Teacher training programmes often take me all over the country, but this time, author interactions did that for me! My teacher training was restricted to Pune, Goa and Nagpur, which gave me the time to do a lot of other things (including write!).
Online workshops continue to have my heart. I love the fact that I can conduct them from anywhere, whether I’m travelling or at home. This academic year, I discontinued my writers’ club at St. Mary’s School for precisely this reason—in-person sessions don’t allow for the flexibility my other work demands. I did create the next issue of THE WRITE PLACE for my young students, but subsequent issues are on hold, at least for the time being.
At my book clubs, we read 42 books in 2025. I had enough registrations to go ahead with each batch I planned! I invited six wonderful guests to conduct sessions for my writing programmes, all of which were engaging. Many students who joined me in 2020 are slowly outgrowing my writing programmes, bittersweet moments for all of us.
In 2025, I also launched online teacher training workshops for the first time, and they’ve been so rewarding! Here’s a little about each.
Book Clubs
Reading with children is a joy. I love listening to their points of view, paying attention to what catches their attention and what leaves them bored. As always, though, what works brilliantly with one batch may fail miserably with another!
Even with all the stress of whether the books will reach my students in time, I continue to source my books from independent bookstores, as far as possible. Additionally, I continue to focus on Indian books, in the hope that eventually, names of Indian authors will become as familiar to parents and children as all the big foreign ones they continue to read.
Creative Writing
Teaching creative writing online is something I never thought I would enjoy so much. Summer 2025 was quite hectic because I had so many students that instead of running two batches as usual, I had four! Reading their work, giving them feedback, working with edits and rewrites … it was exhausting, but fun, nonetheless. I taught new forms of poetry, and worked with drama, nonfiction and fiction in new ways. More than once, I stepped out of my comfort zone to teach genres I don’t normally teach.
Winter 2025 saw me teach two full batches, and for the guest sessions, I had to juggle three time zones because I had a student from Dubai, one from Taiwan, and one from Singapore!
In 2025, we created issue 6 and issue 7 of WORDS, our e-magazine. The next issue will be out very soon!
Our guest sessions are always special. Here are the experts who visited us last year!
I also conducted workshops for Joykidz and SkilLit Readers, working on concrete poetry, cinquains and free verse with the former, and two of my books with the latter – The Clockwala’s Clues and Dhara’s Revolution. These were fun too!
Teacher Training
Since I enjoy teaching creative writing so much, I decided to see whether I could help other teachers work with it too. I’ve conducted four workshops so far, and the response I received for each one has been heart-warming. In 2026, I hope to continue to conduct these sessions, perhaps once in two months, or once every quarter!
New online workshops begin 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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