My first guest session of the season – Poetry in Collaboration – was such a success! With sixteen enthusiastic participants and one lively, energetic facilitator, the hour flew by before we knew it. Haiku, renga, nonets, free verse–we explored it all. Often, we believe that writing must be a solo activity. We have creative thoughts […]
Writing Poetry
I’ve been conducting writing workshops for a long time, and if there’s one thing I love working with, it’s poetry. Nearly every writing programme I conduct begins with a poetry module. Why? Because it’s accessible. It’s far easier to write a poem in a week than it is to write a story in a week. […]
Building Dramatic Characters
What fun we had at ‘Building Dramatic Characters’ – a guest session conducted by Neha Singh for my creative writing programme! To quote Neha, anything can be a character. Maybe even a chair talking to the moon! The strength of a character simply depends on how much you have invested in the character to make […]
The Adventures of Mooli and the Bully on Wheels
We’re rereading The Adventures of Mooli and the Bully on Wheels at my book club! The book features characters some of my book clubbers have read about before. We’ve read both The Adventures of Mooli and the Sticker Trickster and The Adventures of Mooli and the Blue-Legged Alien. It’s time to meet Mooli again! Mooli […]
The Great River Magic
The Great River Magic by Nandini Nayar is one of those books with a message, not usually an obvious choice for me to read at my book club. Yet, as I read this book, I was charmed by the premise. I love stories about families, family traditions, and the ways in which people follow or break […]
Petu Pumpkin – Tiffin Thief
We’ve read Bookasura and Koobandhee; we’re all set for yet another book by Arundhati Venkatesh – Petu Pumpkin: Tiffin Thief. Petu Pumpkin. Isn’t it a fun name? And doesn’t it seem apt that he would be a tiffin thief? The question is: what can his friends do about the fact that Pushkin aka Petu Pumpkin eats everyone’s food? They […]
Names and Words
Peanut vs the Piano We’re reading Peanut vs the Piano at two of my book clubs. Peanut, Papad and Pickle. What funny names those are! “I hope their parents named them after their favourite food!” I said. “Not things that were lying around. What if your parents had named you after their favourite foods? What […]
Adventure on Wheels
Adventure on Wheels is such a rollicking read! The book opens with two thieves stealing a van that belongs to an orphanage. The theft itself is simple enough, but when they discover three children hiding in the van, they’re up against more than they’d bargained for. At once heart-warming and hilarious, Adventure on Wheels is a fun […]
My Year in Workshops: 2021
The year 2021 was such an affirming year for me in terms of work! Since 2014, I’ve been freelancing. I’ve done workshops for children with the British Council, teacher training for Ratna Sagar, and I’ve been invited by schools and organisations to do workshops here and there. After nearly a year of the pandemic, these […]
Art, Music and Movement with Veda Aggarwal
Yes. Each time I invite a guest to speak to my creative writing programme, I realise that the session is as much for me as it is for the children. As a writer, I am often caught in a capitalist circle, writing with a clear goal in sight. What is the purpose of a piece? […]
A Very Naughty Dragon
I love Paro Anand’s books, and when I learned that she had collaborated with a nine-year-old girl to write a book, I was intrigued. As a teacher and creative writing trainer, I’ve read many stories that children have written. Some are excellent, others not so much. A Very Naughty Dragon? I had to read it to […]
Staging a Script with Lav Kanoi
What an enriching scriptwriting session we had with Lav Kanoi on Saturday! Ah, there’s nothing like a guest session to bring a fresh spurt of energy to our creative writing programme. “What is a story?” That’s the question Lav began with.I like the question. What is a story, really? As we talked about it, we […]
The Butterfly Lion
I love Michael Morpurgo. And The Butterfly Lion? I’ve had it on my shelf for ever so long, hoping to share it with more readers someday. That day is nearly here! The Butterfly Lion is a classic. In Michael Morpurgo’s signature style, he tells a heartfelt, almost mystical story in the simplest and most magical of […]
All About Research with Dr Shayani Bhattacharya
What an enjoyable writing workshop we had yesterday with Dr Shayani Bhattacharya! Every guest session is fun, and I keep realising that when a teacher plans a session, it is meticulous, detailed, excellent! We discussed what we research, how we research and why we research, but then we went on to something that’s important to […]
Four Workshop Anecdotes
So many tiny things happen during workshops! Here’s a quick roundup of things that make me smile. Whispering During one of my sessions, a child raised his hand. I quickly summed up what I wanted to say so that I would not lose my chain of thought, and then asked him to speak.‘Actually, I want […]
Cricket for the Crocodile
I launched my online reading programme for ages seven and eight in December last year, which means that this is the sixth edition of the programme. Each time, I’ve focused on Indian books – books written by Indians, published in India or set in India – usually all three. On the whole, I’ve tried to […]
Pirates, Legends, and Historical Fiction
Yesterday’s guest session was full of stories! While we are familiar with Long John Silver and Davy Jones’s locker, how many of us are equally familiar with Kanhoji Angre and the pirates of the Malabar? We began with a discussion of myths, legends, and historical fiction, and this, I think, is an important idea that […]
At Least a Fish
I love Anushka Ravishankar’s books. Whether it’s Moin and the Monster or Captain Coconut or At Least a Fish, I find myself chuckling as I read, shaking my head at her wacky humour. Ana, the protagonist of At Least a Fish, wants a dog. She really wants a dog. But her parents go and get her fish instead […]
Creative Writing Workshops – Reflections and Resources
I spend hours scouring the internet for creative writing resources. I love those hours, even though sometimes I find myself panicking. There are so many wonderful ideas out there! What can I use? I want to use them all! At those times, I need to step away from my laptop and remind myself that I […]
Looking Back at Another Reading Programme
I love sharing stories with children, and this time’s batch of seven and eight-year-olds was even more fun than most. With each workshop I conduct, I treasure the stories we create together. The little anecdotes, the bubbles of laughter, the wide-eyed astonishment – these make workshops special! I wrote about a class where we spoke […]