PMC sets record, 3,066 parents read stories to their children for 3 minutes
The purpose of the event held at SP College Ground, was to stress upon parents the importance of telling stories to their children
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) proposed initiative attempted a world record on Thursday in ‘storytelling’ and 3,066 parents narrated stories to their children from a book.

The earlier record of 2,479 parents simultaneously telling stories to their children was held by China, according to organisers of the event.
The purpose of the event held at SP College Ground, was to stress upon parents the importance of telling stories to children and to inculcate values in their ward in an era of internet and nuclear families where storytelling to children is becoming rare.
“I took leave from office to come here with my child and narrated to him a story from the book,” said Harsha Joshi, a banker, and mother of a 12-year-old.
The parents read out a chapter from the Marathi book ‘Nisargacha Nash Karu Naka’ written by Kshipra Shahane for three minutes consecutively.
Following this, officials from the Guinness Book announced the setting of a world record, leading to cheers among the crowd.
The PMC event was expecting 4,500 parents at the storytelling programme but saw 3066 participants.
At the same time, ‘Keep silence, Punekars are reading’ initiative was also held. More than 2 lakh people participated in the reading event.
To increase the reading habit among the citizens, special programmes were organised in the city under which an appeal was made to citizens to read any book at their location on Thursday afternoon.
The two events were prelude to the book exhibition being organised by the National Book Trust between December 16 to 24 on Fergusson College grounds.
Rajesh Pande, co-ordinator of the event, said, “More than two lakh citizens participated in the event and updated their photos on social media.”
“Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Assembly speaker Rahul Narvekar and Minister Chandrakant Patil joined the event from Nagpur,” said Pande.
Milind Marathe, president, National Book Trust, said, “If students read today, India will lead tomorrow. We got an excellent response in the Pune city.”
“We got 7500 photos of people who participated in the reading programme. A total of 2 lakh readers had given responses for reading their favourite book,” he said.
