In the second week of February, a three-member team from Pratham Books visited Rohtak, Haryana to conduct a translation workshop with 25 teachers from 20 districts. Little did we anticipate the warmth and love we would receive from the participants who came from all over Haryana. But what was truly inspiring was that these teachers stayed overnight at the Government Senior Secondary School in preparation for this workshop. They were so self driven that they had explored StoryWeaver and made themselves a little familiar with it even before we entered the school premises.

The main aim of the workshop was to conduct a translation hackathon. This meant working with teachers to translate  Pratham Books titles to Haryanvi on our digital platform, StoryWeaver. Every teacher translated at least three Level 1 and Level 2 books. But before that, they all took turns telling us about their favorite childhood stories that have stayed with them effortlessly, emphasizing the huge retentive power of stories. 

 

 

Their welcome sign for us on the blackboard

It was exciting, the idea of translating children's books to their first language. Most of us won't question the existence of books in the languages that we first spoke at home. Not so much for anyone whose mother language is Haryanvi. The teachers speak it, but are not used to reading Haryanvi in books. Also, it changes its dialect with every district and even within a district. So the challenge was to translate stories in a way that's mostly uniform and can be understood by a child who belongs to any part of the state. The discussions that ensued among the teachers reflected their expertise in the language but also the mutual respect they had for each other's opinions. They reviewed each other's work in pairs and with the final feedback incorporated, every teacher enthusiastically read out their work to the whole class.

The most important appeal for everyone involved here was that in two days, this translation hackathon yielded a proper set of 71 Haryanvi books! More and more children across India, and specifically in Haryana, can now read stories in their own language.

During the workshop, we talked about the value of translation, the concerns behind it, and the importance of translating meaning to meaning instead of word to word, and from one cultural context to another. We talked about StoryWeaver, our open repository of children's books, and the ways they can use this platform in their classrooms for free to enable joy of reading among students. The teachers agreed that the essence of their language lies in its humour, and there was plenty of that for the time we spent with them!

After a delicious meal, we were ready to leave and bid farewell to the fresh air of the town when the teachers insisted that we stay a bit longer. Some teachers performed impromptu plays for us, some sang and others made us laugh.

It was truly a memorable workshop with every teacher an eager champion of Haryanvi in their own school and in their own district. And with that, the number of languages available on StoryWeaver rose to 107.  There could have been no better way to ring in the International Mother Language Day.

Browse and read the Haryanvi stories on StoryWeaver.

 

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 Aindri Chakraborty is a communications designer specializing in narrative illustration and animation. She is one of the members of The Kadak Collective.

Apu’s Giant Earthquake is not only about why and how earthquakes happen, it is also a story inside a story. It is a story of the off-tune Bey-asura who likes to sing. It is also about Apu and his sister Pia, their grandmother and pet dog who are in the middle of both Bey-sura’s song and an earthquake. 

I wanted to start with the characters. They were based on Sudeshna Shome Ghosh's picture below. 

This is how the character Pia evolved.

Bey-asura is an Asura who causes a lot of destruction when he sings! I felt pity on Bey-asura in the story because I like to sing but I am not a very good singer! I had to find a way to justify why Bey-asura was a bad singer. I shaped his head like a string instrument and then realised, maybe he is a bad singer because he hasn’t been tuned yet. So there is a broken string which I designed as his hair. 

I made lots of textures of the earth. This is based on geology diagrams. 

I tried this one using salt while the ink was drying, so it created a nice rocky texture. 

I then collaged the textures to create landscapes for the story. 

'Apu’s Giant Earthquake' is both informative and imaginative so I tried to keep it sciency but also whimsical. It was exciting to work on StoryWeaver's digital-first children's story which will be available to everyone as it's openly-licensed.

'Apu's Giant Earthquake' will be available to read in 5 languages on StoryWeaver. If you can't find the story in a language you're fluent in, feel free to translate the story on www.storyweaver.org.in and share it with us! 

 

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Contest extended till May 10, 2019 

Welcome to the 2019 edition of Retell, Remix and Rejoice, StoryWeaver’s annual storytelling contest. Every year, on World Storytelling Day, we invite our community to join us and celebrate stories by hosting the Retell, Remix and Rejoice contest. And this year you can let your creative juices flow in 10 languages. More languages. More original stories for everyone to enjoy.

This year our focus remains on Level 1 and Level 2 books for our early readers, with stories that reflect their lives and the world around them. The themes have been handpicked by our editors.

Themes for this year

Family, friends and neighbourhood stories: Stories that explore children’s relationships with family, friends, and even pets as well as their home environments and neighbourhoods.

Funny stories: Themes that use humour to tell a story and promise to make you laugh.  

Sports stories: Football, cricket, gilli danda — stories that involve playing a sport and the community around it. Know of an inspirational sports person who deserves his or her story? We are listening!

School stories: Life in a school, friendships in school, teachers, time spent in school and even lunchtime in school!

Reading levels

For this year’s edition, we’re asking you to be as creative as you can and convey as much as you can – using as few words as possible. Use our reading level guidelines as you create your stories.

Regional languages first

Through the contest our aim is to promote original stories in English, Bengali, French, Hindi, Kannada, Konkani, Marathi, Tamil, Spanish and Urdu. If you have an original story to tell in your language then we are all ears. We want to discover writing talent in the above mentioned languages and you could be one of our stars.

The win-win situation

Three finalists will win a hamper of books plus a one-on-one editorial feedback session with one of our editors. One grand finalist will win the chance to have his or her book re-illustrated!

Guidelines for submission

1. The contest runs from March 20 2019 to April 20, 2019.

2. All stories submitted must be your original work.

3. Stories must be in English, Bengali, French, Hindi, Kannada, Konkani, Marathi, Tamil, Spanish and Urdu.

4. Participants must be over the age of 18 to participate.

5. By submitting your work to Retell, Remix and Rejoice 2019, you are agreeing to a CC-BY 4.0 license being applied to it. This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. To know more about CC-BY 4.0, click here.

6. Terms and conditions apply. All final decisions rest with StoryWeaver. For more read here.  

For any queries, do write to us at [email protected]

How to enter

You can submit your story for Retell, Remix and Rejoice 2019 by using illustrations from our image bank here. Here’s also a quick video tutorial on how to create stories on StoryWeaver. 

Note: You will have to sign up or log in first to access the contest page on StoryWeaver. 

You can enter the Retell, Remix and Rejoice contest page, by clicking on the button below.

 

Enter Contest Now

 

All the best!

 

 

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