Literature festival to revive the art of storytelling for children

CHANDIGARH: With an aim to restore the age-old tradition of dadi-nani ki kahaniyan, Adab Foundation will begin its third Chandigarh Children Literature Festival on Friday. The three-day festival has an action-packed schedule for children.
Day One will see Payal Kapadia, recipient of 2013 Crossword Book Award for 'Wisha Wozzariter', speak on her book 'The world's most horrid school'.Chatura Rao, who is also the festival director, will talk to young literary enthusiasts about her book 'The case of disappearing colour'. Ramendra Kumar, an award winning children's author, will speak on the 'Art of story telling'. Asha Nehemiah will hold a session on her book 'Trouble with magic' and Deepa Aggarwal will talk about her book 'Caravan to Tibet'. The workshops on the inaugural day will be organised by Ramendra Kumar. He will also take a creative writing workshop, Deepa Aggarwal will conduct 'Create me', Srivi Kalyan 'Run Ranga run' and Nayantara Surendranath 'A dreamer's classroom'.
The Day Two will see a session by Asha Nehemiah -- The Rajah's Moustache -- and Shabnam Minwalla's 'Are you a superhero?' Shabnam will conduct another session on her book 'To catch a ghost'. Vinita Krishna will hold an interactive talk on 'Story telling', Anupa Lal on 'Mazedaar Kahaniyan' and actress-cum-writer Lovleen Mishra will conduct a session on 'Aao story suno!'
The workshops of Day Two will include:
Shabnam Minwalla's 'A dash of magic', Lovleen Misra's 'Kahaani ketchup', Asha Nehemiah's 'Adventures in story spotting', Sowmya Rajendran's 'Big hero - An introduction to gender and how it operates'. Vinita Krishna will speak on 'Story telling in classroom', which will be for teachers. A musical performance by Amrit Kaur Lohia, who has also performed at Jaipur Literature Festival, will wrap up the proceedings on Day Two.
Anupa Lal's 'Mazedaar Kahaniyan' will kick off the activities of the final day, on Sunday. It will be followed by Sowmya Rajendran's session on 'Girls to the rescue', Nayantara Surendranath's talk on 'A pair of twins' and Srivi Kalyan's 'The porous self'. The workshops will include: Srivi Kalyan's 'Nature as creative self', Nina Sabnani's 'Fabric memories' and festival director Chatura Rao's 'Writing true stories'. There will be a workshop by Amrit Kaur Lohia, too.
This year the venue for the festival will be Dikshant Global School, VIP Road, Zirakpur.
"The festival will be inaugurated by David Lelliot, deputy British high commissioner, Chandigarh, at 9.30am on January 29 at Dikshant Global School, Zirakpur. The deputy high commissioner will hold the inaugural session. It will be followed by author sessions. Workshops will be held concurrently on the school campus," said Mitul Dikshit, chairman, Adab Foundation and Dikshant Group of Schools.