Our dear colleague Rajesh Khar, Editor, Pratham Books, was a part of the storytelling session organised in a Pratham Centre in Noida, with the help of wonderful volunteers from Oracle, Delhi. Rajesh writes about the day and the session.​

हर दिन की तरह उस दिन सुबह सुबह तैयार होकर मोहल्ले के बच्चे अपने सेंटर पहुँचे थे और उन्हें आशा थी कि वहाँ की दीदियाँ और भैया रोज़ की तरह पढ़ाई में उनकी मदद करेंगे। लेकिन जब बच्चे वहाँ पहुँचे तो दूसरे सेंटर वाली दीदी और कई अन्य दीदियों को देखकर वे समझ गये कि कुछ अलग होने वाला था। फिर जब सभी उम्र और कक्षाओं के बच्चों को एक ही बड़े कमरे में बैठाया गया तो इसमें कोई शक बाकी न बचा कि उस दिन रोज़ की तरह पढ़ाई तो नहीं होने वाली थी। प्रथम के सैंकड़ों केंद्रों की तरह इस केंद्र में भी बच्चों को पढ़ाई में मदद के लिए कई सारे नए नए तरीके अपनाये जाते हैं और प्रयोग भी होते रहते हैं। यहाँ उन्हें मज़ेदार किताबों और दूसरी चीज़ों के साथ साथ टीवी, कम्प्यूटर आदि की सहायता से जल्दी से जल्दी सीखने के कई ग़ैर पारम्परिक अवसर दिये जाते हैं। 

उस दिन पूर्वी दिल्ली के त्रिलोकपुरी इलाके के उस सेंटर के लगभग ६० बच्चे बड़े से कमरे में बैठकर किसी के आने का इंतज़ार कर रहे थे। उधर, वहाँ से कोई दस-बारह किलोमीटर दूर नोएडा स्थित ओरेकल कम्पनी के चार कर्मचारी सुबह सवेरे तैयार होकर अपने दफ़्तर न जा कर, उस सेंटर की ओर निकल पड़े थे। यही कोई आठ बजे वे सब एक जगह इकट्ठे होकर बच्चों से मिलने निकल पड़े थे। उन चारों में एक को छोड़कर किसी ने भी पहले बच्चों के साथ कोई काम नहीं किया था, वे तो सॉफ्टवेयर इंजीनियर थे। लेकिन चारों के मन में बच्चों से मिलने का उत्साह था। 

'गुड मॉर्निंग, नमस्ते आदि की गूँज से कमरा भर गया जैसे ही यह चारों वहाँ पहुँचे। सेंटर के बच्चों से उनका परिचय करवाया गया फिर प्रथम बुक्स के स्टोरीवीवर के बारे में भी संक्षिप्त में बताया गया। ओरेकल के चार इंजीनियरों ने स्टोरीवीवर की एक कहानी का ज़िक्र किया और बच्चों को उसी कहानी की बड़े आकार के प्रिंटआउट दिखाए। बच्चों ने कहानी सुनने की इच्छा प्रकट की और यूँ शुरू हुआ उन चारों का दिन! 

कहानी में दो नन्हे पात्र माँ  के बीमार होने पर अचानक घर आये ढेर सारे मेहमानों के लिए बिरयानी बनाते हैं और उसे बनाने में गणित का प्रयोग कुशलता से करते हैं। इससे प्रेरित होकर ओरेकल के चारों इंजीनियरों ने बच्चों के साथ अंकों और गणित पर आधारित कुछ गतिविधियाँ करने की ठानी और कहानी ख़तम होने के बाद बच्चों को चार दलों में बाँट दिया। प्रत्येक दल के साथ छोटी छोटी गेंदों के सहारे अंकों के कुछ खेल खेले गए। फिर कुछ सवाल-जवाब हुए और हर दल से तीन तीन विजेता छाँटे गए जिन्हें प्रथम, द्वितीय और तृत्तीय पुरस्कार के रूप में प्रथम बुक्स की पुस्तकें दी गईं।सबने उस एक घंटे खूब मस्ती की, कहानी सुनी, अंकों के खेल खेले और खूब सारी तालियाँ बजायीं।

सेंटर से निकलते हुए उन चारों इंजीनियरों के मन में मज़ेदार पुस्तकों, बच्चों, अंकों और कहानियों को लेकर कई प्रश्न और अनुभव थे। वे चारों इन्हीं पर चर्चा करते हुए ही शायद अपने कार्यालय तक पहुँचे होंगे उस दिन। क्या पता दिन भर वैसी ही बातों में बीता हो उनका।         

​The Oracle volunteer team, beaming with excitement also had a few words to say about the experience.

"We had a great time during the community visit to Trilokpuri, on 18^th March, 2016. We visited one of the Pratham Centres, where  children from under-served sections of the society are educated. There were around 60 children, all enthusiastic to learn and grow. We did a storytelling session with them, on the book ‘Dum Dum-a-Dum Biryani’. This book is very interesting, simple, fun and creative. Through beautiful artworks and simple language, it conveys messages for kids, to help at home, nurture family relationships, take initiative, share and care, learn and observe. After the storytelling session, we played interactive games with the children, which were designed to teach them Vedic mathematics and basic arithmetic. The kids as well as the teachers and volunteers enjoyed themselves thoroughly. This activity was followed by prize distribution for the winners of the games. We gave extra prizes to those kids who took initiative and helped their teammates. Overall, it was a fun, learning session for all of us. Thanks to Pratham Books and Pratham for organizing this for us. We all look forward to more sessions with them."

