As someone who loves routine and predictability, it’s amazing how unpredictable my workshops are, each year! Teacher training workshops took me to Indapur, Goa, Satara, Talegaon, Nagpur and Beed, in addition to schools all over Pune. This also meant that I did multiple book club and writing sessions from hotel rooms and cafés, just like last year.
I also continued to run my in-person writers’ club at St. Mary’s School, Pune, although I often have to run those sessions online too because I travel for work.
With my book clubs, I read 39 books; with my writing courses, I created three e-magazines; it was quite a year!
Book Clubs
My book clubs are always rewarding. Bringing books to children is such a joy! With the little ones, it’s heart-warming to see how they slowly start reading more and more fluently. With the older ones, conversations become more nuanced, and the activities we do get more creative and imaginative.
With ages seven and eight, I read 22 books (we’re in the middle of our 23rd one), and with ages nine and ten, I read 16. I had enough registrations to run every batch that I scheduled, unlike in 2023. I met children from several parts of the world, and even ran a special batch for children from Europe and Dubai!
Something else that stood out for me last year is that four writers volunteered to visit my book club and talk to the children – Chrissie Sains, Vibha Batra, Stuti Agarwal and Lubaina Bandukwala. It was such a treat!
I have no idea how long my online book clubs will continue to run. Now that the pandemic is long past, parents are keen to reduce their children’s screen time—and rightly so! But each year brings new adventures, so let’s see what 2025 has in store for me!
Creative Writing
Some of the children who joined my book club aged seven are now eleven-year-olds, part of my writing programmes! It’s been lovely watching them grow and blossom. Over the last couple of years, I’ve met a few of my online students for the first time, but there are still dozens I’ve never met!
I ran six online writing programmes in the year for ages nine to seventeen. A parent urged me to launch a batch for ages 15 to 17 for the first time, and I did, but it’s tough for teenagers to commit to the kind of writing my courses demand. Exams, school events, sports … everything gets in the way.
As usual, I had six guests visit my programme, and each one was wonderful.
We created three e-magazines, which is something I started doing to encourage children to work on feedback they receive and edit their work to the best of their abilities. At my online writing programmes, we created issue 4 and issue 5 of WORDS, and at St. Mary’s School, we created the very first issue of THE WRITE PLACE. New issues of both e-magazines will be out soon!
I have new online workshops beginning every alternate month, and I’m always open to looking at offline workshops should schools require them. If you would like to receive email notifications about my programmes, please fill this form. Alternatively, follow me on social media – Facebook and Instagram – for regular updates.
Meanwhile, a new year of workshops has already begun!
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