Today is World Storytelling Day. Here is a story to celebrate the day! If you like it, use it. Read it out to children. Make them imagine and colour - spread the joy of storytelling! Alka sat down on the floor to tie her shoelaces. Weekends were fun. She could meet everyone, play Lock and Key and Polo and Crocodile-Crocodile and Zoop and...“It's time to throw away this terrible pair,” said Alka's mother, looking down at Alka's blue shoes – her favourite pair for running.“No, Mamma, please!” said Alka, looking up, alarmed. “Please, Mamma, it's my favourite pair, really! I'll never ever get a pair like this again! How will I play?”Her mother smiled. “But look at the state they're in, Alka, they're falling to bits. You can barely see that they were once blue, and the sole is completely torn!”“But they're my favourite pair ...”“All right, baby, I'll tell you what,” … [Read more...]
Publicity and Me
Somehow, it seems as if I never do enough to publicize myself as an author. I sent links to my latest story, "Sacrifice" to friends and colleagues, and I put it up on Facebook and on my blog.I got responses, and a little feedback. 'I REALLY liked the story!! :) Looking forward to reading similar ones!' 'Wonderful as usual...varsha! keep it up! Enjoyed this read more than the previous one.....you are getting better and better !'And then a colleague sent me this - 'Varsha!!! This is so catching and interesting …I was so engrossed in it. It’s a superb work. You seriously have a beautiful gift. All the best for the future' When she met me, she said, "If ever you write a novel, or a book, or anything, tell me, and I'll buy it." "Erm... I have written a collection of stories for children, actually." "Oh, why don't you tell people about it, then?"And that's when I realised that … [Read more...]
What I used to write …
I transcribed the story of the dame who hated plants some time ago, but found this in a drawer while I was hunting for inspiration - … [Read more...]
In the display window of ‘Chapter and Verse’
The Illustrator of The Story-Catcher
I did not put up pictures from The Story-Catcher because the copyright isn't mine, but I found this on Rishi Bhardwaj's site and could not help sharing it. … [Read more...]
The Story-Catcher in 2013
On the long list again!
Yes, it's a grand year!Toto Funds the Arts Creative Writing (English) long list for 2014 is here!Twenty-two applicants are on the long list for the Creative Writing (English) Toto Awards 2014. They are:1. Shalini Jagadish, Bangalore. 2. Dion D’Souza, Mumbai. 3. Mihir Vatsa, Delhi. 4. Rohan Chhetri, Gurgaon. 5. Ronaan Roy, Mumbai. 6. Kaushik Viswanath, Chennai. 7. Urvashi Bahuguna, Gurgaon. 8. Dani Kumaramangalam, Chennai. 9. Pervin Saket, Pune. 10. Varsha Seshan, Pune. 11. Neha Mathrani, Pune. 12. Neeraj Sebastian, Bangalore. 13. Aditya Jha, Noida. 14. Vaswar Mitra, Bangalore. 15. M.V. Sita, New Delhi. 16. Ritwik Deshpande, Pune. 17. Mohit Parikh, Jaipur. 18. Anirudh Karnik, Kanpur. 19. Rihan Najib, Bangalore. 20. Amrita Nair, Trivandrum. 21. Aalooran Bora, Bangalore. 22. Neil Balthazar, Pune. The shortlist for these awards will be announced before December 15. … [Read more...]
Day Five – Reading was Fun!
And that was the end of that. Photographs will come soon, I'm sure. But right now, my head is filled with all kinds of thoughts.Children are like magpies. They love shiny things. All of them loved the golden tape I took with me to bind their work together. I thought they'd like to use ribbons, but golden tape won hands down.Children are affectionate in ways that adults can never be. One of the children stood at my elbow, rubbing his stomach on my arm. I cannot even begin to imagine an older child doing that.Children are unbelievably creative. Drawing, colouring, writing and sharing - team work seems to come naturally to most of them. Only one group yesterday found it difficult to work in a team.The best part, I think, was the fact that everyone was too excited with the workshop to be sad that it was over. One child wrote in her feedback form, "I don't think that the workshop was … [Read more...]
Tikki tikki tembo
You know one of the most beautiful things about a storytelling workshop? I listened to so many stories! Here's one of them (not told by Nell, but by one of the workshop participants).Long, long ago, in a village in China, there lived a family with two sons. The elder son was called Tikki-tikki-tembo-no-sa-rembo-chari-bari-ruchi-pip-peri-pembo. The younger one was simply called Chang. One day, the two brothers were playing near the well. Suddenly, Chang fell into the well! The elder brother ran to his mother. "Mother, mother!" he cried. "Chang has fallen into the well!" "Quick!" cried his mother. "Go to the old man near the well and ask him for help!" So Tikki-tikki-tembo-no-sa-rembo-chari-bari-ruchi-pip-peri-pembo ran to the old man. "Old man, old man!" he cried. "Chang has fallen into the well!" Hurriedly, the old man got to his feet, took a ladder and rescued little Chang. And then, … [Read more...]
Storytelling Workshop
Time flew. I simply could not hold on to it.When I thought about an 11-3 workshop, I confess I did think, "Hmm. There'll definitely be parts where I'm bored." I was wrong.Travelling from my school in Loni to British Library on Fergusson College Road, I realised for the first time why all the residential staff at my school thinks of 'going to Pune' as such a big deal. By the time I reached the library, I felt sticky and irritable, as one does after a long and rather tiresome journey. I definitely was not in the mood for an over-enthusiastic shedding of inhibitions that I assumed would be associated with a storytelling workshop.But Nell Phoenix created that mood. In slow steps, she guided us from being polite, formal listeners, sitting poised on wooden chairs to becoming active participants, relaxing on the carpet and using our entire bodies to tell stories.Nell Phoenix is … [Read more...]