Authors stop at schools to spread love of reading

Children’s authors trundled down in a brightly decorated Kala Ghoda Arts Festival van to a Parel school on Monday, day three of the Hindustan Times Kala Ghoda Arts Festival.

Children’s authors trundled down in a brightly decorated Kala Ghoda Arts Festival van to a Parel school on Monday, day three of the Hindustan Times Kala Ghoda Arts Festival.

Parinita Shetty (The Monster Hunters), Shals Mahajan (Timmi in Tangles), and Natasha Sharma (Akbar and the Tricky Traitor from the History-Mystery series) — visited JBCN as part of the Kala Ghoda Goes to School initiative, to read to students from their works and discuss their own love of reading.
The session was attended by 120 students from Classes 2 through 6.

Similar sessions will be held at eight other schools in the Fort, Tardeo, and Mazgaon area, as the van continues its travels through the week.
"Our primary motive in organising this event is to create an understanding and awareness among children about the importance of reading," said Lubania Bandukwala, curator of the section.

For the young students, many of whom spend most of their leisure hours on electronic gadgets, the event was a peek into an enchanting, if increasingly unfamiliar world.

"I had fun at the session," said Pearl Shah, 7, a Class 2 student. Shaan Shah, 8, added that he had been paying close attention through the session, because his parents had told him that reading could greatly improve his language skills and vocabulary.

Ayaan Bearingwala, 8, said he found the session "a lot of fun". "I like to read, especially smaller stories, and after this session I plan to spend more time reading because I really enjoyed the event," he added.

For the authors, the response was hearty encouragement."This initiative is meant to draw children towards literature and create a passion in them for reading and writing," said Sharma. "It was good to see them respond in just one session."