quizcraft Global Knowledge Solutions. Three representatives from each school were chosen to participate. The quiz tested the childrens knowledge on the world of books, and architecture. The winning teams were awarded special certificates.
After an intense three days, Katha Utsav 2016 finally came to an end. Our children benefitted a great deal from the exposure. They were taught to think from different perspectives. This helped only to open up their minds. We truly hope, it will now reflect in their writing.
Ms. Lubna Sarna
In the Press
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