– Nupur Vimal​, Oracle Delhi.

We love when stories make so many people happy! Thank you team Pratham, Delhi for helping us ​take stories to children and Oracle Volunteer Team Delhi, without whose participation, this would not have been possible.

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Saturday morning 9 am. In a narrow lane in Banaswadi, Bengaluru. A school. Vibrant, bursting with energy! Hundreds of children, chattering away  in English, Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu. It's a full house. You can almost smell the excitement in the air. Akkas and Annas have come. New faces with new stories. This was the Storytelling Saturday!

One fine day in March, just before the exams started, we decided to give the tiny-tots a break and let them spend a Saturday listening to stories, thanks to volunteers from Oracle Banaglore. A school that our dear friends at Akshara Foundation do commendable work with, was the chosen destination. We gathered children from standard 4 to 8 and set the ball rolling. Our Pratham Books colleague Shruthi, opened the session by introducing the volunteers, the session and playing a little game with the children to wake them up completely!  Once the entire hall was bubbling with excitement, volunteers from Oracle started with Gayathri Tirthapura and Kabini Amin’s 'Dum Dum-a-Dum Biryani' - story about a sibling team, their love for cooking and the power of Maths! The children listened in rapt attention, joining in every now and then to do mental calculations as Basha and Sainabi went about measuring the ingredients.

Once the story finished, we slipped into the activity mode with children dividing themselves in groups and playing a game based on maths and numbers. This was followed up with another lovely tale, 'Up World, Down World' by Padmaparna Ghosh and Sunaina Coelho which took children through the canopy forests and introduced them to its various inhabitants. The session ended with a prize distribution for the winners in the activities and lot of cookies going around.

 

Pranjala P, one of the Oracle Volunteers had this to say about the session-

"Walking into a land of fantasy is always an exciting experience. When you have a room full of enthusiastic kids with you, it is even more fascinating. Such was my experience as I got the opportunity to be a part of the storytelling initiative at the Government Kannada Higher Primary School. One can never match the children’s level of enthusiasm. As all the volunteers from Oracle, introduced themselves to these adorable children, they were more than happy to greet us and often paid us a compliment with 'Nice name!'.

As Bhanu started with our first story, 'Dum Dum-a-Dum Biryani', and Pramodh helped with the translations to Kannada, children got into the mood and we were all transported into the world of Basha and Sainabi as they cooked the world's best Biryani. I know I was drooling with the details of the Biryani! Once the story was done, we engaged the kids with mathematical activities related to the story. They were all divided into groups and each of us took on responsibility for one group. Of course, we had all the support from the teachers & staff of the school.

Manini took over the next story, 'Up World, Down World', and the children seemed engrossed in the story and the vivid pictures of the little girl, Fatima and her animal friends.

The children were playful and naughty and adorable throughout. There was no hint of inhibitions as they surrounded us, asked questions & shook hands. The cookies and the toffees were a hit with them. Their joyous spirit was beautifully captured by Pradeep.

I would like to thank all the volunteers who came with family or by themselves and made the event a success. Vivek & Pradeep came with their families, Manini brought her mom along,  Bhanu's son was present, Pramodh and Shashank, Mohammed Saleemuddin, Prathik and Devey came too. I know I speak on behalf of all of us, when I say that we had the most wonderful time and I can't express enough gratitude to Payoshni and her team from Pratham Books, for giving us this opportunity. Finally, we walked away with happiness and memories of those million dollar smiles filling our hearts & brightening up our day!"

By the time the session ended, the sun was beating down on us with all its might but everyone in the school had a smile on their face, a smile that expressed a day well spent! We thank Oracle volunteers for their time and enthusiasm and the Akshara Foundation and Government Kannada Tamil Higher Primary School for opening up their classrooms for the session.

Click here to see more pictures from the session!  

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In February, StoryWeaver celebrated National Science Day with Wonder Why Week: seven days of new, digital-first non-fiction books for children, activities, resources and story telling sessions! You can read more about the event here.

We also joined hands with Reading Raccoons - Discovering Children’s Literature Facebook group to hunt for the next, young, Mad Scientist. Reading Raccoons connects parents across the world and lets them bond over a shared love for children’s literature, share ideas, reviews resources and of course, which books their little raccoons loved the most.

We asked kids to send in a short video of themselves conducting a cool, out-of-the-book science experiment. We received some really fun entries: walking water, DIY volcanoes and up-cycled water bottles that explained air pressure.

We’re so pleased to announce the results of the contest… so drum roll please!

1st Prize Mahek Aggarwal with her Sink or float Orange experiment.

2nd Prize  Ira Naik for her DIY water sprinker that teaches us about air pressure.

3rd Prize We have two 3rd prize winners:  Shourya Sharma for his speed and velocity demonstration and Vaishnavi Mehra’s working model that explained rotation, revolution, solar and lunar eclipse.

We’ll be reaching out to the winners soon and sending them their prizes! Thanks to Reading Raccoons for hosting the contest and a very, very big thank you to all the young scientists who shared their ideas with us!  Here’s to more discoveries and experiments!

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