A book that talks to children
In a world digitised by smartphones and high-speed internet, if there is a section which is losing out, it is children. With a childhood lost in wandering in the virtual world, innocence and imagination become the first casualty of such a lifestyle.
To draw them back to the good old world of story books and fairytales, Life Positive Books launched Talking Tales, a storybook for children between the age of seven to 10 on June 10, 2017 at DLF Place Saket, New Delhi.
The book is a collection of six short stories that can be read aloud since they are replete with funny rhymes. Crawl-careen, shuffle-huff, crawl-shuffle, careen-huff... what’s the noise? Nothing only Deep the Diplodocus and Sally the tiny Saltopus taking a walk together.
The author of the book, Bharat Shekhar, is a reticent and shy person, very reluctant to talk about himself. But the brilliance of his little book speaks volumes about the author. In a small interview session with Moderator, Mariam Karim-Ahlawat, noted playwright, columnist and author of House of hundred stories, Bharat very honestly shared that he always wanted to write, but was lazy about it. When he went to boarding school, he began reading children’s books such as Enid Blyton, Amar Chitra Katha and decided that if he was ever to write he would write for children. But he kept procrastinating until the time his own children were born. On being asked the essential qualification for writing for children, Bharat replied, “One should have lazy eyes, write well and not give up on the child within himself.”
The launch was followed by a story-telling session where excerpts of Talking Tales were read out by Sanjay Mattoo, a friend of Bharat Shekhar, to spell bound children.
The evening was preceded by activities for little children such as colouring competition, sticker distribution, selfie with elephant cut-out, book distribution and prize distribution. Children and adults both made a beeline to the launch making the event a success.