Enroll your child for an interactive online storytelling session that guarantees fun and learning

A cloth painting based on an illustration from the book that was shown to kids at a previous online session

What is the best way to read a story to children without losing their interest or focus? Make it interactive, engage them in conversations, show some illustrations and add a bit of dance and singing. That seems to be the mantra of Goshtarang, an innovative project by Sonale-based Quality Education Support Trust (QUEST), a not-for-profit organisation. Goshtarang, is a project where theatre and storytelling techniques are used, as part of QUEST's reading and writing enhancement programme, where trained theatre professionals perform stories based on children's literature.

Walunj during an offline storytelling session at a Goregaon school

This Friday, Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum is conducting an online storytelling session in collaboration with QUEST, which will be presented by Mahendra Walunj, an actor and storyteller. The session, which will be conducted in Hindi, is a sweet story about two children Yemi and Koku, called Gaav Ka Baccha, a Hindi adaptation by Arundhati Devasthale, which was originally written in English, by Jane Cowen-Fletcher, called It Takes a Village. In the story, the young siblings are left to take care of themselves, while their mother goes away for work. However, as the children step outside the home to have some fun, they end up getting lost and separated. The story revolves around their attempts to find each other, the village residents each child encounters, how the villagers take care of the children and the siblings' surprisingly positive experiences.

"The one-hour session in Hindi will start with the Goshtarang anthem, the story will be read out along with asking the kids a few questions; and all of these will be done while children are shown illustrations from the book," explains Walunj, who has been associated with the programme since 2019. He adds that there's a whole lot of dancing, singing and masti in the session.

Vaibhav Lokur and Mahendra Walunj

This story, which is based on a village located in Africa, is a great way to teach the participants, between the ages six to 14 years, about food, clothes, people and culture from the rich continent. "I ask them about where we are right now, the city, the state, the country, the continent and will then guide them about Africa, the village and the lovely characters Koku and Yemi," explains Walunj. Through the session, he keeps asking them questions like what are their opinions on the scene, what they might think will happen next, in which direction will the characters head in the village and what would they (audience) do if they found themselves in situations similar to Yemi and Koku.

"While the children learn a lot out of this session, our aim is to make sure that they are having fun too. It's all about making the learning a fun process through the medium of storytelling and theatre," says Vaibhav Lokur, who has been looking after the Goshtarang program since 2019 and is pursuing a PhD in theatre arts from the Centre For Performing Arts in Pune University. They started the programme in an offline mode, where they go to various schools across Maharashtra (they still do) and enact the stories in front of the students. But they adapted to the online mode during the pandemic.

"For the online sessions, we have been mindful of the fact that we must make it interactive, so that the young audience does not lose focus. Hence, we start and end the session with activities," he shares. Activities may include discussions around any illustrations that are part of the book or they share about the scenes they related to most, or they share something from the story that inspired them.

On: October 27; 7 pm Age group 6 to 14 years
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